SITUATION, SOIL, CHAP. 



This summer clipping must be earlier or later, according 

 to the season, or to the climate : but it should take place 

 just before the starting of the Midsummer shoot. All trees 

 shoot twice in the year : the shoot that comes out in the 

 spring ends about Midsummer, and then begins another 

 shoot that comes out of the end of it; which is about 

 one third and sometimes about one half, smaller than the 

 spring shoot, and the pruning or clipping should take 

 place just before this new shoot comes out : this opera- 

 tion causes many new and small shoots to come forth, 

 and gives the hedge a very beautiful appearance ; and 

 also makes it much thicker than it otherwise would be. 

 The seed of the black thorn is a little sloe, and not easily 

 to be obtained in any quantity : its leaf is not so beauti- 

 ful as that of the hawthorn ; but its wood is stronger, 

 and its thorns a great deal more formidable. A holJy 

 hedge only requires more patience ; and we should re- 

 collect that it is evergeen : and as effectual, in a fence, as 

 cither of our thorns -, for its leaves are so full of sharp 

 prickles, that no boy will face a holly hedge of any de- 

 gree of thickness. To have such a hedge, you must 

 gather the berries in autumn, keep them in damp sand for 

 a year j then sow them in November, and, when they 

 .come up in the spring, keep the bed carefully weeded, 

 not only then, but all through the summer j let them 

 stand in this bed another summer j then transplant them 

 in rows in a nursery of rich ground j there let them stand 

 for two or three years ; then plant them for the hedge at 

 the same distances, and in the same manner, as directed 

 for the honey locusts j then, when they have stood a 

 year thus, cut them down nearly close to the ground, 

 which will bring three or four shoots out of each plant -, 



