46 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTlTIfAL SOCIETY. 



that a better hedge and a far more lastiug one cau be secured by 

 a general shortening-in of the shoots, from the top to the bottom of 

 the hedge, than by close shaving to a line, and the same principle 

 will apply to belts specimen trees. Contracting the growth of 

 these hemlocks may be ver}^ well where room is lacking to allow of 

 more natural growth and expansion of the trees, but otherAvise 

 their liealth and beauty are promoted by more liberal treatment. 



E. PI. Hitchings spoke of riding from Dedham to Boston, over 

 the Dedham Brancli Railroad some tifty years ago, when he heard 

 a fellow passenger call attention to a group of evergreens, saying 

 that they always gave him pain, for they reminded him of the 

 Stoics, as they appeared so utterly indifferent to storms and all 

 other surrounding circumstances. Mr. Hitchings, on the contrary, 

 appreciated their many excellent qualities and enjoyed them 

 exceedingly. He mentioned a fine, double stemmed hemlock 

 standing in West Dedham, which, for its beauty and nol)le appear- 

 ance, was worth a walk out there to see. 



Mr. Dawson alluded to Mr. Manning's remarks on Hemlocks for 

 hedges, and asked his views concerning the Arbor Vitae and other 

 evergreens for that purpose, and their treatment. 



Mr. Manning said that among all our trees there is no other so 

 well adapted to use for a common hedge plant as the American 

 Arbor Vitj¥. It is one of our hardiest plants if well grown in 

 soil suitable for cultivation ; it can be dug up, and transplanted 

 with great ease, and will endure more hardship than almost any 

 other coniferous tree. If breaks occur in a hedge of it, even if 

 twelve feet high, the places can be filled in with trees of the same 

 size from the nursery rows and will soon be restored. He had 

 two thousand arl»or vitivs, from live to eight feet high, which stood 

 thickh' in nursery rows, and were transplanted to form a hedge 

 along a driveway upon his grounds, and oidy live of them died. 

 This hedge was pruned for eight years ; then three hundred feet of 

 it, making two carloads, was removed to Centre Harbor, N. H., 

 and planted. Now, in 1891, it is one of the best hedges in 

 New Hampshire. In another case two hundred and fifty feet of 

 arbor vita* hedge, eight feet high, which had been set from eight 

 to twelve years, was taken up, carried from Reading to Lynn, 

 and planted there in May, 1890, and nearly every tree of it is 

 alive today. In the years 1872 and 1883 — eleven years apart — 

 evergreen trees, and notably hedges, were sufferers from winter- 

 killing to a remarkable extent. But the dead trees were mostly 



