On Fences most eligible for Gardens, $c. 355 



My garden was formerly fenced in on two sides, with a 

 Hawthorn fence, which I have removed, and planted Holly 

 in its stead; about a quarter of a mile distant from the 

 garden, on the same level and aspect, I have a small nur- 

 sery, which is surrounded with a dipt Hawthorn hedge. 

 The young fruit trees in this nursery have been greatly 

 injured every spring, by caterpillars, beetles, and other 

 insects. Last year, the trees in the garden were not much 

 injured by these insects, but the foliage in the nursery was 

 completely destroyed. I first observed the Hawthorn hedge 

 full of small beetles and caterpillars, which soon destroyed 

 all the newly expanded leaves ; these insects then attacked 

 the trees nearest the hedge, and gradually overspread the 

 nursery, till they had completely devoured the leaves and 

 setting fruit: so numerous were they, that the ground 

 under the hedge and trees, was covered with their excre- 

 ment, which had the appearance of coarse grains of gun- 

 powder. Close-shorn or pleached quickset hedges appear 

 to offer a favourable abode to caterpillars, and the parent 

 moths make choice of such situations for depositing their 

 eggs, in the previous summer or autumn ; for I have fre- 

 quently remarked, if close-shorn hedges are forcibly struck 

 with a stick in a summer's evening, that thousands of moths 

 fly out, and these might perhaps be destroyed by occasion- 

 ally making blazing fires of dry weeds at night. 



Having pointed out one of the disadvantages of Haw- 

 thorn hedges, I shall make a few remarks on the advan- 

 tages of evergreen fences, for obtaining warmth and shelter. 



Want of sufficient warmth has been the complaint of 

 every English gardener from the days of Henry the Eighth, 



