368 TREKS. 



cellent characteristics. It is robust, vigorous, and long-lived. It 

 sends out a great abundance of branches, bears trimming perfectly 

 well, is most amply provided at all times with stout thorns, and its 

 bright and glossy foliage gives it a very rich and beautiful appear- 

 ance. It grows well on almost any soil, and makes a powerful and 

 impenetrable fence in a very short time. Though it will bear rough 

 and severe pruning, and is therefore well adapted for farm fences, 

 yet it must be regularly trimmed twice every year, and requires 

 it even more imperatively than other hedge plants, to prevent its 

 sending out strong shoots to disfigure the symmetry of the hedge. 



The Osage orange is not yet sufficiently well known to be a 

 cheap plant in the nurseries.* But this is because it is not yet suffi- 

 ciently in demand. It is easily propagated, and will, no doubt, soon 

 be offered at very moderate rates. 



This propagation is done in two ways ; by the seed, and by the 

 cuttings of the roots. 



The seed is produced plentifully by the female trees. There are 

 large bearing trees in the old Landreth and McMahon gardens, near 

 Philadelphia. But it is not difficult now to have resort to those of 

 native growth. We learn that this tree is so common in the neigh- 

 borhood of Columbus, Hempstead Co., Arkansas, that the seeds may 

 be had there for the expense of gathering them. They should be 

 gathered at the latter part of September, and the clean seed, packed 

 in an equal quantity of dry sand, may be sent to any part of the 

 Union before planting time. A quart will produce at least 5000 

 plants. The seed may be planted in broad drills, and treated just 

 as we have already recommended for that of the buckthorn. But 

 the plants are seldom fit for hedge planting till the second year. 



The other mode of propagation is by the roots. Pieces of the 

 roots, of the thickness of one's little finger, made into cuttings three 

 or four inches long, and planted in lines, in mellow soil, with the top 

 of the root just below the surface, will soon push out shoots, and 

 become plants. The trimmings of a hundred young plants, when 



* Messrs. Landreth and Fulton, of Philadelphia, have a stock of it for 

 sale at $12 per 1000. The usual price of hawthorns and buckthorns is $6 

 per 1000 ; but the latter may be raised at a cost of not more than $3. 



