ON RAISING AND MANAGING HEDGES. 155 
For this purpose well-nursed plants of holly or of beech are 
also suitable for filling up gaps in hedges. After a cut down 
hedge has made the growth of two summers, it should be 
formed into shape by being pruned ; before being so, however, 
the hedge should be gone over, and all small vacancies which 
were not of such dimensions as to necessitate the insertion of 
young plants should be closed up by training the adjacent 
shoots into the vacancy and fixing them with a forked stick, 
or by tying them into the proper position with willow twigs. 
A hedge thus treated requires to be thoroughly protected, and 
kept free from weeds until it becomes a fence. 
