14 Oji Hedging, 



of the ground, in order to form a fence, is what here is 

 meant by plain hedging, to distinguish it from the com- 

 mon method used in Britain called hedge and ditch.^ 



Plain hedging is, in its aspect, somewhat similar to a 

 drilled row of Indian corn, and the culture and cleaning 

 from weeds is equally simple in the one as in the other. 

 The eifectof a judicious cultivation is also of parallel effi- 

 cacy in both cases, allowing for the slower growth of the 

 perennial hedge, when compared with the rapid progress 

 of the annual corn. There is no artificial elevation of ihe 

 earth contemplated in this method, and where an em- 

 bankment is brought into the scheme, by way of assist- 

 ance to the temporary fence, it is to stand exterior to 

 the hedge, which is set in the usual upright position 

 inside, where it is as susceptible of cultivation as if 

 there was no ditching in the case. 



A row of hedge plants, projecting almost horizontally 

 from the face of a bank elevated over their roots, can be 

 cultivated or assisted in their growth no other way after 

 planting but by hand weeding; and in the pensile position 

 in which the young cions are placed, the effects of dry 

 -weather would prove fatal to the health, if not to the 

 life of the plants, in such a climate as this, the first severe 



'* Those who are curious to luiderstand the manner of con- 

 ducting this the old way of hedging, will find in Mr. Ber- 

 nard M^Mahon's American Gardener's Callender," a clear 

 and excellent description thereof, with much other useful 

 information in this art, as well as in the various departments 

 of horticulture, &c. That valuable book has lately been pub- 

 lished in Philadelphia, and in my opinion is well deserving 

 of public patronage. 



