March.] THE NURSERY. 263 
annoyance of weeds during the first two or three years of their 
growth, after which they will be completely furnished and out of 
their power. 
The autumn or spring following after planting, examine your 
hedge, and if any of the plants have died, or seem to be in a very 
bad state of health, replace them with others from the nursery, 
placing some fresh earth to the i^oots of each. 
Crab and Jipple Hedges. 
The common wild thorny crab will make an excellent ground or 
ditch hedge, and will thrive in a poorer soil than the thornj and 
hedges raised from the pippins of apples do tolerably well and form 
strong fences^ the former is raised from the pippins, and the latter 
can be propagated in abundance by sowing the pumice very thick, 
immediately after being pressed for cider, on a bed of good ground 
properly prepared, and covering the whole with fine light earth 
near an inch deep; a few plants will appear soon after sowing, but 
a great crop will come up in spring, which may afterwards be used 
for stocks to graft on, and also for hedges, where more suitable 
kinds cannot be had. 
Hornbeam and Beach Hedges. 
Our indigenous kinds of hornbeam and beach will make admira- 
ble hedges; the seed of the former, which it produces here in great 
abundance, will require the same preparation and management in 
every respect as directed for haws in page 151, &c. 
In Westphalia and other parts of Germany the hornbeam is in 
great repute for hedges. The German husbandman throws up a 
parapet of earth, with a ditch on each side, and plants his sets, 
raised from layers, in such a manner that every two plants inter- 
sect each other; then he cuts off the bark and a little of the wood 
from each, and binds them close together with a hay-band. The 
plants unite and form a living palisado, which, being pruned or 
dressed annually with discretion, will, in a few years, make an 
impenetrable fence. Most other kinds may be treated in the 
same manner. 
The seeds or mast, as they are commonly called, of the beach, 
may be sown as soon as ripe, but as the ground-mice, squirrels, 
&c. are extremely fond of them, it will be the better way to pre- 
serve them in dry sand till March, to be then sown either in drills 
or broad-cast in beds, covering them not more than half an inch 
deep; for, as they rise with very broad seed-leaves, they could 
never work up through a thick covering. The beach vegetates the 
first spring after the perfection of its seed; the hornbeam not till 
the second. 
Honey-Locust and Elm Hedges. 
The Gleditsia triacanthos, or honey-locust, will make very good 
hedges; the seeds are to be sown in March, and covered half an 
