364 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



woodland district they are to be regarded as a luxury; and 

 like all luxuries, they are expensive. 



2. The white thorn will do very well for hedges if care- 

 fully tended. The usual materials for hedges, at the East, 

 are the English white thorn (cratcegus dxycantha), the* 

 buokthorn (rhamnus catharticus), Newcastle thorn (era- 

 tcBgas crus-gatti), honey locust (gleditschia triacanthos}, 

 red cedar (juniperus Virginiana), the Washington or Vir- 

 ginia thorn (cratcegus cor data). 



The Osage orange (maclura aurantiaca) has been high- 

 ly recommended ; it is eminently beautiful, and if proved 

 to be good for hedging, should be employed. Privet makes 

 a sightly hedge, but is thornless. The Washington thorn 

 is employed in this neighborhood by Aaron Aldredge ; it 

 is very beautiful ; will require eight or ten years to give it 

 maturity. 



3. When the thorn is used, the berries should be gath- 

 ered and mashed, in the fall, and the seed exposed, mixed 

 with moist sand, to the frost of winter. In the spring they 

 should be sown in nursery rows, and at a year old, they 

 should be transplanted. A reserve of plants should be kept 

 in the nursery to supply vacancies which may occur. 



The ground should be thoroughly and deeply pulverized 

 by plowing (spading would be much better) and the plants 

 set about six inches apart. The ground should be kept 

 entirely free from weeds ; this may be done in a profitable 

 manner by planting bush beans on each side, the tending 

 of which will keep the hedge clean, the ground mellow, 

 besides the profit of the crop. Dr. Shurtliff, of Boston, 

 gives the following brief but excellent directions : 



" Prepare your land in the best manner ; use suitable plants 

 of thrifty growth, the older the better ; assort and accom- 

 modate to the different kinds of soil ; preserve all the roots, 

 but crop the tops, leaving only few buds; keep a few in 

 your nursery ; set them sloping to the north, and leave the 

 ground a little concave about the roots ; keep them clear 



