PLANTING AND CARE OP HEDGES. 105 



tJie groictli of young timber, and the sooner this is learned by the farmer, 

 the better it will be for the woodlands of the future. This cannot be 

 urged too strongly, or observed too strictly. Aside from the eating 

 down of young shoots, the consolidation from tramping tends to injure 

 the young trees and hasten their decay. The damage done by sheep 

 and "goats is greater than from horned cattle and horses, and in Europe 

 is one of the first causes of the injuries that have happened in mount- 

 ainous regions from the erosion of torrents. The range of swine is least 

 injurious, and.ispermitted|in well-kept forests after the timber has reached 

 a certain stage of growth, and at proper seasons of the year.^ 



HEDGES. 



Hedges may often serve every purpose of fences, with the additional 

 advantages of affording wind-breaks and nesting-places for insectivorous 

 birds, and sometimes by their products of fuel or other material from 

 their growth. This is more particularly true of the willow, when al- 

 lowed to grow to a large size, and the Osage orange, where the soil and 

 climate favor the growth of a tree to full size, at intervals along the 

 hedge. Our limits will not allow us to enter upon details of their plant- 

 ing and management. It should be remembered that they have their 

 disadvantages as well as benefits, among which may be mentioned the 

 following : 



1. Permanence sometimes not desirable, and in wooden fences more 

 easily managed. 



2. Expense of maintenance, including use of laud and labor of keep- 

 ing in order. In such as send up shoots from the roots they may be- 

 come aggressive. 



3. The harboring of noxious weeds and accumulation of dry ma- 

 terials, the former requiring much care to eradicate, and the latter being 

 dangerous in case of tires. 



4. The dampness caused by their shade may keep an adjacent road 

 muddy. 



It would be difficult to decide before trial as to the plants best suited 

 for a hedge in a given region. We have found the English hawthorn 

 well adapted to some localities, but it is not hardy or desirable in the 

 Western prairies. Our native thorns have proved suitable iu some 



The Osage orange {Madura aurantiaca) has been widely planted 

 throughout the Western States, but often beyond the boundaries of 

 profitable growth, and undeserved complaints have been made on this 

 account. In many parts of Iowa it appeared to thrive well for a few 

 years, but is now dying out. Wherever the shoots are killed back by 

 the frost every year, or every few years, it will hardly long succeed ; 



I It was forcibly remarked by Sir John Sinclair, in his Code of Agriculture (Sfh ed., 

 1832, p. 471), that "a landlord had better admit his cattle into his wheat-field than 

 among his underwood. In the one case they only injure the crop of ouo year, whereas 

 in the other, by biting and mangling one year's shoot, mischief is done to the amount 

 of at least three years' growth." In fact, if the injury is allowed to continue, and the 

 amount of stock is considerable, there will generally be found no young shoots and but 

 little foliage within their reach that is not destroyed, and reproduction from seed or 

 stools is altogether out of the question. In some European countries, rights of pastur- 

 age by the common people have proved the greatest of burdens until these rights were 

 extinguished. In the United States, where the tenure of land is generally absolute, 

 the subject is simplified down to the point of excluding the range of herbivorous ani- 

 mals, until the foliage is above their reach ; or, if the underwood is to be preserved for 

 the rei^roduction of timber, their permanent exclusion. 



