58 ENCLOSURES. 



But such is the evil, and it becomes cultivators to 

 guard against it as effectually as possible. Apples, 

 except the early varieties, are not much liable to 

 be stolen; but all early fruit, including cherries, 

 pears, apples, plums, apricots, and peaches, and all 

 the delicious sorts which ripen through autumn, are 

 pre-eminently liable to the attacks of these relent- 

 less marauders. Hence all these kinds should be 

 effectually protected by a thorn hedge. A good 

 dog is often a great help ; but a hedge, which a boy 

 cannot pass, is most quiet and secure. 



The English hawthorn has been much used in 

 America for hedges, and in some cases has con- 

 ing without culture, and free for all, has doubtless had its 

 share in producing this laxity of morals. e I would sooner 

 have a hundred Irishmen round me than one Yankee,' was 

 the declaration of a sufferer, whose fruit had been plundered 

 near the line of the Erie canal, when that great work was in 

 progress. But Europeans are generally more exemplary on 

 this point than Americans shame onus! When Professor 

 Stowe was in Prussia, where the roads are lined with fruit 

 trees by order of the government, he observed a wisp of 

 straw attached to particular trees, to protect the fruit ; a suf- 

 ficient guard; but he suggested to the coachman, that in 

 America, it might only prove an invitation to plunder. 

 'Have you no schools ?' was the significant reply. 



" Yes, we have schools; but how many where the child is 

 taught to respect his neighbor's property ? Too often he ac- 

 quires literature and vice at the same time. The state of 

 New-York is famous for her schools and her prisons : the lat- 

 ter to supply the defects of the former system, which they do 

 however, very imperfectly. Better let the mandate go 

 forth that the morality of the Bible shall be one of the chief 

 objects of instruction. TEACH HER CHILDREN TO BE 

 HONEST, and then with science and literature, a foundation 

 for true greatness and prosperity would be laid." David 

 Thomas, in Trans. N. Y. State Ag. Soc. Vol. I, p. 223. 



