Book IV. 



COMPOUND HEDGE FENCES. 



485 



best earth, which would make a hollow between the plants and the sloping bank ? This hollow would 

 Intercept any drops of rain that fall on the bank to sink gradually among the roots. If this be not a 

 better position for a thorn, it must be of a singular constitution." He thinks that the face of the mound 

 being beaten down solid, it will be made impervious to water ; and at the same time recommends it to be 

 made as upright as possible, for a safeguard to the young plants, a position well adapted to tlirow off 

 water. He thinks there is no good reason for thorns being laid sloping in the ground, as they might as 

 well be planted, like all other plants, upright, when, he thinks, they would sooner become a fence j and, 

 indeed, suggests that thorns six feet high might be planted in this way. He also recommends the plants 

 being placed one inch projecting from the face of the bank. In the method of planting hedges so fully 

 described above, the scarcement is dispensed with, for this sufficient reason that it would become a 

 receptacle, a perfect hot-bed, for weeds; and if very great vigilance and trouble were not exercised in 

 keeping them down, they would inevitably choke the young plants. Along the sides of public roads these 

 scarcements are frequently made footpaths by idle people. The facing of the bank must be beaten down, to 

 prevent the frost abrading the earth of the substratum,which had been put up to hinder the growth of weeds, 

 and all the beating that can be given to it, will never make it entirely impervious to rain ; besides, there 

 is no need of rain entering them, when the back of the bank is composed of loose earth, through which it 

 can easily percolate to the roots immediately below. Nor can such a mound, whatever be its shape, be 

 any protection to the young thorns from any beast, either from behind or before; its main use being to 

 admit the ditch being made of a sufficient size to carry off water, to afford the hedge roots a covering 

 against drought, and to envelop the black mould which surrounds the roots with a covering of sterile 

 earth, which is itself inimical to vegetation, and which, at the same time, tends to check the ardour of 

 vegetation in the black mould. Thorns will, no doubt, grow in an upright position as well as in a sloping 

 one ; but the latter position is the most convenient for planting with mound and ditch, and in this position 

 the whole stem is converted into root. The transplanting of old thorns to any great extent is, I fear, a 

 hopeless task ; besides.where are they to be obtained in quantities sufficient to fence a farm ? The projecting 

 of the thorn-plants from the face of the bank is a bad plan ; as they are not only liable to be wounded in the 

 working up of the face of the mound, by the rolling down of the earth and stones, and by the process of 

 beating and smoothing, but when stems spring up from their extremities, and the wind tosses them 

 about, the tops exert a lever power on the root, and loosen it in the soil. Hence, when a thorn-hedge is 

 examined in the first year of its growth, particularly in the autumn, when the stems are strong and leafy, 

 and the winds prevail, it is often observed, that all those plants, which have been accidently left projecting 

 farther out than the others, have worked an upright oblong hole about them in the earth, whereas all 

 those which have been left even with the face of the bank, or been relieved from some fettering earth, 

 by the force of vegetation, or the hand, are quite firmly imbedded in the earth ; a state, without doubt, 

 much preferable to the other. 



3010. Management of the ditch and thorn-hedge. The implements necessary for the proper manage, 

 ment of hedges are : A common Dutch hoe, 7 inches broad and 5 feet long, for cleaning {jig. 469. a). 



A hedge-spade, 5 or 6 inches 



469 ("7 ^"^^ ^* t^^ mouth, and about 



. I ^ ^^^^ ^ inches long altogether, 



** e for cleaning (6). A hooked- 



b 1 vn headed stick, for freeing the 



earth from the points of the 

 sets (c). A switching-bill, blade 

 9 inches long, and ]| inch 

 broad; shaft 2 feet 3 inches 

 long, and weighing altogether 

 about 2i pounds (d). A breast- 

 ing-knife, which resembles the 

 switching-bill, but considerably 

 stronger, and of course heavier. 

 A cutting-bill, blade 7 inches 

 long and 2* inches broad j 

 shaft 2i feet long, and weighing 

 altogether about 6 pounds [e). 



u 



I ]! A light axe, weighing about 

 _1.^; 3 pounds, and a shaft 36 inches 



long (/). 



soil. Releasing the buds on the points qf the sets. The first attentioh which a young hedge requires is 

 to release those buds which may have been prevented by the tenacity of the clayey earth from pushing 

 out, and this is done either by the finger or a small piece of stick ; but great care must be taken that 

 none of the sprouts be broken ofF in the work. The force of vegetation will generally accomplish all that 

 wrequired ; but in some cases assistance is beneficial to the plant. 



3012. Cleaning. If the hedge has been planted in the autumn, the grass between the inverted sod and 

 the original surface will have decayed so much, as to create little trouble in the early part of the season 

 in clearing away grass. Indeed, both the hedge and bank will not be injured by those plants that may 

 have sprung up from the seed, as they will rather ward off the effects of frost during winter. If they 

 are, however, likely to scatter their own seed, it would be prudent to remove them before that time. 

 Should the hedge have been planted in the spring, the vernal influence will keep alive the grass under 

 the inverted sod, and it will grow rapidly, so that it may be necessary to clear it away about midsummer 

 at least, in order that the luxuriance of its growth may be checked. The seam between the inverted 

 sod and the original ground is the only very troublesome place of the hedge-bank to keep clear of 

 weeds, but even that is six inches below the thorn-bed ; and if the ground had been properly cleaned 

 of quickens, couch-grass, and knot-grass, before the hedge was planted, which it ought undoubtedly to 

 have been, the other kinds of weeds which will spring up will be easily got rid of. Couch-grass, when 

 it gets entangled about the roots of a young hedge, injures its growth very much, and it is, in such a 

 situation, quite impossible ever after to get quit of it altogether. When cleaning is to be performed, it is 

 done in the following manner : Let the hedger, for one man is now only necessary, take the weeding- 

 spade, and hold it in a horizontal position with both hands, the right hand upon the handle. Let him 

 stand in the bottom of the ditch, with his face towards the hedge, and begin to cut away the grass 

 under the line of hedge, with horizontal strokes of the spade, making progress up the ditch with his 

 left side foremost Let a woman place herself upon the top of the bank, with her face also towards 

 the hedge ; and taking the Dutch hoe, with her right hand upon the handle, work with it on the top 

 and face of the bank behind the hedge, and there nimbly and dexterously, by a peculiar twitch given to 

 the hoe by the wrist, eradicate the weeds, and raise as little of the earth as possible. She progresses on 

 the top of the bank with her right side foremost. One or two women, according to the quantity of weeds, 

 follow with the crooked sticks ; and, stooping in the ditch, pull out the loosened weeds from between 

 the thorns, and all that may be growing where the wecding-spade and Dutch hoe cannot enter. In 

 this manner the cleaning process is carried on with great despatch. The man has by far the severest 

 work to do, but even he will move on rapidly if the grass is not allowed to be too old before it is cleared 

 away. After all, it is very seldom that a hedge requires to be so thoroughly cleaned in the first season ; 

 but in the second year it is absolutely necessary to be very vigilant in cleaning early in spring, before 

 vegetation is much advanced. If weeding is delayed till the roots of the weeds take firm hold of the 

 ground, the displacing of them bears away a great deal of earth from the face of the bank. There is no 



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