364. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[OCTOBEIt, 
like a mound, so as to shed rain, more or less. 
In the spring remove tliis by degrees, and the 
plants -will come out in first-rate condition. 
•-• ■■» — I » 
Hedges and Hedge Plants.— Sd Article. 
— • 
THE SWEET ViliOKNTJM. 
In the article last month, it was stated that we 
had made little progress with hedging in this 
country, until native plants were 
taken for the purpose. There 
are doubtless many shrubs that 
are capable of forming good 
hedges, which have not yet been 
tested. The subject of the present 
article is one we have long 
thought would make a good 
hedge plant, but we did not know 
that it had been tried, until we 
received the subjoined commu- 
nication from a valued corre- 
spondent, who is a great lover 
and close observer of trees and 
shrubs. The Sweet Viburnum, 
Vibiirnum Lcntago, is quite com- 
mon all over the country, and 
often forms a small tree, fifteen 
or twenty feet high, covered in 
Jlay and June with clusters of 
while flowers, like those shown 
in the engraving. The flowers 
are succeeded by a small, one- 
seeded, berry-like fruit, blue-black 
in color, and ripe in autumn. 
The shrub belongs to the same 
genus as the common Snow-ball, 
but has all its ilowers perfect, 
while in the Snow-b.iU, all orp.art 
are sterile, and very much larger. 
As an ornamental slii'ub it is 
wortliy of more attention than 
has yet been bestowed upon it. 
"Wlioever travels in West- 
chester County in the last half of 
Jlay, notices the Dog-woods in 
full bloom, and not less their 
companions in whiteness and 
beauty, the 'Nanny-berries.' It 
is known as the Sweet Vibur- 
num, and in other localities as the Sheep-berry, 
probably from tlie fact tliat it flourishes in sheep 
pastures in spite of all the shortening-in it gets 
from tliose close nibblers. The goat is supposed 
to give it its name ' Nanny-berrj',' and it is one 
of the best certificates of its extreme hardiness 
and vitality, that in highways and pastures it 
survives all the croppings of the goat, which 
makes a clean sweep of briars and most other 
shrubs. It was itslow Inishy head, formed un- 
der such treatment perhaps, that first suggested 
its use as a liedge plant. It is certainly one of 
the best of all deciduous shrubs for that pur- 
pose, and nothing but its commonness and 
clieapness can prevent it from having a rapid 
run and wide spread popularity for hedges. 
A good deciduous hedge plant is still a desid- 
eratum. Tlie Hawthorn, which is tlie glory of 
English hedges, and so prominent a feature in 
their landscapes, does not do well in our more 
fervid summers. AVe have never seen a good 
one this side of the Atlantic. The Osage Orange 
has many admirable qualities, but is not entirely 
hardy in all parts of the North. The Privet 
and Buckthorn, among tlie best, are very slow 
growers, and tax the patience of the planter. 
Nothing that we are acquainted with meets 
all the requisites of a good hedge plant so com- 
pletely as this neglected bush. It ia a beautiful 
thing, cultivated simply as a flowering shrub, 
standing solitary beside the walk or carriage 
drive, or in masses in the midst of the lawn. 
Unlike the Dog-wood, its flowers will bear the 
closest examination, and a shallow dish filled 
with these flowers and leaves, is one of the most 
attractive ornaments of the center table in the 
month that boasts so much of floral beauty. 
Then it is a very hardy plant, thriving under 
SWEET VratTRNtlM. 
neglect, and bearing any reasonable amount of 
shearing. In the hands of the gardener it is as 
plastic as the Box or the Yew, and may be 
moulded into any desirable shape. Planted in 
good soil and properly trained, it makes a thick 
hedge, impervious to the light, and sffong 
enough to turn cattle. — It is easily multiplied 
from the seed, old pastures and woodlands 
abounding in young plants that have been sown 
by birds and cattle. In the neighborhoods where 
the shrub is already established, plants suitable 
for hedges are readily procured from the pas- 
tures. Those growing in the open ground, and 
that have been subjected to the severe cropping 
of the sheep and goats, are to be preferred. 
In the grounds of R. L. Franklin, of River- 
dale, may be seen a hedge of this plant only five 
3-cars out. It is as perfect a specimen of live 
fence as can be found around any of our subur- 
ban residences, and that is saying much. As 
an example of the capabilities of the Sheep- 
berry for a hedge plant we regard that hedge 
as a great success." 
"We have no doubt that the plant will be valuable 
in the Northern sections of the country, though 
Mr. Meehan, who gives great attention to hedge- 
plants, informs us that near Philadelphia it has 
a somewhat rusty appearance in raid-summer. 
Make Cuttings in Autumn. 
— « — 
A number of our hard-wooded plants are most 
easily progagated from cuttings. Among those 
most commonly multiplied in this manner from 
mature wood, are the currant, gooseberry, quince, 
grape, rose, etc., and it is probable that many of 
our ornamental shrubs, not usually propagated 
in this way, will succeed if properly treated. 
Any one who has ever watclied the progress 
made by a cutting will hiive 
found, that before any roots ap- 
pear, there is asortof growtli go- 
ing on. After the cutting lias 
been for a greater or less time in 
the soil, there appears at the cut 
surface, and often at other points 
above it, an irregular whitish 
growth, which, if it occurred in 
tlie human subject, we should 
call " proud flesh," and that final- 
ly roots are pushed from this 
^^- ^, growth, which in gardener's.lau- 
~~' ^ ^ii S'l'iSeiscalled a "fifHxs." When 
P-^^^^ a twig is cut from the parent 
plant .and placed in favorable soil, 
it puts forth an eflbrt to live and 
form a new plant. It is witliout 
roots, through which to take up 
nourishment, and although it 
may apparently be vigorous for 
a while, and push out a new 
growth of stem and leaves, these 
are only produced at the expense 
of the material already stored iip 
in the cutting, and after a brief 
season it dies. It is only when 
the cutting makes a root that it 
lives, and the first step towards 
making a root is the formation 
of the callus above mentioned ; 
and this, like the leaf growth 
first alluded to, is formed at the 
expense of material on hand in 
the tissues of the twig or cutting. 
If this material be expended in 
leaf growth, as a general thing, 
no roots will be formed, hence it 
is the object of the propagator 
to induce the formation of a cal- 
lus and roots rather than of stems and leaves. 
When artificial heat is used, the operator has the 
matter qtiite under his control, as he has only 
to keep the soil some degrees warmer than the 
air above it. In out of door propagation, in 
which our readers are most interested, these 
conditions are best attained by setting the cut- 
tings in autumn, as then the soil is warmer than 
the atmosphere, and the callus (and even roots 
in some cases) forms before severe weather sets 
in. Cultivators well know that if a cultiug be 
once callused, it is pretty sure to grow, and it 
often happens, if cuttings be made in fall and be 
kept in moist sand or s.andy soil, out of the 
reach of severe cold, that the functions of vege- 
tation will go on, and a callus be slowly formed, 
which, when the cutting is set out in the spring, 
quite surely emits roots. Quince cuttings done 
up into bundles, with their lower ends dipped 
for one third their length in thin mud, may be 
set in the cell.ar and occasionallj' watered. 
These will callus finely during the winter, and 
be ready to set in spring. Other cuttings would 
doubtless succeed with the same treatment. In 
setting cuttings of any kind, the soil should be 
firmly pressed about their lower ends, and at- 
tention to this will often determine success or 
failure. Currant, gooseberry, quiuce, and the 
