GARDEN LABOURS WITH PLANTS. 



237 



without the application of the line ; a matter of no difficulty to an expert 

 operator. 



547. Clipping hedges is generally performed by the eye without the aid of 

 the Ime ; but in the case of architectural hedges in gardens laid out in the 

 geometrical style, both the line and the plummet are occasionally resorted 

 to, to prove the exactness of the work. In the case of lofty hedges, for 

 example, the beech and hornbeam hedges at Bramham Park, Yorkshire, 

 and the holly hedge at Moredun, near Edinburgh, scaffolding is requisite, and 

 this is adjusted to different heights ; the operation of clipping commencing 

 at the bottom of the hedge, and being continued upwards in successive 

 breadths, much in the same way that mowing is performed by several men 

 following one another at regular distances. Hedges are generally clipped in 

 the summer season ; immediately after the growth of the year has been 

 completed. In some parts of the country instead of the hedge- shears, 

 (fig. 46, in p. 139) the hedge-bill (fig. 42, in p. 138) is used. In this case, 

 the ends of the shoots which form the surface of the hedge are not bruised 

 as in clipping ; and hence they are not liable to rot, or to produce an exu- 

 berance of small shoots, which, from the greater stimulus, are always more 

 abundant from a fractured section, than from one cut smoothly over. That 

 this result will take place is known to every cottager who has been in the 

 habit of splitting the upper ends of the stumps or stems from which cabbages 

 or other kale have been cut, in order to induce them to throw out sprouts. 

 The width of a hedge at the base need seldom exceed two feet in gardens ; 

 but where a strong fence is required, or where the height exceeds twelve 

 or fifteen feet, three feet in width at least, will be required at the base ; 

 for the closest and best clothed hedges are found to be those whose sec- 

 tion forms the sides and base of a pyramid. If the sides are perpendicular 

 the hedge sometimes gets naked at the bottom ; but if is wider at top than 

 at bottom, no art will prevent it from getting every year more naked, till, 

 at last, plashing, or otherwise securing the gaps, must be resorted to, and 

 then its beauty as a live fence is gone. Another advantage is gained by 

 sloping the sides of hedges, and that is, in respect of keeping them 

 clean ; for when so cut the twigs at bottom, sharing in the dews and light, 

 thrive and grow so close to the ground that few weeds can rise below 

 them. Again, in fields, the uniformity of surface which can be maintained 

 with ease in hedges cut on the sloping principle, prevents animals from 

 readily attempting to leap or make a breach in them. If they observe the 

 appearance of a breach they make towards it, and, crowding together at the 

 spot, the foremost is " put to the horn," if he attempts to turn away. Of 

 two evils he finds it perhaps the best alternative to dash forward through 

 the hedge, leaving an easier passage for those behind him ; some of them 

 being hurried after him by force, and others by a sort of instinct. If a 

 stone fence is built of a uniform height, a hare will not readily leap over 

 it of her own accord ; but if the wall be heightened excepting in some places, 

 the hare will attempt these apparently more easy places without hesitation, 

 and certainly without being aware that those places are not in reality lower 

 than they were formerly. 



548. Mowing, like cutting, may be described as a species of sawing ; and 

 it is perhaps the most laborious work which the gardener is called on to 

 perform ; every muscle of the human frame being by this kind of labour 



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