On Live Fences. 103 



planted is about six miles, and the number of cedars 

 about sixteen thousand. This is only conjecture, but 

 it is supposed to be considerably below the fact. 



The culture applied to this hedge, is to top, weave, 

 prune and weed it once a year, and to manure it once 

 in a mode which will be explained. Until the last year, 

 it was topt at thirty inches, then I began to top the ce- 

 dars recently planted, at the height of twelve. 



The cedars are planted on the interior declivity of the 

 bank of a ditch, about nine inches from the fence there- 

 on, made of stakes and cedar boughs; except at the sta- 

 ble yard, where the ditch being on the inside, they are 

 planted on the similar outside declivity; the boughs 

 which grow perpendicularly to the line of the fence, and 

 towards it, are by its help trained into a conformity with 

 this line ; those which thus grow on the opposite side, 

 are cut off six inches from the stem; and those which 

 grow in the direction of the fence, or with a small incli- 

 nation that v/ay, are woven in that direction by the help 

 of the stems, as soon as they grow above two feet long. 

 In this wattling, the boughs should be bent as near to the 

 ground as possible, to the fence below. The dead fence 

 stands on the summit of the bank, between the live one 

 and the ditch. 



All the weeding I have given the cedars, has been 

 yearly to draw the earth with a hoe, from the dead fence 

 to the bottom of the bank, about one inch deep and two 

 feet wide, leaving it in a ridge, with the live fence be- 

 tv/een it and the old fence ; and the next year to return 

 this ridge to the bank of the ditch, whence it came, first 

 slightly cutting up the weeds and grass. 



