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ROCHESTER, N.Y.-FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1859. 
1 WHOLE NO. 519, 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
climb a hedge ■with such a ditch between it and them. 
Could not a similar plan be adopted here with advan¬ 
tage?—H., Onondaga Co., If. Y., 1S50. 
Hedges in England are generally grown as our 
correspondent supposes, with a ditch on the out¬ 
side, particularly on wet or stiff land. The form 
of the ditch may be easily seen by the engraving 
below. 
English White Thom, about forty rods in length, 
and gave it the same treatment as the former one, 
and the land is the same, and for the first five 
years it grew as fine as any hedge could do, but 
soon after the borers attacked it—and now nearly 
one-fourth of the plants are killed by that insect; 
in some places for three or four yards, every plant 
is dead, and although the hedge of Newcastle 
Thorn is along side of it, the borer as yet has not 
attacked a plant. 
I planted a hedge some fourteen years since, of 
White Thorn , Beech and Privet, alternately, and 
for a number of years i'. was admired by every one 
that saw it, but the last five or six years the White 
Thorn is going to decay, and in a few years more 
there will not be a plant left; the borer, aphis and 
bark louse are doing their work. I have planted over 
eight thousand White Thom at different times the 
last fourteen years, and in no instance have they 
succeeded well after the first four or five years, and 
it cannot be said that I do not know how to treat 
them, as I had over twenty years’ experience in a 
country where the White Thorn was grown to per¬ 
fection, and our regular sales of that article was 
from two to three hundied thousand a year, and a 
small establishment at that. 
I have more success with the Privet as a hedge- 
plant than any other I have tried. I have over 
two hundred rods of Privet hedge, varying from 
ten to fourteen years, and in every instance it is 
healthy and a good fence, but it is scarcely formid¬ 
able enough for a farm, though it is fine for a nur¬ 
sery, garden or door yard. When I commenced 
this article I thought to have laid before your 
readers the utility of hedges, as .. d etection to our 
fruits, but will leave it to another time, as you like 
short articles. , j. c. 
Troy, ». Y., Nov., isoa. 'flfc • 
of Maple, (a dwarf kind,) the Hazel, the Box, the 
Holly, the Laurel, Ac., and in bleak situations the 
Black Thom and Sloe. The Horn Bean, too, is 
often used for the same purpose. The great variety 
of plants used for fences in England, may be 
termed legion. I cannot enumerate all, but the 
Hawthorn has the pre-eminence, and I think no 
other kind is used where strength and durability is 
required. 
There is a hedge in this township, an excellent 
type of the old hedges in England, composed of 
almost all the varieties of plants that will bush, 
with here and there a piece of dead wood thrust in 
to stop a gap. W. M. Beauchamp. 
Skaneateles, N. Y., 1S59. 
The old hedges of England are broad as described 
by our correspondent, and composed of a mixed 
mass of plants, in which the bramble is generally 
quite prominent. The Sloe and the Black Thorn 
is the same plant. As fast as these old hedges are 
grubbed up and new ones planted, the Hawthorn 
is always substituted. Still, there were many 
fine Hawthorn hedges planted long before 1820. 
In 1832 we saw magnificent Quick hedges; one in 
particular, eight feet in height, and as true as a 
wall, which the proprietor informed us had been 
planted thirty years. Coal, doubtless, will come 
into more general use, a3 the facilities for trans¬ 
portation increase, but we could not but rejoice at 
the ease with which the English laboring poor in 
the country provided themselves with their win¬ 
ter’s fuel. A few days labor of the father, early in 
the fall, added to what the boys and girls could do 
during the summer, and half a day with “ mas¬ 
ter's ’orse and cart,” and abundance of fuel is pro¬ 
cured, to keep the family warm and comfortable 
during the coldest winter. Turf and cow-dung, in 
abundance, with a choice log procured and care¬ 
fully saved for a “ ChrCsimas Log, ” is alt that, the 
laborer desires, and is no mean fuel. 
experience light will be evolved that will direct us 
in the sure path to success. 
The first lesson we have to learn, is to cease to 
be in a hurry—to be willing to wait four or five 
years while a hedge is making, perhaps, two or 
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inaisaoni 
i^-VJLuu. 
1S5' - A11 communications, and business letters, should be 
addressed to D. D. T. MOORE, Rochester, N. Y. 
For Terms and other particulars, see last page. 
ENGLISH PLAN OP GROWING HEDGE, WITH DITCH. 
