354 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
returned when the pickle is quite cold, say after ten or strength. A small portion of the trees are not bent, but 
twelve hours. Tongues will require a month, a month |j remain upright, to stiffen the rest, and slender poles are 
at least, and are improved by the addition of an ounce of 
bay-salt added to the above. One clove of garlic, half 
an ounce of allspice, and as much whole pepper, boiled 
with the ingredients, much improves it.” 
HEDGES FOR AMERICA. 
A great difference of opinion exists in relation to hedges 
for this country. There have been some very successful 
attempts, and there have also been many failures. An 
examination into the causes of this difference of success, 
in actual experiments, will doubtless be of use, and enable 
us to judge whether hedges possess advantages over other 
kinds of fence in any case. We lately examined several 
specimens of successful hedge making. A part of them 
were made by John Robinson of Palmyra, N. Y., a vigo¬ 
rous and enterprising English farmer, whose experiments 
are of several years continuance. He has over a hundred 
rods of hedge in different stages of growth, the manage¬ 
ment or treatment of which appears to be particularly 
worthy of attention. 
The young thorns are set out in the hedge row at two 
years of age, after which they are cut off at the surface 
of the ground the first year, to cause a thick growth of 
sprouts ; they are again cut offthe second year, from four 
to six inches from the ground according to their height 
and vigor, which causes a second crop of thick sprouts 
at that height ; the third year they are cut off six or 
eight inches higher, and so on, rising about at that rate, 
until the hedge is five or six feet high. This mode of 
treatment, which is well known and often practiced in 
England, obviates the necessity of plashing , if it is suc¬ 
cessfully performed; the successive crops of thick sprouts 
thus occasioned, densly interlace each other, and the 
hedge becomes a thick mass of entangled shoots and 
branches, which cannot be separated. It is in fact pre¬ 
cisely similar to the process of felting, but on a larger 
scale; and when the best specimens thus grown, are for¬ 
cibly shaken at any point, whole rods on either side, are 
shaken with it as in one mass. This felting property 
thus becomes of more value by far, to the impregnability 
of the hedge, than the thorns. 
One hedge had received three different modes of treat¬ 
ment. A part had been imperfectly cultivated; another 
portion had been well cultivated for a distance of two 
feet on each side; and a third stood on ground which 
was trenched two feet deep before planting. The growth 
of the second was twice as great as the first, and of the 
trenched portion still greater. Indeed, one may as well 
think of raising corn by planting a row in a thick mead¬ 
ow, as to raise a good hedge without keeping the soil 
constantly mellow about the young trees. A space two 
feet wide on either side of the hedge is the distance usu¬ 
ally kept cultivated. 
From six to eight years are needed to make a good sub¬ 
stantial hedge, proof against cattle. 
These hedges were set on a bank about eighteen inches 
above the surface, with a ditch two feet deep serving to 
carry off surface water on one side. The plants are set six 
inches apart. If closer they do not grow so well. 
The greatest difficulty, which J. Robinson finds, is 
protecting the young hedge for several years, until it is 
proof against cattle. For although it may be placed along 
the side of a fence, next to crops, or meadow, yet in the 
course of rotation, it is thrown into pasture, and is thus 
endangeretl. A longer course of alternating crops, would 
be the remedy in usual cases. 
Hedges for plashing , are not subjected to the successive 
shortening down which has been just described ; but the 
young stems are suffered to grow until several feet high, 
and an inch or more in diameter when they are cut partly 
off near the ground, and bent over to an angle of forty 
five degrees in the direction of the line of the hedge. A 
thick growth of branches is not needed before this ope 
ration. All the large branches should be cut off at the 
time, but not closely. Young shoots afterwards ascend, 
and growing upright, form cross-bars with the main stems 
which have been bent over, and interlocking with them 
produce a sort of lattice work possessing ultimately great 
run along the top, alternating with them, to keep them 
to their place, until the whole is firmly established. 
These poles, being green and of perishable wood, cost 
little, and rot out when they are no longer needed. 
The selection of suitable trees for forming hedges, is 
of the very first importance. One great reason, without 
| any doubt, why so many have failed in their experiments, 
is bad selection, or a want of adaptation of certain species, 
to the climate where they were used. The English 
hawthorn has been found entirely unsuited to most parts 
of the United States. At Newburgh, according to A. J. 
Downing, (( its foilage becomes quite brown and unsightly 
after the first of August.” He also remarks that it is there 
extremely liable to the attacks of the borer. Further 
south, where the summersare longerand dryer, and conse¬ 
quently more dissimilar to those of England, it is of no 
value whatever. But in the cooler summers of western 
New-York, anti where perhaps the soil may exert also 
a favorable influence, it has continued to flourish in well- 
managed hedges for many years. All the hedges of 
John Robinson, already described, are of this species; a 
very vigorous hedge, on the grounds of John Baker of 
Macedon, N. Y., is of the same. We had supposed that 
moist, rich land would be better suited to this thorn than 
dry upland; but in the experiments of these intelligent 
farmers it has been found that good fertile upland is in¬ 
comparably better. 
The sudden failures, however, of this thorn, in some 
places further south, should induce its cautious use on a 
large scale, especially while American species have 
been found in most parts of the country so much supe¬ 
rior. The Washington thorn, ( Cratcegus cordata ,) is 
preferred by some, and possesses the advantage of the seeds 
vegetating freely the first year. But in Pennsylvania 
and Delaware, where both this and the Newcastle thorn 
( C . crus-galli ) have been extensively used for many 
years, the latter has in all cases been found so decidedly 
superior in hardiness, vigor and freshness of growth, to 
the former, as to give it eminently the preference. In¬ 
deed, the Newcastle thorn, appears to be the only Ameri¬ 
can species extensively tried, which has, in all cases 
whatever, proved to be entirely free from all disease or 
defect. It is not improbable, however, that the Wash¬ 
ington thorn may succeed finely so far north as northern 
or western New-York, where the English species is itself 
so much more successful than elsewhere. Its easy 
growth from seed, besides, renders it worthy of trial. 
There are other trees, doubtless, of value for this purpose. 
The Buckthorn has been found perfectly hardy and suc¬ 
cessful around Boston; and the poisonous character of 
its bark secures it from attacks of the mice. Its thorns 
are only the pointed ends of the branches, which are 
hardly sufficient to repel all kinds of intruders. Of its 
treatment by successive heading down, its felting quality, 
and its capability of plashing, we are not informed, as in 
nearly if not quite all the specimens we have seen, these 
operations were omitted. 
The expense of a well made hedge, until it is cattle 
proof, is about fifty cents per rod. Caleb Kirk, of Dela¬ 
ware, who was thorough and successful in his experi¬ 
ments, gave the following, as the cost of an excellent 
hedge thirteen years old: 
j 1000 quicks, cost from nursery,.... $5.00 
Planting, man and boy, each two days, ... 2.50 
Dressing, first year, with plow and hoe,.. 1.00 
Expenses first year,. —- $8.50 
Dressing for five successive years, plow 
and hoe,.. 5.00 
7th year, trenching with plow, and throw¬ 
ing up ditch, three days,.. 
500 stakes (for uprights,) cutting, and tim¬ 
ber, . 
Poles, (horizontal,) and cutting them, 
$3.75 
3.50 
2.00 
One hand 3 days, at plashing,. 3.00 
8th to 13th year inclusive, one day each 
year trimming and cleaning,. 
Expense 13 years, sixty rods,. 
12.25 
4.50 
$30.21 
