SOIL, MANURES, SITUATION, AND ENCLOSURES. 55 



and is easily raised and transplanted ; but, except on very 

 rich soils and with good cultivation, it does not form a stout 

 barrier. The Honey Locust is also very hardy, but requires 

 more care in cutting back and thickening ; it may, however, 

 be made into an excellent hedge for a fruit-garden if the most 

 thorny plants are selected. The Osage Orange, where the 

 winters are not too severe, is also good. It is so liable to 

 winter-kill, however, that hedges of it are often ragged and 

 unsightly. It is densely armed with sharp thorns and if well 

 kept soon becomes impassable. In New York, it is only hardy 

 on dry ground or near the line of an underdrain. 



Two reasons have operated in preventing a more general 

 and successful adoption of hedges. One is the aversion so 

 prevalent to undertake anything which does not produce im- 

 mediate results, several years being required to make a per- 

 fect hedge. The other is the almost universal notion adopted 

 without a moment's thought that everything in the form of a 

 tree must grow and take care of itself. Hence we see for 

 every good well-managed hedge at least one hundred bad and 

 neglected ones. This remark applies with more force to the 

 attempts made with the Osage Orange than with any other 

 plant ; for nothing that is ever used for hedges is more sensi- 

 tive under bad usage or succeeds better if well treated than 

 this. The privet and the buckthorn will usually present 

 something of a hedgy appearance with any kind of manage- 

 ment; but the Osage unless well cultivated and properly 

 sheared will not exhibit even the semblance of a hedge. 

 Hence the common notion that it has proved a failure. 



The Osage Orange grows rapidly if well cultivated; and in 

 order to insure a perfectly continuous and even hedge, the 

 young plants must be allowed to swell their buds before they 

 are set out, that all dead and feeble plants may be rejected. 

 The first winter a light furrow should be ploughed upon it, 

 to protect and drain it at the same operation. The soil should 

 be kept deep and mellow by cultivation, at least four or five 

 feet on each side, instead of allowing it to grow up with 

 weeds and grass, as is usual; and, if possible, it should be 

 placed nearly over a tile drain, which will contribute greatly 

 to its endurance of winter. 



Evergreen hedges are mostly employed as screens from Ol> 



