AMEBICAN AGBICTJLTUEIST 
373 
M ACL AURA HEDGES. 
We have inquiries repeatedly addressed us 
as to hedges, and the best way of growing 
them. We cannot answer better, than recom¬ 
mending the following article for perusal. We 
have the pleasure of a personal acquaintance 
with the writer, Mr. Neff, and have often in¬ 
spected his hedges grown in the neighborhood of 
Cincinnati, Ohio. They were among the best 
we ever saw, whether in America or Europe. 
My object in this article is to meet some ob¬ 
jections to the Osage Orange plant, itself, inas¬ 
much as my experience tells me that there is 
no known plant so peculiarly adapted to the 
purpose, and so valuable to our agricultural in¬ 
terests. Its surprising properties are no longer 
a problem. Some writers are yet disposed to 
class it among the “ humbugs,” and many doubt 
its utility; but amongst them all you will not 
probably find much, if any experience. If 
rightly managed it makes the best and cheapest 
fence in the world without any exception what¬ 
ever. 
Believing then, as I do, in the extraordinary 
properties of the Osage Orange (Maclaura) for 
making live fences, I will state what I believe 
the best mode of cultivation and management, 
in as few and plain words as practicable, so as 
to be understood by the inexperienced—with 
the hope that all interested persons may prac¬ 
tise and enjoy its benefits. 
In order then to make the seed vegetate 
surely and quickly, they require to be soaked 
a long time in warm water—usually three, 
four or five days, but always until they are 
very much swollen, and partially sprouted. The 
water should be kept warm all the time. 
The nursery should be located with care. It 
should be a rich sandy loam. If you have 
none such—prepare the best spot you have, by 
deep and thorough cultivation, mixed with well- 
rotted manure, if not otherwise rich enough— 
making the drills about a foot apart, and before 
dropping the seed send to the woods and get 
some of the richest and sandiest mold you can 
procure—drop the seed, and cover with the 
woods mold an inch and a half deep. If the 
seed are well soaked—the ground clear and 
strong, they will make their appearance before 
the weeds and grass will interfere with them. 
So soon as they are well up, the greatest care 
will be necessary to avoid the labor of hoeing 
and weeding, which can only be done by mulch¬ 
ing well with leaves, cut straw, saw-dust, or 
tan bark. I name the mulching materials in the 
rotation I think they answer best. The whole 
nursery should be covered, except only the 
plants; and put on thick enough to prevent the 
grass and weeds from appearing; by doing so 
all further labor will be avoided. 
They are better not to be planted too early in 
the spring—the middle of Ma}' is soon enough. 
The next spring they are ready for setting in 
the hedge—the ground for which should have 
been well prepared the previous fall, by sub-soil¬ 
ing, and manuring if necessary, and again in 
the very early Spring plowed and harrowed and 
rolled repeatedly till completely pulverized— 
then drive the stakes—lay the line, and spade 
the trenches. More care is necessary in talcivg 
up plants to insure their growth, than is usually 
observed; and more with this, as it is desirable 
that every one should grow. The tops may be 
cut otf to six inches and the roots pruned pro¬ 
portionally'. Set the plants in a double row, 
six inches apart, diagonally—thus***,** a foot 
apart in each row, making them equal to six 
inches in a row. As soon as planted, mulch 
deeply with leaves, straw, saw dust, or tan 
bark, and they will want no further attention 
until the next spring, at which time, the prun¬ 
ing commences, and you begin by cutting all off 
within an inch of the ground—in the middle of 
June cut all the tops again to within four 
inches of the former cutting—the next Spring 
cut to within five inches of the preceding, and 
again the middle of June to within six inches, 
and so continue cutting each Spring and June, 
increasing the distance an inch each time, till 
the hedge is high enough. By this means you 
thicken the hedge perfectly all the way up, and 
when grown it will require the less pruning 
from there being no large stalks. By pruning 
the tops only while growing, the side branches 
become the stronger; they can afterwards be 
pruned and thickened, till it may be made im¬ 
penetrable to a bird. The mulching may re¬ 
quire some renewing the second year, but after¬ 
wards the shade of the hedge will prevent the 
interference of the grass and weeds. 
The plants should never be set further apart 
than I have recommended above—particularly 
in strong soil, as the further apart they are set 
the stronger they will grow, and create so much 
more pruning after the hedge is grown, or other¬ 
wise be objectionably high. Neither will the 
roots extend so far when closely set. 
The hedge should be fully protected from 
stock for the first two years. Moles often bur¬ 
row under the hedge, destroying the roots—to 
remedy this, make the ground “ dishing” where 
the plants are set two or three inches lower 
than the sides, which is found effectual, and the 
plants flourish better. 
The pruning may be made a comparatively 
small job, using a strong knife for the purpose, 
about two feet long. A co nmon grass-hook 
answers pretty well, and some labor may be 
avoided by pruning in the fall, before the wood 
becomes hard, in place of the spring. The 
plant bears it so well that there is no danger. 
The “plashing,” “plaiting,” or “ interlacing,” 
when rightly done, may make a perfect fence, 
and quite ornamental — particularly while 
young—but it is expensive; and for common 
purposes, I would not recommend it further 
than to stop a gap. 
I am persuaded that the plant may be used 
much farther north than has been admitted. 
For the first two or three years the limbs will 
be severely nipped by the frost, but not to the 
injury of the fence.— William Neff, in Western 
Horticultural Review. 
