232 HOW TO GROW GOOD FENCES. 



they should annually, or twice a year if necessary, be 

 hoed and weeded and have the surface-soil tolerably 

 well stirred, and, usually at the end of about the 

 third or fourth year, be carefully cut down within six 

 or eight inches of the ground, and the soil well 

 stirred and manured. This would appear to be a waste 

 of time ; but a single year will restore the plants to 

 even a greater height than before, and with all the 

 elements for a thick impervious bottom, from which 

 time annual careful trimming — always when the 

 leaves have performed their functions and fall off — 

 will be sufficient to keep the hedge in an improving 

 state. 



We have here advocated planting in single lines. 

 Some, however, prefer double rows of quicks ; but 

 the latter are more difficult to keep clean and to 

 cultivate ; and we have ever seen that it is not the 

 quantity, but the quality and the after-treatment of 

 the plants which result in the compact and repellant 

 hedge. 



Of course, all young hedges must be protected by a 

 dead fence ; and for this purpose we prefer posts and 

 rails of wood, or, if to keep back sheep, mixed with a 

 line or two of hoop-iron : this, according to the 

 situation of the fence, will be required on only one 

 or on both sides. 



In planting young beech, or hornbeam, or any non- 

 spinous plant, for hedges, it is advisable to cross the 

 sets like a series of XXX' s, overlapping each other at 

 about ten or twelve inches apart ; by this means the 

 branches interlace, and a compact fence, difficult to 

 penetrate, will be formed. 



Maple may be used in the same way ; but it never 