These ditches, when kept in order, make excel¬ 
lent water-courses, and are often used to carry the 
waste water from the field drains, while they keep 
the road dry at all seasons. With such ditches, 
too, it is difficult for stray cattle in the road to 
approach the hedge, and, therefore, in a field not 
used for pasturage, a hedge fence may be left unpro¬ 
tected when quite young. It has been contended 
that the system of ditching would not answer 
for this country, on account of our hot, dry sum¬ 
mers ; that the plants would suffer from drouth on 
account of the drainage of the water, and the extra 
surface exposed. We would, however, like to 
have the experiment fully and fairly tried. We 
have seen the Osage Orange hedge suffering from 
excessive moisture in the spring, where we were 
satisfied ditching, according to the Englisn plan, 
would be of the greatest advantage. 
SPECIMEN OF A WELL-GROWN HEDGE. 
three feet in height, and while we are securing a 
good, permanent, thick base, which is the founda¬ 
tion of every good hedge. The engraving above 
shows a good hedge, with a base that a hedge- 
grower might be proud of. 
GEO WING TIMOTHY SEED ON THE PRAIRIE 
Eds. Rural New-Yorkep. This is a great, 
increasing, and remunerative branch of Western 
agriculture. As yet no such weeds are known 
here as mar the meadows and pasture lands of 
Eastern hillsides. The soil is well adapted to the 
growth of Timothy, and it is cheaply and easily 
harvested with a two-horse reaper and threshed 
with a machine. Mr. B. grew, the past season, 
six hundred bushels on SO acres, which cost him, 
in harvesting, but fourteen dollars besides his 
labor. The product frequently reaches in cash 
value fifteen dollars 
readily seen that this is t — 
But, as at the East, only a few 
FARM HEDGES 
Wb do not know that there is anything to Greate 
a special interest at this time on the subject of 
hedges for fencing— no new plant that any one is 
anxious to sell at a high price — no new book that 
4Lo r -Li:a.. io »e ly wiriing to dis¬ 
pose of for the especial enlightenment of farmers 
— yet within the few past weeks we have received 
more articles and inquiries on the subject of 
hedging than for a year or two previous. Per¬ 
haps the growing scarcity of timber, its great cost, 
and the difficulty of procuring proper material in 
some localities, at almost aDy cost, has made the 
conviction pretty general this autumn, that some¬ 
thing must be done to provide a substitute, and 
the sooner the better. 
We have loDg considered this question one of 
importance, and have not failed to give the readers 
®f the Rural all the information possible on the 
subject. For many years we hoped that the Osage 
Orange would prove just the plant needed to make 
a good hedge, and that it would succeed in almost 
all sections of our country, nor do we yet des¬ 
pair. But, of late, we have heard repeated com¬ 
plaints of injury by severe winters, of hedges of 
several year’s growth, being nearly destroyed.— 
There may be some local causes for this, so we 
wait for further information, and we hope our 
readers at the West, where the winters are the most 
trying, will give us their experience. If the Osage 
Orange is too tender—if it suffers seriously one win¬ 
ter in ten, it is unfit for a hedge plant, and no more 
money or labor should be expended upon it-r-it 
must be abandoned. Then we are thrown back to 
where we w r ere twelve years ago, when the Osage 
Orange was first introduced, not having made the 
least progress, only to prove that another plant is 
unfit for a hedge. But, we hope better things, 
and while on this subject we will remark that 
many attempts at hedge growing, in fact most 
that we have seen, are only a farce, as much so as 
to go into an old meadow with a hoe, chop holes in 
the sod, plant corn, leave it and expect a crop. 
Sometimes, the planting is done pretty well, but 
after that the hedge receives no care or culture. 
We never knew an Osage Orange hedge to suffer 
in the winter that had been twice pruned the pre¬ 
vious summer, the last time the latter part of 
August. This late pruning checks growth, and 
causes the wood to ripen early. Perhaps an an¬ 
nual pruning in the latter part of summer would 
accomplish the same object. 
We hear nusch of the ease of making a hedge in 
the mild, moist climate of England, but we can as¬ 
sure our readers that with such care a3 we gene¬ 
rally give to our hedges, a good hedge could never 
be made in England. There the hedge is culti¬ 
vated more thoroughly than we cultivate our corn, 
while the pruning is regular and systematic, and 
such, at every stage, as experience has found the 
best. On this point we have the following inquiry, 
and our remarks, which were intended as merely in¬ 
troductory, have extended far beyond our original 
design. 
