486 



SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IT. 



470 



specific time of the season to clean a hedge, but the safe rule is always to clean it before the weeds in 

 the least envelop it. The most common weeds which infest hedges in loamy ground are, the tussilago, 

 way thistle, corn sow-thistle, common docks, sorrel, ribwort, groundsel, hedge A'etch (a trailing plant 

 very like the vetch, but with a bright yellow pea-blossom), bindweed, sticking-grass, cow-clover, wild 

 mustard, chickweed, dead-nettle, rest-harrow, great white ox-eye, corn poppy, white lychnis, blae- 

 wort, and several of the grasses. The tussilago, rest-harrow, ox-eye, and docks, are most difficult to 

 eradicate ; the bindweed, sticking-grass, vetch, and the yellow-flowering trailing plant, interlace the 

 branches of the thorns, and are exceedingly difficult to eradicate ; and if there be but a single fibre ot 

 the wild mustard attaching the plant to the ground, it will grow again with vigour. 



3013. Pruning. A hedge will hardly require pruning in the first year of its growth; but should it 

 grow very luxuriantly, it is very proper to cut oft' the upper part of the tops of all overgrown plants, 

 as it is very desirable for the well-being of a hedge that all the plants grow alike, and that no plant by 

 its overgrowth overshadow its neighbours. On examining those luxuriant plants, they will be found 

 to be of that variety to which I have given the preference. Any branch that may be straggling much in 

 front, may also be curbed. The use of the bill at this period of growth arises more from a precautionary 

 feeling of preventing injury from weight of snow, than from any necessity that exists to check the 

 growth of the plant In the second winter, however, the lateral branches which have shot over the 

 ditch should be twitched off, leaving those behind toward the bank untouched, and the tops should 

 be so cut off" as to make them all of the same height. The stroke of the switching-bill should be made 

 upwards, and not across the top of the hedge. If switching is neglected this winter, the least load 

 of snow, which will easily lie upon the straggling branches, will inevitably crush the tops and lateral 

 branches down ; and, instead of being cut off, they will be forcibly broken off, a kind of pruning which 

 cannot be too much deprecated One season, in the second year of a hedge, a piece of it was left 

 unswitched for want of time, and not for experiment ; and that part was so completely crushed down 

 by the snow, that in the spring it was obliged to be cut down to the ground by the pruning-knife ; 

 whereas that part which had been switched sustained very little injury, the sharp vertical points 

 piercing through the snow when it was subsiding, which is the time it does the damage. Now, however, 

 (which is five years after the accident), that part which was cut down by the pruning-knife is by far 

 the strongest part, both in girth of stem and height of fence. This fact tends to countenance the free 

 use of the knife on hedges, though few would perhaps have the courage to cut down a fine thriving 

 young hedge. It is certainly undeniable that a thorn plant is very tenacious of life ; and this tenacity is 

 exhibited in no way more remarkably, than in the hedge conforming its shape to the will of the hedger. 



In this manner, let him continue to cut away part of the tender shoots 

 on the top, and switch the lateral branches upwards in a sloping 

 direction towards the top, so that the former shall present a uniform 

 row of pointed spikes, till the hedge is six feet high, beyond which 

 height he cannot use the bill to advantage. There is nothing done 

 to the hedge behind. After it has acquired this height, the top 

 should get leave to grow upwards, till the whole hedge shall be ten or 

 twelve feet high, the lateral wood being still cut away to prevent 

 the top overshadowing and baring the root of the hedge. The object 

 of thus allowing the top to grow up, is to increase the girth, and 

 consequently the strength of the stem below, otherwise it will con. 

 tinue puny for a long time. Indeed, if a hedge is not allowed to 

 grow up at all, it will shoot out determinately in a lateral direction 

 to a great extent, and then occupy a greater breadth of ground than 

 will be convenient or profitable. The annexed figure (470.) will 

 illustrate the appearance of the hedge when the top should be allowed 

 to grow up. 



3014. Water -tabling. When the grass below the thorn-bed, and the weeds on the face of the bank, have 

 been cleaned away, at least once, if not twice, in a season, and if the ground is loamy, it is probable that, 

 during the course of four or five years of such work, the soil may have mouldered away, and left part of 

 the root that was embedded in the bank exposed. Such will undoubtedly be the state of things in any kind 

 of soil, in the course of time ; and its effects on the root of the hedge thus exposed, will be the same as 

 pointed out before, in regard to the effects producetl by leaving the young plants projecting from the face 

 of the bank; but if such an evil be concomitant with the necessary process of cleaning, how much more 

 must it be aggravated in the case, when the plants are left, at first, projecting from the face of the bank ? 

 Eut, happily, there is a remedy for this evil, which, if allowed to remain any length of time, would injure 



the hedge materially ; and that is, by the simple process of 

 water-tabling. The annexed figure (471.) will show the 

 effects which weeding has upon the roots of thorns, in which 

 the dotted line shows the state in which the bank and ditch 

 came from the hands of the workman. The following figure 

 ( 472.) will show the process of water-tabling. One man 

 could do this work, but two men will carry it on more expe- 

 ditiously, in proportion to the number. Let the hedger take 

 a spade, and make a notch three inches deep in the side of 

 the ditch, about a foot below the thorns (a), and then pare 

 away all the loose earth from that notch up to the thorn root. 

 In tnc mean time the other man raises sods from the bottom of the ditch, choosing the best parts of it fdr 

 them, nine inches broad and four inches thick, and of a convenient length. The hedger takes tliese sods 



and puts them on their edge upon the notch (a), with the grass 

 side outwards, and beats them to the bank with the back of the 

 spade, making the upper edge of them level with the spade by 

 paring and beating. The reason that the grass side is put out- 

 wards is, that these sods may adhex-e to the bank ; whereas, if 

 they were put with the grass side inwards, the frost of the en. 

 suing winter, getting between them and the bank, would cause 

 them to slide down ; and there need be no apprehension of the 

 grass, though placed outwards, growing up so as to injure the 

 hedge ; for by that time the latter will have acquired such a 

 thicket of branches and foliage as to smother all weeds. This 

 sod is called the " set-sod." The other man must also raise other 

 sods, about six inches broad and four inches deep, and of a con- 

 venient length. The hedger then takes them and inverts them, with the grass side downwards, upon the 

 upper edge of the sod (ft), and beats them even with it, and pushes them quite in contact, and below the 

 roots ic^ This sod is called the" table." The reason for inverting its grass side downwards is obvious, 

 us its grass would spring up immediately among the roots of the thorns. The other man at intervals ot 

 leisure, if he have any, or both together, may then shovel up all the fine mouldery earth they can get, 

 and throw it between the stems, and form the sloping bank {d) on the upper side of the roots If more 

 earth has been worn away than of the thickness the sods can be raised, the space mnst be nlled up with 

 earth before inserting the sod (as between the dotted line a e d, and the sod b). Water-tabling thorns, 

 when the earth has been worn away by weeding from their roots, renovates their growth, so that tlie 

 process of engrossing the stems proceeds alter it with great rapidity, re-establishes their hold on tne bank. 



471 



J^ 



472 



