ON LIVE FENCES. Ill 



PICKERING DODGE'S STATEMENT. 



To the Committee on Live Fences : 



Gentleimen — f hand you herewith as concise an ac- 

 count as possible, of the manner in whicli I have grown 

 and cultivated the buckthorn hedge, which I offer for 

 your examination. 



On the 10th of October, 1834, I gathered a quantity 

 of buckthorn berries, at Waltham, and planted them on 

 my Woodside farm at Lynn, on the 16th of the same 

 month. The rows were properly guarded during the 

 winter with cedar brush, which my pastures furnished 

 me in any quantity, and remained covered until the 

 middle of April. The seeds vegetated the latter part 

 of May, in the following spring, 1835; the plants grew 

 to the height of three or four inches in the course of the 

 summer, and were protected with a slight covering of 

 coarse barn-yard litter late in November. I consider 

 this protection indispensably necessary, to guard against 

 their being thrown out by the frost, or washed out by 

 the winter rains. 



Early in May of the following year, 1836, we pre- 

 pared a suitable portion of ground, richer and more fer- 

 tile than the seed-bed, and with a dibble pricked out the 

 plants into rows fourteen inches asunder, and at about 

 three inches distant from each other in the row. 



The season was very propitious, and the plants be- 

 ing kept perfectly free from weeds, and frequently hoed, 

 they generally attained a height of twelve and eighteen 

 inches, and were proportionately strong and stocky. I 

 did not consider it necessary to protect them in the nur- 

 sery with litter, but early in November we drew the soil 

 from the centre of the rows towards the plants, then 

 earthing them up three or four inches. 



In the autumn of this year I purchased my present es- 

 tate at North Salem, the soil of which is of a light, sandy 

 nature. We passed the greater part of the winter in 

 hauling clay and muscle-bed on to the land, leaving it in 

 heaps until the month of April, when, having become 

 decomposed by the action of the frost, it was equally 

 spread and ploughed in. 



