INCLOSURES 
121 
Bramble and sweetbriar commonly formed it here, tak¬ 
ing the place of the English hawthorn or quick, which 
never seems to have been much used, although both 
Washington and Jefferson purchased it in large quan¬ 
tity, and they and Penn refer to the hedges of it. Most 
effective barriers they made, too, the bramble especially 
being praised. This was the common wild blackberry, 
plentiful everywhere; and its great value lay in the fact 
that it shoots very freely from the roots, and the 
branches take root at their tips. Thus it increased 
and thickened very fast, each year furnishing much 
new wood, while the old fruiting branches, dying each 
year, added to the increasing tangle. Two or three 
years of this sort of thing, especially where a “dead 
hedge” of thorn had been set above the brambles when 
they were planted, for them to clamber through, may 
well be believed to insure an utterly impassable mass, 
which not even tiny creatures could work under or 
through, nor large ones tear down. 
Directions for setting such a hedge say that the 
plants should be put six inches apart, and all gaps 
which show the first year after planting, should be 
filled with more plants. Then the tips of the over¬ 
arching branches may be allowed to take root on either 
side, if greater width is desired; or they may be whipped 
off in August and thus “kept within bounds.” 
Gradually more land was fenced, as the population 
