276 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



CHAPTER XI. , 



MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES CONTINUED. 



Caleb Kirk on Hedging. Animal Nutrition. On the Use of 

 Gypsum. Choked Cattle. Specific Food in Soils for Plants. 



HAVING preferred plashing to any other mode that 

 I had seen made use of in training a hedge, I began 

 the process when the stalks were about an inch in 

 diameter near the root, and from that to au inch and 

 a half: if well attended to in their previous growth, 

 they will attain that size in six or seven years after 

 they are planted ; but, if neglected, they may require 

 double that period. It may be observed, that no ad- 

 vantage is gained by plashing before a good root is 

 formed, for that is the future support and basis of 

 the superstructure. By having a good strong root, 

 the cutting or wounding the top or body of the stalk 

 will soon recover from any injury received in the 

 necessary work of plashing, which is done by cut- 

 ting the body of each stalk with a hedge-knife or 

 pruning-hook, bending the stalk with one hand in 

 the direction it is to be laid, at the same time, by a 

 stroke of the knife with the other, about four inches 

 from the surface of the ground. If one stroke should 

 not prove sufficient, a second or third may be appli- 

 ed, being careful to leave as much of the wood uncut 

 as to afford the sap to flow into the top, and yet to 

 bend easy into an inclined position of about forty- 

 five degrees' elevation from the base or bank on 

 which it stands : one third or one fourth of uncut 

 wood is sufficient to supply sap to the plashing, 

 which must bend easy, otherwise it would incline 

 to rise out of the proper degree of inclination. Much 

 depends on this circumstance in forming a good and 



