FORMATION AND MANAGEMENT OF GARDENS. 



37 



grown from cuttings. The latter is very thorny, and of 

 beautiful foliage. It never dies out at the bottom, whether 

 pruned or not, and south of Virginia, is very hardy, and 

 of luxuriant growth. A satisfactory fence can be made 

 with this, by setting good chestnut or cedar posts, eight 

 feet apart, planted about two and a half feet in the 

 ground. Bank up the soil to form some twenty inches 

 high along the line of the fence, then form the usual 

 paling fence, or nail a good wide bottom board, and finish 

 the fence with heart-pine six-inch planks, or with stout 

 wire, strained through holes in the posts. The wire fence 

 may be four feet high. The roses should be rooted cut- 

 tings, and may be planted at first, even eight feet apart, 

 and by layering and training the bottom shoots, if the 

 ground is kept in good order, in three years they will 

 repel every intruder. It is better, where plants are abun- 

 dant, to set them out four feet apart. This hedge requires 

 less pruning than any other to keep it impenetrable. 

 After the posts and slats have decayed, the bank itself, 

 grown over with roses, will repel all intrusion. The 

 roses should be set at about the original level of the 

 ground, and not at the top of the bank. My own hedge 

 of Macartney rose, when three years old, trained on a 

 common fence of rails and paling, formed a barrier per- 

 fectly secure, and very ornamental. I see but one objec- 

 tion to it. It is in summer always in blossom, and there- 

 fore attracts all the bees in the neighborhood. In my 

 fruit garden I have thought that the injury done to 

 peaches and grapes by wasps and bees has been much 

 greater since the hedge has grown up than before. It is 

 a fine bee plant. In a more northern climate the sweet- 

 brier might answer as a tolerable substitute. 



The American Holly makes an efficient and beautiful 

 hedge, but is slow of growth and very hard to transplant. 

 It can, however, be safely planted by selecting a mild, 



