On Hedging. 29 



fined in the outside furrow would shortly enlarge it to 

 a deep ditch, and perhaps undermine the hedge. 



Whether nature intended the growth of weeds as an 

 admonition for us to stir the soil in order to destroy 

 them, it is not material for me to inquire ; but it is cer- 

 tain that this occasional breaking of the surface to era- 

 dicate them is of benefit to the land, and of great ser- 

 vice in promoting the growth of such plants as are 

 adapted for this method of cultivation, and perhaps 

 there is no article susceptible thereof in which this be- 

 neficial effect is more apparent than it is in young hedg- 

 es. On a soil abandoned to an undisturbed state of re- 

 pose, with the surface hardened by the sun and wind, 

 and become quite impervious to the benign influence 

 of the dews or light rains ; a hedge thus neglected to 

 be cultivated in its infancy, is apt to get bark-bound 

 at the beginning, to be almost irrecoverable by the force 

 of cultivation afterwards, and a number of years will 

 generally be seen to slide away before it can be brought 

 into a thriving state : but by an early and assiduous 

 attention continued for two, three years at first, the 

 plants will quickly recover from the sickness occasion- 

 ed by their transplantation, the weeds being carefully 

 eradicated, and the soil kept loose and light by culture ; 

 the young plants, if the first summer's affliction hath 

 left them in any tolerable state of health, they will the 

 next year shoot vigorously, and soon attract the atten- 

 tion of the proprietor, by the lively green appearance of 

 a handsome miniature hedge. And if this should some- 

 times not be quite the case in the second year, the effects 



