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On Live Hedges. 

 Read May 9th, 1809. 



New 'Hampshire, Stratham, April 6th, 1809. 



Gentlemen, 



I saw in the Portsmouth Oracle, an advertisement 

 by the Agricultural Society of Philadelphia in 1806, 

 soliciting information in the art of agriculture ; and 

 having been ten years in the farming line, I have tried 

 many experiments in almost every branch that our cli- 

 mate and soil will admit. From your advertisement live 

 fences appeared to be of great importance in your views. 

 I have been making them more or less every year since 

 I have farmed, with some variations as to the mode. 

 When I purchased my farm there were a number of 

 the English willows on it ; old ones had been cut off 

 and young ones had shot out, so that I could get a 

 plenty of stakes : I set many hundred rods of these 

 willow stakes on different soils and in different forms ; 

 in the mean time I raised nurseries of poplars which I 

 supposed I should prefer to the willows : I think it not 

 worth while to give the whole particulars of the willows, 

 as I think poplar far exceeds them for making live 

 fence. I have set out the poplar intending them for 

 posts when large enough ; I have set many hundred 

 rods in this order ; some are large enough to nail to. I 

 intend topping of them when I nail boards to them, 

 that they may be the more firm and steady ; I think 

 there are many advantages in these sorts of posts. The 

 poplar I believe is so well known in the United States, 