-«-- 
A BAD SHEEP SPECULATION. 
One of our subscribers in Knox county says 
he wishes to put a stop to the fraud of Eastern 
sheep pedlers, as he has been badly bitten in a 
trade. Now, we can wash our hands of all 
blame in this matter of sheep speculation, as we 
have given pretty liberal advice to farmers, and 
if after all that has been said, they will listen to 
the plausible tales of foreign adventurers in¬ 
stead of their best friends at home, why they 
ought not to grumble if they do bleed a little. 
Our correspondent says: 
“ I was persuaded to buy one they call 
half French and half Spanish. He was a nice 
looking sheep, 15 months old. The man said 
such sheep were worth $150, and had sold for 
$200. We paid $54 on the 5th day of July, 
sheared the sheep on the 8th. His fleece weigh¬ 
ed 16£ lbs. unwashed—we thought he was 
cheap. My wife looked at the wool and said it 
felt soft and fine, and she would have it for 
stocking yarn ; she washed out the oil, tar, snuff, 
blacking, &c., and then it weighed 4f lbs., and 
the wool was so course she said she would not 
have it for stockings! and I presume we will, 
have to send it back to old Vermont to be sold.” 
—P. W. S., in Country Gentleman. 
-♦ * •- 
Another Dietetic Discovery. — Nichols's 
Journal has commenced a war of extermination 
against frying-pans, spiders, and all other “ cast 
iron abominations for making food unwhole¬ 
some.” The doctor says that every thing cooked 
by this method is saturated with fat or butter, 
; e idered tough, covered with empyreum oil, and 
made as unfit as possible for the human stomach. 
No dyspeptic should ever eat any thing fried, 
and no one should ever do so who would avoid 
becoming a dyspeptic. Food should be boiled, or 
roasted, or baked even—any thing but fried, the 
latter destroying whatever good qualities the 
meat may possess, and exaggerating all its bad¬ 
ness. Beware of the frying-pan ! 
--m - 
For the American Agriculturist. 
IN-AND-IN BREfcDING. 
Many have been the epithets heaped upon, 
long and loud have been the denunciations of 
the system of in-and-in breeding as it is called. 
Yet after all that has been said against the 
system, I believe it to be a judicious one, for the 
following reasons. It gives the breeder a chance 
to perpetuate any good points he may wish. 
Second; He becomes better acquainted with the 
peculiar habits of his animals the longer he 
keeps them, and therefore is better qualified to 
rear that breed in perfection. 
I would not condemn a judicious crossing be¬ 
tween good animals, but this haphazard sys¬ 
tem, so prevalent at the present time, is what I 
aim at. Like produces like, is an old adage, and 
in general a true one. In most cases our native 
breeds have no time to develop themselves be¬ 
fore they are crossed and recrossed until they 
become entirely run out. 
The butchers may offer a good price for a su¬ 
perior animal, but it is bad policy to sell the best 
and breed from the poorest. This has been 
practised to a great extent in these parts, espe¬ 
cially with sheep, and then the cry is, in-and-in 
breeding has ruined my sheep, when the facts 
were it was the butcher’s cart that did the busi¬ 
ness. There is just as much common sense in- 
selecting the smallest of our corn for seed, as the 
smallest of our animals to breed from. 
S. Tenney. 
West Poland, Andg. Co., Md. 
■ - * • • - 
ON NOVEL EXPERIMENTS. 
Now that poultry keeping is not considered 
solely an employment befitting poor old women, 
but high and low, the aristocracy and the mo- 
bocraoy, rich and poor are all sensibly engaged 
in proving poultry keeping to be an occupation 
befitting all ranks, we may hope to see some of 
our savants condescending to promote science, 
and to clear away theoretical impossibilities by 
a series of experiments. 
Many of your readers may have seen the re¬ 
sult of some experiments tr ied by a Frenchman 
to prove that by feeding insects on certain 
plants that they would imbibe the juices of 
the plants, and thus incorporate certain dyes. 
Mr. Wallace, the writer of a tour up the great 
Amazon river, narrates the mode the natives 
treat birds to obtain feathers of peculiar colors; 
he says that the Indians rear numbers of tame 
parrots whose natural plumage is green or blue; 
that they pull out certain feathers and inoculate 
the flesh wound with the secretion from the 
skin of a toad or frog; when the feathers grow' 
again, they are of a brilliant yellow or orange 
color, without any mixture of the original green 
or blue, as in the natural state of the bird ; and 
on the new plumage being again plucked out, 
it is said to come of the same color without any 
fresh operation. What a field for novel experi¬ 
ments? What’s to prevent our shows being 
graced with bright blue or crimson feathered 
birds, if we can only find out the proper pro¬ 
cess? Buff'has been all the go, why not blue, 
red, or green ?—the latter eoler may be objec¬ 
tionable to some, reminding them too strongly 
of verdant transactions—besides what a useful 
way of marking birds it would be. IVe have 
the blue room, the green room, and other color- 
denominated rooms in our houses, why not 
have the blue hatch, the green hatch, &c., &c. ? 
Joking apart, I think there is a fair scope for 
experiments without cruelty; drawing a wing- 
feather and inoculating its wound—but with 
what? that’s the question. Pray, Mr. Editor, 
start the subject, and some one will perhaps 
solve it.— W. W, in Poultry Chronicle. 
