36 On Hedges. 



practice to introduce trees into them. And Lord Kaims 

 expressly says, he never saw a good hedge in England* 



Mr. Bordley handsomely compliments the planters 

 of some hedges in the Delaware state. They probably 

 made a good appearance when young : but I have seen 

 them repeatedly within the last six years ; and in my 

 eye they possess neither beauty nor efficiency. They 

 consisted, in fact, of thorn trees twelve or fifteen feet 

 high, with bushy tops and naked stems, and gaps in- 

 numerable. In that condition I viewed them as nui- 

 sances. They occupied much ground, and required 

 many posts and rails, (which, shaded and long remaining 

 wet with rains, would soon become rotten,) to fill the 

 gaps. Within two or three years past, the proprietors 

 of some of those hedges have found some labourers, 

 (I believe English hedgers) who have plashed and top- 

 ped the trees ; and interweaving them with the stems 

 and stakes, have made good fences for so long time as 

 the dead wood will last. 



Mr. Main, in his pamphlet, refers to M^Mahon's 

 directions for raising thorns from haws — a process re- 

 quiring a preparation of a year and a half prior to the 

 sowing of the haws. But in the autumn of 1807, in con- 

 versing with an English gardener, here, (Theophilus 

 Holt J I found that the haws would vegetate the first 

 spring. He showed me a bed of seedings which had 

 grown from the haws of 1806. I desired him to gather 

 me a quantity of haws of the hedge thorn cultivated by 

 Mr. Main, (they are to be found scattered in every part 

 of the city) which you call cratcegus corf/c^a, and to mix 

 them with earth and keep them until the ensuing spring. 

 Then he sent them to me in a box (remaining mingled 



