March.] THE NURSERY. <>G3 



annoyance of weeds during the first two or three years of their 

 growth, after which they will be completely furnished and out of 

 their power. 



The autumn or spring following after planting, examine your 

 hedge, and if any of the plants have died, or seem to be in a very 

 bad state of health, replace them with others from the nursery, 

 placing some fresh earth to the roots of each. 



Crab and Jipple Hedges. 



The common wild thorny crab will make an excellent ground or 

 ditch hedge, and will thrive in a poorer soil than the thorn; and 

 hedges raised from the pippins of apples do tolerably well and form 

 strong fences; the former is raised from the pippins, and the latter 

 can be propagated in abundance by sowing the pumice very thick, 

 immediately after being pressed for cider, on a bed of good ground 

 properly prepared, and covering the whole with fine light earth 

 near an inch deep; a few plants will appear soon after sowing, but 

 a great crop will come up in spring, which may afterwards be used 

 for stocks to graft on, and also for hedges, where more suitable 

 kinds cannot be had. 



Hornbeam and Beach Hedges. 



Our indigenous kinds of hornbeam and beach will make admira- 

 ble hedges; the seed of the former, which it produces here in great 

 abundance, will require the same preparation and management in 

 every respect as directed for haws in page 151, &c. 



In Westphalia and other parts of Germany the hornbeam is in 

 great repute for hedges. The German husbandman throws up a 

 parapet of earth, with a ditch on each side, and plants his sets, 

 raised from layers, in such a manner that everv two plants inter- 

 sect each other; then he cuts off' the bark and a little of the wood 

 from each, and binds them close together with a hay -band. The 

 plants unite and form a living palisado, which, being pruned or 

 dressed annually with discretion, will, in a few years, make an 

 impenetrable fence. Most other kinds may be treated in the 

 same manner. 



The seeds or mast, as they are commonly called, of the beach, 

 may be sown as soon as ripe, but as the ground-mice, squirrels, 

 &c. are extremely fond of them, it will be the better way to pre- 

 serve them in dry sand till March, to be then sown either in drills 

 or broad-cast in beds, covering thein not more than half an inch 

 deep; for, as they rise with very broad seed-leaves, they could 

 never work up through a thick covering. The beach vegetates the 

 first spring after the perfection of its seed; the hornbeam not till 

 the second. 



Honey- Locust and Elm Hedges. 



The Gleditsia triacanlhos, or honey-locust, will make very u;ood 

 hedges; the seeds arc to be sown in March, and covered halt an 