Hedges and Ditches.— If I understand the way in 
which the much talked of hedges of England,—which 
are regarded as models,—are planted, it is this: a ditch is 
dug three or four feet deep and two or three feet across 
on the outside or roadside of the hedge. Then the 
plants are set on a bank, part of the earth thrown out of 
the ditch being used in forming it. By this course a 
low hedge will answer, for cattle would find it hard to 
BEAUCHAMP’S DEFENCE OF THE HAWTHORN. 
Mr. Beauchamp, in the communication below, 
which we have been compelled to curtail a little, 
for want of room, it will be seen criticises a few 
remarks made by its upon a former communica¬ 
tion, and gives a very good description of English 
hedges. Mr. B. seems to think our failure with 
the Hawthorn is entirely on account of bad treat¬ 
ment. In this respect we are much at fault. 
Messrs. Editors:— Previous to 1820, very few 
hedges were newly planted in England for a period 
of twenty or more years. The plan was to allow 
them to grow for years, and then cut down and 
convert into firewood—the greater breadth the 
more substantial the fence. Hedges seldom occu¬ 
pied in those days less than ten feet in width, often 
twice that space. They were often composed of 
every imaginable shrub, Hawthorn, Black Thorn, 
Sloe, Sweet-briar, Dogs-rose, Honeysuckle, Hazel, 
Dog-wood, Alder, Willow, Dwarf Maple, Privet, 
Ac. This latter plant, at one time, was in great 
esteem, as considered of great service in obliterat¬ 
ing defects in the Hawthorn. After some years it 
HARDINESS OF THE OSAGE ORANGE. 
By the following, from a correspondent in Illi¬ 
nois, it will be seen that the Osage Orange is not 
yet a failure at the West. Late summer pruning, 
too, is practiced. This is of the utmost impor¬ 
tance, where the winters are severe, and cannot be 
too highly recommended. 
Messrs. Eds. Seeing an article in your paper 
of Oct. 29th from the pen of Wm. B. Rice in rela¬ 
tion to hedge-growing, in which he says, after six 
years experience, he found his hedge in a more 
hopeless condition than ever, and consequently 
concludes that the Osage plant for hedge purposes 
in that latitude is a hoax. W. M. Beauchamp, 
of Skaneateles, seems to coincide in that opinion. 
Being a lover of, and an advocate of the Osage 
hedge, I feel it my duty to add a mite of practical 
knowledge in its favor. I have had five years 
experience in cultivating the Osage plant, and 
have succeeded very well in forming a strong and 
beautiful barrier. I labored three years of the 
five under the same difficulty experienced by Mr. 
Rice, and came very near forming the same opin¬ 
ion of the plant, but I observed that the plant 
made such rapid progress and continued to grow 
so late in the fall it was very tender when cold 
weather set in, and, as a matter of course, could 
not withstand the winter, and I came to the con¬ 
clusion that the growth must be checked in advance 
of the cold weather to give the wood time to 
mature. This I tried, and it has proved effectual. 
I find the time to trim the Osage to be from the 25th 
August to the 15th of September. 
per acre. Hence it will be 
a remunerative crop. 
r crops are grown 
before the yield of grass becomes finer and the 
product of seed much less. 
To grow Timothy seed we prefer rather damp 
land, and should seed in the spring with wheat, 
barley, or oats, or the ground may be, and some¬ 
times is, cropped with corn and seeded after the 
crop is through being cultivated. We would not 
seed as thick for raising seed as for pasture or 
meadow, and think one peck of seed per acre a 
plenty. The roller has a good effect upon newly- 
seeded prairie, and facilitates the use of machin¬ 
ery afterward in harvesting. The first three crops 
after seeding usually pay well, and three years 
is long enough for land to lie in grass in a well- 
managed rotation. 
In view of the facts mentioned in this article, 
in regard to the purity of Western seed, we would 
recommend Eastern consumers to see to it that 
they buy prairie-grown seed—seed grown where 
we have never yet seen a daisy, nor a thistle or 
any weed which has proved itself noxious in 
Eastern meadows. 
Land on which Timothy seed is to be grown 
successfully, should not be cropped with wheat 
and oats too severely, or it may not catch well 
even when yet producing good crops. It is neces¬ 
sary to secure the crop before it has become fully 
ripened, as showers and heavy winds are liable 
to waste it by shelling. We have known instances 
where half of a large crop was thus beaten off in 
an hour. The proper time for securing is when 
the seeds in the top of the head have ripened_ 
binding in small bundles and setting up imme¬ 
diately after the reaper—it will perfect its seed as 
well as early cut wheat. We have seen seed 
grown among wheat at the East, and cut so green 
that nearly all the hull, or outside, was rubbed off 
in passing through the machine, leaving the naked 
flesh of the seed which grew well. There is no 
danger of injury to the seed, therefore, from this 
cause, although we would not cut as green as 
above spoken of. After it has stood for a little 
time in uncapped shocks, it should be secured, 
either by threshing or stacking, and carefully 
covering the top of the stack so water cannot get 
in to destroy it. Few departments of Western 
husbandry have proven more profitable than 
growing Timothy seed. j. s . 
