154 On the Growth of White Thom. 
Gentlemen, 
Every one of yon, I think, will allow that fences are 
material objects to he attended to in agriculture ; you 
must also be convinced that there is no plant in this king- 
dom of which they can so properly be made as the Cra- 
taegus oxyacantha Linnaei, or common White Thom, In 
consequence of my being convinced of this, I have been 
induced to make a few r experiments to effect the better 
propagation of that valuable plant ; the result of which, 
along with specimens of my success, I beg leave to sub- 
mit to your inspection. 
In the year 1801, I had occasion to purchase a quan- 
tity of thorns, and finding them very dear, I was deter- 
mined to try some experiments, in order if possible to 
raise them at a less expense. I tried to propagate them 
from cuttings of the branches, but with little or no suc- 
cess. I likewise tried if pieces of the root would grow ; 
and I cut from the thorns which I had purchased about a 
dozen of such roots as pleased me, and planted them in 
a border along with those I had bought. To my great 
astonishment, not one of them died ; and in two years 
they became as good thorns as the average of those I had 
purchased. The thorns I purchased were three years 
old when I got them. In April, 1802, 1 had occasion to 
move a fence, from which I procured as many roots of 
thorns as made me upwards of two thousand cuttings, of 
w hich I did not lose five in the hundred. 
In the spring of 1808, I likewise planted as many cut- 
tings of thorn roots as I could get. In 1804, I did the 
same ; and this year I shall plant many thousands. 
I have sent for your inspection specimens of the pro- 
duce of 1802, 1803, and 1804, raised after my method, 
with the best I could get of those raised from haws in 
the common way, which generally lie one year in the 
ground before they vegetate. They are all exactly one, 
