68 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Feb. 
should prefer the Buckthorn. Our reasons for the 
preference are its hardiness, its comparative exemp- 
tian from disease, and from the attacks of insects, 
its rapid growth, and the general facility with which 
it may be made to answer the purpose of an effi¬ 
cient fence. 
In our last number, we mentioned the Buckthorn 
hedges of E. Hersey Derby, Esq., of Salem, Mass. 
We think we have never seen more perfect hedges 
than these, and it may be interesting to the reader 
to learn something of Mr. D.’s mode of managing 
them. 
In the Transactions of the Essex (Mass.) Agri¬ 
cultural Society for 1842, there is a paper on the 
cultivation of live-fences by Mr. Derby, for which 
the society awarded him the first prize offered on 
that subject. Mr. D. stated that it was then more 
than forty (now fifty) years since he commenced the 
trial of live-fences. His first trials were with the 
English Hawthorn, the Honey Locust, and the Crab 
Apple, all of which failed. In 1809 he made his 
first trial of the Buckthorn, in a hedge about twen¬ 
ty rods long, which has remained till the present 
time, not a single plant having failed from it, nor 
has it ever been known to be attacked by any in¬ 
sect. He has at various periods set out more Buck¬ 
thorns, till he has now nearly 200 rods of them, 
forming a perfect fence. He says— 
I do not hesitate to pronounce the Buckthorn the most suitable 
plant for hedges that I have ever met with. It vegetates early in the 
8 pring, and retains its verdure late in autumn 5 I have often seen it 
green after the snows had fallen; it is never injured by our most in¬ 
tense cold, and its vitality is so great that it may be kept out of the 
ground a long time, or transported any distance without injury. It 
never sends up any suckers, nor is disfigured by any dead wood ; it 
can be clipped into any shape which the caprice or ingenuity of the 
gardener may devise ; and being pliable, it may be trained into an 
arch, or over a passage way as easily as a vine ; it needs no plashing 
or interlacing, the natural growth of the plant being sufficiently in¬ 
terwoven. It is never cankered by unskillful clipping-; but will bear 
the knife to any degree. 
Mr. D.’s mode of cultivation is as follows: 
My method of forming a hedge is to set the young plants in a sin¬ 
gle row, about nine inches apart, either in the spring or autumn; if 
the latter, I should clip it the following spring to within six inches of 
the ground; this will cause the hedge to be thick at the bottom, 
which I regard as a great point of excellence; after this, all that re¬ 
mains to be done is to keep it clean from w T eeds, and clip it once a 
ear. I consider June the best time to trim, as it soonest recovers its 
eauty at that season. The clipping may be done with the garden 
shears, a hedge-knife, or even with a common scythe. 
Buckthorn plants, of proper size for transplant¬ 
ing into hedge-rows, may be had in abundance at 
most of our nurseries. The price for two-year-old 
plants is usually about $5 per thousand. They may 
be easily raised from seed, which may be had of the 
various seed-dealers at $1.25 per quart. It is usu¬ 
ally planted in the fall, and most of the plants will 
make their appearance the next season, though some 
of the seed may lie in the ground till the second sea¬ 
son before it vegetates. They may be planted on 
good land in the same manner as peas are planted, 
and the plants kept free from weeds until they are 
of sufficient size to put in the hedge-row, which size 
they will reach in one year, on rich land, and in two 
years on ordinary soil. 
The preparation of the soil for the hedge plants, 
may be similar to that required for a crop of Indian 
corn, and as above remarked, all that is necessary is 
to keep the weeds and grass from growing near 
them. If the ground is wet, it has been found be¬ 
neficial to dig trenches, two feet deep, and half fill 
them with small stones or coarse gravel, the natural 
soil being laid on the top, forming a slight ridge. 
Fig. 2.—Planting Hedges. 
This has been practiced with success on the level and 
somewhat wet lands of parts of Seneca county, in- 
this state, as noticed in our volume for 1847, page 
257. 
The accompanying cut (fig. 2,) represents the 
manner of planting hedges. The details of plant¬ 
ing are well described by Mr. Downing, in the first 
volume of the Horticulturist . He thinks the spring 
is the best time for planting, in the northern states, 
the autumn in southern. The soil having been pro¬ 
perly prepared, by pulverization, &c., he says— 
The plants are now to be made ready. This is done in the first 
place, by assorting them into two parcels—those of large and those. 
of small size. Lay aside the smaller ones for the richest part of your 
ground and plant the larger ones on the poorest of the soil. This 
will prevent that inequality which there would be in the hedge if 
strong and weak plants were mixed together, and it will equalize the 
growth of the whole plantation by dividing the advantages. 
The plants should then be trimmed. This is speedily done by cut¬ 
ting down the top or stem, to within about an inch of what was the 
ground line ) so that it will, when planted again, have but an inch of 
