THE CULTIVATOR. 
May 
of weeds, and that their roots may be better prepared 
for ultimate removal to the hedge. They will be in 
the best state for use at three years old, though if grow¬ 
ing freely, they may answer well enough at two. When 
planted in the hedge, they should be cut over, within 
three or four inches of the ground, which will induce 
a fresher and thicker growth than if the whole top were 
allowed to remain. If a luxuriant growth is desired, it 
heed hardly be said that the ground before planting, 
should be deeply dug and enriched, and in every case, 
it will conduce to ecocomy in the ultimate object of 
having a fence, that the ground should be made as free 
as possible of the creeping rooted grasses. While the 
plants are unable to protect themselves, all weeds must 
be extirpated. 
Around my garden the hedge stands on the level sur¬ 
face. Elsewhere I have deviated slightly from this 
mode. The most common way of making a hedge in 
some parts of the old world, is by cutting a ditch with 
sloping sides, four feet wide at the surface, and eighteen 
inches deep, and forming the materials taken from the 
ditch, into a bank on one side of it, about haif way up 
the sloping face of which, the thorns are planted. A 
cross section of the work when finished would appear thus. 
This manner of construc¬ 
tion has several advanta¬ 
ges, but in our climate 
the atmosphere is too dry 
in summer, and the frost 
to severe in winter to ad¬ 
mit probably, of its adoption. In its stead, I have cut a 
ditch with sloping sides, of only eighteen inches deep. 
On one side, the turf is set up with its green surface 
towards the ditch, and beaten with the spade into a 
slope corresponding with the side of the ditch. The 
earth from the ditch is thrown in at the back of the 
turf previously to its being beaten, and made to slope 
gradually from it. The top of the turf is brought to a 
regular line, and the thorns are planted eight inches 
above the level of the bottom of the ditch, and thus the 
fence is made a little more formidable, while the ditch 
may serve for leading off the surface water from the cul¬ 
tivated space enclosed. 
A fence strong enough to resist cattle requires that 
each individual of the hedge have a stem of considera¬ 
ble thickness, and therefore the plants should not be 
placed nearer than a foot asunder. If planted nearer 
they stretch up weakly, and are apt to injure each other, 
the weak deteriorating the growth of the strong, and 
the strong killing the weak. Much pruning tends also 
to dwarf the stems, and should be avoided, because 
when the stems have attained sufficient size, the hedge 
can be reduced in height and width to what is desired. 
The most expeditious instrument for the purpose of 
pruning is a slightly curved knife, with a keen edge, 
about ten inches long and two broad, fixed by a hose, 
on a handle three feet long. In this operation, the only 
points necessary to attend to, are, that the upper branches 
shall not hang further out than the lower, and that the 
more vigorous plants shall not overtop those that grow 
beside them. In this way, when a hedge is pruned at the 
end of a season, its form will consist of a straight line on 
the top, and sides sloping inwards from the bottom to a 
point at the top. If the sides be left perpendicular 
even, the upper branches will injure those below them, 
and the hedge become thin at bottom. The conical 
form is besides more graceful in appearance—it is, in 
all trees, the style of nature. 
I do not pretend that my modes of procedure are the 
best, but I have great confidence in stating that in the 
C. crus galli , we possess a native tree admirably suited 
for making a fence. I have tried several of the other 
species of native thorns, none of which seem, in suita¬ 
bleness, deserving of comparison with it. The C. coc- 
cinea stands nearest to it in the requisite quality of 
thickness of the growth of its branches, and has a hand¬ 
some foliage. The C. punctata would make a beau¬ 
tiful hedge, grows very thick under cutting, and is 
very early in leaf, but it is deficient in strength and in 
spines. The formidable spines of the C. latifolia in¬ 
duced me to use it, in makin^ oneoartof the fence con¬ 
nected with my garden. Its tendency, however, to up¬ 
ward and tree like growth, in defiance of the knife, is so 
great, that I'have determined to substitute the Crus 
galli in its place. The latter has every requisite for a 
fence, and appears, in some respects, to surpass the 
Hawthorn even, in its most favorable localities. Its 
spines are longer, sharper, and more numerous than 
those of the Hawthorn; it has fully as great a tendency 
to a branchy style of growth: being a native, it is adapt¬ 
ed to the climate; and in addition to all these recom¬ 
mendations, its splendid foliage renders it in the high¬ 
est degree ornamental. I have reason to think too, that 
it is less liable than any other thorn to be bruised by 
cattle, a matter, if true, of great importance while a 
hedge is young. The branches of the two fine speci¬ 
mens mentioned above, hang down in a thick mas3 to 
the ground, though in a situation to which cattle have 
at all times had free access. The only objection to its 
use is the resistance of its seeds to vegetation. It wouid 
be needless to speculate on what artificial means might 
be tried to bring it to germinate in a shorter time and 
with more certainty. I shall only add that the ground 
in which, in my experiment, the seed was sown, proved 
too tenacious. Though the weeds were kept down 
with the Dutch hoe, it became unfavorably compact. 
Were I to make another attempt of a similar kind, I 
should sow in drills in a bed of vegetable mould of the 
loosest description, and then, in time, a full crop might 
be depended on, which, as it rose, could be transplant¬ 
ed in the autumn without disinterring what seed had 
still to spring. John Rankin. 
Canandaigua , March 14, 1846. 
KITCHEN CHEMISTRY.—No. II. 
HEAT. 
Principles .—The heat of bodies may be affected in 
various ways, among which are, by conduction, by ra¬ 
diation, and by the conversion of solids into liquids and 
liquids into vapors. 1. The conduction of heat through 
bodies is familiar to most persons. If a short rod of 
iron be held in the fire, the heat passes along it, until 
the whole is gradually more or less heated. But if a 
rod of wood or earthen ware is similarly placed, it be¬ 
comes warmed through its length in a very small de¬ 
gree. Hence, iron is a good conductor, and wood and 
earth, bad. Iron feels colder on a cold day, than wood, 
by conducting the heat more rapidly from the hand, 
though the actual temperature of the two substances 
may be the same. Hence the reason that red hot iron 
burns more evenly than burning charcoal. 
2. Air is a very bad conductor, yet on standing be¬ 
fore a fire, heat is felt at a considerable distance, being 
thrown out in straight lines from the fire by radiation — 
in the same way that rays of light are radiated in straight 
lines from a candle. 
3. If a small vessel be filled with snow on a very 
cold morning, say at 10 degrees Fah., the immersion of 
the thermometer in the snow will show that tempera¬ 
ture. Apply the heat of a lamp to the vessel, and the 
thermometer will rise as the snow becomes warmer, 
till it gets up to 32 degrees, (the freezing point,) when 
it will remain perfectly stationary till all the snow is 
melted. It is found that the time thus required to melt 
the snow, would have heated an equal weight of water 
up to 172 degrees, or 140 degrees above freezing. 
That amount of heat has therefore disappeared or be¬ 
come latent to melt the snow. Continue the heat of 
the lamp, and the thermometer will rise till it reaches 
212 degrees, when the water will boil; it then remains 
stationary till all the water has boiled away. It has 
been found that the time required to evaporate all the 
water would have heated it to 1212 degrees, or that 
1000 degrees of heat has disappeared or become latent 
to convert the water into steam. The heat required for 
liquefaction, is also shown by mixing an equal weight 
of snow at 32 degrees, and water at 172 degrees; the 
snow all melts, but the resulting liquid is only 32 de- 
| grees.. the 140 degrees of the hot water having gone to 
! melt the snow. A vessel of water in freezing, is con- 
Fig. 40. 
