HED 



r 421 ] 



HED 



four or five at top, having a platform or 

 stage at every seven or eight feet high, 

 and one at the top of all ; and upon these 

 the man stands to work, each platform 

 having a rail, waist high, to keep the man 

 from falling, and a sort of ladder formed 

 on one side for the man to ascend, and 

 at bottom for low wheels to move it along. 

 Upon this machine a man may be em- 

 ployed on each stage or platform,trimming 

 the hedge with shears, and sometimes 

 with a garden hedge-bill fixed on a handle 

 five or six feet long, which is more ex- 

 peditious, though it will not make so neat 

 work as cutting with the shears. 



A hedge is not only an imperfect screen, 

 but in other respects is worse than use- 

 less, since nothing can be trained to it, 

 and its roots exhaust the soil in their 

 neighbourhood very considerably. As the 

 south fence of a garden, it may be em- 

 ployed ; and hawthorn, in some respects, 

 is the worst shrub that could be made 

 use of. It is the nursery of the same 

 aphides, beetles, and caterpillars, that 

 feed upon the foliage of the apple and 

 pear, from whence they often spread to 

 the whole garden. Evergreen are better 

 than deciduous hedges, and more espe- 

 cially those of the holly, which is not so 

 slow a grower as is generally imagined. 



In a cloudy day, in April or May, the 

 wind seems to be actually refrigerated in 

 passing through a thick hawthorn hedge ; 

 and this may be accounted for on the 

 same principle that cool air is obtained 

 in the houses of India by sprinkling 

 Dranches of trees with water in their 

 rerandas. Holly, laurel, and most ever- 

 greens, exhale but little moisture from 

 their leaves, except for about a month in 

 June ; consequently, in April and May, 

 when we most require warmth, and in 

 September and October, the leaves of 

 these, when fully exposed to the sun, 

 become heated to the touch to 85 or 90. 

 Added to this, hoar frost, or a deposition 

 of moisture of any kind, never attaches 

 so readily, or remains for so long a time, 

 upon the foliage of evergreens as upon 

 the sprays of deciduous shrubs ; conse- 

 quently, the refrigeratory power is greatly 

 diminished. When the garden is of con- 

 siderable ^extent, three or four acres and 

 upwards, it admits of cross-walls or fences 

 for an increase of training surface and 

 additional shelter. 



Hedges should always be clipped into 

 a conical form, as the diminution of the 



branches towards the top increases their 

 development at the bottom. 



Furze makes one of the best and hand- 

 somest of hedges if kept regularly clipped. 

 Upon the formation of such a hedge, we 

 have the following remarks by Mr. McL, 

 of Hillsborough : The most ancient, 

 and perhaps the most simple of all fences, 

 are walls made of turf. These walls, 

 however, are much injured by the atmo- 

 sphere, and the rubbing and butting of 

 the cattle. To guard against this they 

 should be planted or sown with the LTlex 

 Europeans, or Furze. The roots of this 

 plant will soon penetrate the turf, and 

 tend to bind the wall. The plants not 

 only afford shelter as well as food for 

 the cattle, but add to the height of the 

 wall, and give it a formidable appearance. 

 When walls are made for this, the founda- 

 tion should be three feet wide, and taper- 

 ing to fifteen inches at top. As the 

 plants advance in growth, they should be 

 regularly trimmed with the shears : by 

 proper attention to this they will be pre- 

 vented from growing too tall and thin at 

 the bottom. If this is annually repeated, 

 the plants will be longer preserved in a 

 healthy and vigorous state : clipping has 

 also a good effect in checking the furze 

 from spreading over the field. A good 

 and substantial fence may thus be quickly 

 formed on a soil that will not produce a 

 biding fence of any other kind. 



Sweet-briar (Eo'sa rubigino'sa) makes 

 a good hedge. Its heps may be sown in 

 the autumn, as soon as ripe, or, which is 

 better, in the month of March, having 

 kept them, in the mean time, mixed with, 

 sand. But it is far more convenient to 

 buy young plants, and to plant them a 

 foot apart early in the month of Novem- 

 ber. Let them grow as they like for the 

 first year, and cut them down to the 

 ground the second ; they will then spring 

 up and require no more care than occa- 

 sionally trimming with the pruning-knife 

 or shears to keep the hedge in shape. 

 When it gets naked to the bottom, it 

 must be again cut down. Gard. Chron. 



HEDGE-HOG THISTLE. Ca'ctus (Echi- 

 noca'ctus}. 



HEDGE HYSSOP. Gratl'ola. 



HEDGE MUSTARD. Ery'sinwm. 



HEDGE NETTLE. Sta'chys. 



HEDWI'GIA, of Swartz. (Named after 

 Jrtn Hedywig, a botanist. Nat. ord., 

 Amy rids [Amyridacece]. Linn., S-Octan- 

 dria l-Monogynia.) 



