Jan.'] CLASHING, &c, 215 



into due fubjedlion without being cut down to 

 the ground. In this cafe, the fides are firft to be 

 Twitched up with the hook, not altogether clofe 

 to the ftems, but within about a foot of them on 

 each fide at bottom ^ tapering up clofe at top, 

 which mould be four or five feet high, according 

 to the general height of the hedge : But if the 

 hedge be thin at bottom, it will be advifable to 

 cut more in, in order to make it bumy from the 

 ground upwards. 



If the hedge is not regularly clofe from end to 

 end, but ragged, and full of gaps, the beft method 

 is to cut it over, xvithin eight or ten inches of the 

 ground, and to fill up the gaps with flout, well- 

 rooted plants of the Same kind ; * and to point up 

 the furface of the bank, and to fcour up the ditch, 

 as above directed in plafhing. 



In other cafes, when the hedge is getting thin 

 below, or too tall, and where the flems are placed 



regularly 



* The practice of filling up gaps in thorn hedges with 

 sweet-brier or barberry, or indeed any other sort of plant 

 than its own kind, is one which has never recompensed those 

 who have done it, for their trouble, and which generally in- 

 creases the evil it was intended to diminish. Every hedga 

 should be beeled up * with plants of its own kind ; because 

 the habit of growth, and sameness of nature, fit them more 

 perfectly for associating with their kindred, than any acci- 

 dental circumstances can fit a stranger for being introduced- 



* ' f. Mnded with living plants. 



