20 On Hedgi7ig. 



some sort or other, it will not be able to support a stout 

 and vigorous hedge. 



When an intended hedge-course chances to cross 

 over any spaces of barren land, these are to be made 

 equally fertile with the generality of the soil, if practi- 

 cable. Such being frequently very differently constitu- 

 ted, will require a peculiar preparation, as the nature of 

 each may seem to demand. If broken rocks or stones 

 should come in the way, they must obviously be clear- 

 ed out to a sufficient depth, and their places supplied 

 with good mould. And if such spaces are composed 

 of an earth unwholesome or pernicious to vegetation, 

 a trench must be dug in the direction of the hedge 

 course, as far as is requisite, of six or eight feet wide, 

 and some other soil, the best that can be obtained near 

 at hand, substituted in place of the bad; in short, the 

 sagacity of any farmer will be able in such cases to 

 determine how to proceed. All such accidental im- 

 pediments however, are to be considered in due time, 

 and measures taken to overcome them before the 

 hedge is planted, that it may thrive equally and be uni- 

 formly strong throughout. The temporary fencing and 

 the preparation of the hedge course being duly con- 

 sidered, while the young plants are yet growing in the 

 nursery, when the hedge comes to be planted every thing- 

 will be in an orderly train, and it will suffer no damage 

 or detriment from an improvident conduct at the begin- 

 ning. After all, in most cases the old fences being suffi- 

 cient to last a few years, and the soil where the hedge 

 is intended to stand, being in an ordinary state of clean 

 cultivation, nothing else will be necessary, but to plough 

 the hedge-course, harrow it smooth, run a deep furrow 