Temperance Hill, Lee Co., Ill., 1859. 
BARBERRY FOR HEDGING. 
E. C. Frost, the well known nurseryman of 
Havana, Schuyler county, discards the old, and at 
least, partially tried plants, and recommends the 
Barhetu'y. All that our correspondent can say of 
its thick growth, its pretty yellow flowers, its 
lively foliage and its beautiful crimson berries, we 
cheerfully admit. With a very little pruning it 
will make a good thick bottom, and a fine screen; 
but we fear it will not prove sufficiently strong for 
an outside fence. 
Eds. Rural New-1 t orker : — This subject having 
been brought before the public in several of the 
late numbers of the Rural, I am induced to send 
you this. It is an important subject, as some 
material must be found for line fences or our 
whole system of farming must be changed, and 
soiling adopted in place of grazing. 
From observation and experience I have come 
to the conclusion that our farms will never be 
fenced with the Osage Orange or English Haw¬ 
thorn. I will recommend a plant, and risk the 
opinion that it will answer a good purpose. 
The Barberry (Herberts vulgaris) I believe is 
the best material yet grown in our latitude. In a 
good soil it grows from eight to ten feet high_ 
needs no trimming or training—forms, by its nat¬ 
ural growth, a dense, well-shaped hedge—is not 
injured by the mice or borers, as nothing will eat 
its bitter bark and wood—is not injured by the 
cold—is so thick and close at the bottom that 
neither pigs or cats can get through it—never 
sprouts except from the stool of the plant—and is 
armed with thorns large enough to prevent cattle 
from eating or injuring it. 
The surface of the hedge is uniform, and covered 
with leaves within eighteen inches of the ground, 
bears a fine yellow flower in May, and has red ber¬ 
ries, which, if not picked, remain during winter. 
The berries make fine tarts, jellies, pickles and 
candies, and when dried are a good substitute for 
tamarinds in cases of fever. I have a specimen 
which I believe will satisfy any that the above 
opinion is well founded, and invite any who feel 
sufficient interest on that subject, to inspect it. 
For an ornamental hedge, too, I can imagine' 
nothing superior. E. C. Frost. 
One clipping a 
year is sufficient under good cultivation. When 
the hedge is properly matured stock down to 
grass, and it will take care of itself with occasional 
trimming. I shall be pleased to have Wm. B. 
Rice and others try the experiment and report 
through the Rural. There is not the least doubt 
in my mind in regard to the Osage doing well in 
New York, with proper treatment. I spent over 
forty years of my life in that State, and have some 
little knowledge of the climate. 
Pern, Ill., Nov., 1859. 8. W. Woolby. 
THE NEWCASTLE THORN, HAWTHORN, &c. 
Here we give the experience of an old and skill¬ 
ful gardener with both the Neiocastle Thorn (Cock- 
spur,) and the Hawthorn. 
Eds. Rural New-Yorker: —There seems to be 
a difference of opinion about the English White 
Thorn, and with your permission I will give my 
experience in hedge growing. I have now under 
my care more than four hundred rods of hedges. 
Some are doing well, others not so well, and the 
White Thorn is becoming a total failure. In ihe 
spring of 1842,1 planted a hedge of two thousand 
plants of Newcastle Thorn, (recommended by the 
late Mr. Downing.) I have given it every atten¬ 
tion, not letting a weed interfere with its growth; 
it is pruned every year, and yet it is not what I 
would call a good hedge—not as good as hedges of 
seven or eight years’ growth, that I have seen in 
the old country. In 1847 I planted a hedge of 
EXPERIENCE WITH LIGHTNING RODS, 
Eds. Rural New-Yorker: — Several years 
before the advent of the Chinese sugar cane in 
this locality, a good many persons were seized 
with a mania for lightning rods. Disinterested 
gentlemen, with but slight pretensions to scientific 
knowledge, came along frequently to urge upon 
the attention of landlords the protection which 
they afforded to buildings, and, by your leave, sir, 
to put them on your dwellings, barns and out¬ 
houses at such price per foot! With a little 
