Hedges and Screens. 131 



they may be again cut back at the top, but not so low as before. 

 In the third year, the cutting back at the top is renewed, but higher 

 up, and under favorable conditions the hedge is now broad and 

 very dense near the ground. The subsequent care consists in keep- 

 ing the hedge trimmed to a convex curve on each side, and if the 

 roots appear to sprtad too far, they may be kept back by cutting 

 them off with a sharp coulter attached to the- beam of a plow, and 

 drawn along on each side, as near as a team can be driven. 



529. There are quite a number gf patents issued for bending 

 down, interweaving with wires, confining by hooks and by stakes, 

 and the like, which can not be easily described without a greater 

 space than the limits of this article allow. In some of these, tlie 

 stems are partly cut off, and then bent down and confined. In some, 

 the branches are interwoven in lattice form. The most convenient 

 tool for handling the plants (which are covered with cruel thorns), 

 has a strong iron head, consisting of two prongs, like the tines of a 

 fork, one of which is straight, and the other recurved, and firmly 

 fixed in a long handle. This instrument can be used both for push- 

 ing and pulling, and by its aid, two men, one upon each side, can 

 bring the stems into place without difficulty. 



530. All hedges have the disadvantage of impoverishing the soil 

 adjacent, to a perceptable degree ; and the honey locust, the poplars, 

 and the willows, have a tendency to seud out tracing roots into the 

 adjacent plowed lands, and there sprout where they are not wanted. 

 The osage orange does not generally show this tendency, and this 

 fact has been mentioned as a motive in its favor. It has, however, 

 a somewhat tender habit, and when planted beyond its proper 

 limits, it is very liable to be killed back or killed altogether by a cold 

 winter. 



531. Its northern limit can not be described with certainty. 

 Being a native of a mild climate, it is not readily grown in a cold 

 one, and perhaps it would be safer not to depend upon it in Iowa, or 

 further west in the same latitude. As the young shoots do not 

 ripen well, they are apt to be killed every year by the frost, and 

 they can hardly long survive these repeated injuries. 



532. Among the enemies that a young hedge of osage orange is 

 exposed to, in the more Western States, is the gopher, a burrowing 

 rodent, that will follow a line of hedge many rods, and destroy the 

 roots. They may be killed off by poisoning. A fire, if allowed to 



