192 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Although the above rules are intended to apply particularly to paring 
and burning upon uplands, they are nevertheless generally applicable to 
peaty soils. 
HEDGES—OR LIVE FENCES. 
3. PREPARATION OF THE GROUND AND PLANTING. 
The ground on which it is desired to grow a hedge must be made dry, 
except when alders and birch are intended for hedge plants. In Great 
Britain, whose climate is humid and cool, it is the general practice to 
plant hawthorn hedges in the face of a ditch, the earth from which is 
thrown upon one side, and forms a bank. The plants are laid in a hori¬ 
zontal posture a little above the natural surface. In our comparatively 
warm and dry climate this mode of planting does not seem to prosper so 
well. The hedge is too sensitive to drought, and the plants sometimes 
lose their foliage, or cease to grow,.long before the arrival of autumn. 
They are besides more liable to injury,from the severe cold of winter, 
than when growing on a horizontal surface. We deem it the best mode 
to manure, and till the ground intended as the site of a hedge, with pota¬ 
toes, or other root crops, the year before it is planted, in order to render it 
rich, mellow and clean, that the plants may obtain a vigorous start in the 
outset. The hedge may be planted in either autumn or spring. The way 
to proceed in planting is, to draw a cord on the line designed to be plant¬ 
ed, and to open a trench with the spade, deep enough and broad enough 
freely to admit the roots of the plants, preserving a perpendicular side 
next to the cord. The plants being sorted into parcels of equal size, one 
person takes them, and beginning at one end, sets them at proper inter¬ 
vals into the trench, the heel of the plant to the perpendicular side, and 
another throws in earth to fix them in their position. Having gone through 
in this way, the plants are set up straight, the earth trod firm around them, 
and the trench filled up. The distance between the plants will depend 
upon their size and habits. If a double hedge is required, a second trench 
is made parallel with the first, at ten or twelve inches distance, or the first 
trench is made of this width, with two perpendicular sides, against which 
the two rows are planted, the plants in one being opposite the intervals 
in the other, otherwise in quincunx form. Weeds must be kept down by 
the hoe. 
4. MANAGEMENT OF THE HEDGE. 
The first requisite .to success, is a determination to persevere, in de¬ 
spite of the labor and care which are to be put in requisition. The hedge 
must be well taken care of for at least the three coming years, or all the 
preparatory labor will be lost. If it is not kept clean, the cattle prevented 
from injuring it, and not duly clipped, it were better not begun. Besides 
these labors, it is necessary, in order to have an efficient fence, to fill all 
vacancies occasioned by plants not growing the first year, or by such as 
are stunted in their growth, with new and vigorous ones, of which a stock 
should be kept in reserve for this purpose. The labor of doing all this is 
not great; but it is the novelty of the employment, and the want of a due 
consideration of its importance, that is apt to induce us to procrastinate 
and neglect it. The hedge should be twice cleaned in a season with the 
hoe, and clipped once in a season, as soon as it throws out laterals, or 
limbs, of any size. ... . , ...... 
There are various modes of training a hedge, according to the tancy ot 
the proprietor, or the nature of the hedge plant. Sometimes the sides are 
clipped perpendicularly, and the top flat and broad. At other times 
the plants are splashed, that is, cut partly off near the ground, and bent 
over and trained in a sloping direction; and at other times the tops are 
bent down and trained in a horizontal direction. This last mode we have 
practised with the honey locust, and it would serve well lor the elm.or 
white birch. The plants of the beech are trained alternately to the right 
and left, so as to form a close lattice work, and tied together where they 
cross, and where they ultimately become united and grow together. But 
the mode of training generally recommended and practised, particularly 
with the thorn, is to train them with a broad base, tapering to a point at 
top. To do this the clipping is commenced when the plants are small, 
and repeated every season, leaving a couple of inches of the new growth 
upon each side, and cutting off'no more of the main stem, until the hedge 
has attained a proper heighth, than is'r.ecessary to give strength and firm¬ 
ness to the fence. Managed in this way, when the hedge has attained the 
heighth of five feet, the base will be from three to four feet broad, with a 
gradual taper, on each side, to the crown. The clipping is generally per¬ 
formed in June, when the new growth is tender; and the operation is best 
performed with a bill hook, a figure and description of which were given 
in vol. ii, page 178, of the Cultivator. The young hedge must be either 
protected from cattle by a dead fence, or cattle must be kept from the 
enclosure when the plants are in leaf, and the branches tender. 
When a hedge becomes defective, either from stunted growth, or ne 
gleet in attending to it, it should be all cut down to within a few inches 
of the ground, in the fall or spring, and its formation in this way began 
anew. Gaps, occasioned b'y the death of plants, may be repaired by 
plashing, that is, bending into it the plants on the side, and these, or 
branches, may be layered in the space so as to take root. 
One of the most successful cultivators of live fence in the union, we be¬ 
lieve is Caleb Kirk, of the state of Delaware. He cultivates the Mary¬ 
land or Nevv-Castle thorn, and practices plashing. By the bye, the seeds 
of this thorn may be obtained in New-Castle, Del. at about a dollar a bu¬ 
shel, and the quicks at Wilmington and Philadelphia, at fivejflollars the 
thousand. 
But of Caleb Kirk. He wrote several valuable numbers on the econo¬ 
my and mode of rearing live fences, twenty-seven years ago, which were 
published in the American Farmer. From these numbers we collate the 
following opinions of Mr. K.—That the thorn is the best plant for a live 
fence;—that the New-Castle, with a thick green serrated or indented 
leaf, is the strongest, and that the Virginia parsley-leaved is the best, giv¬ 
ing the most spiouts when cut in orplashed;—that a walnut or cedar tree 
growing in the.vicinity of a hedge, is sure to cause decline, and ultimate 
death in the part near to it;—that a hedge should have full benefit of sun 
and air;—that a hedge requires but three feet in breadth, and should be 
kept down to five or six feet in heighth;—that the haws, or seed, should 
be separated from the shell, as practised by Mr. Main, and that if they are 
then suffered to dry, early germination may afterwards be induced by 
soaking them in warm water a few hours, and then exposing them to 
frost, before they are put into the ground. Mr. Kirk experimented con¬ 
siderably, before he settled his mind as to the best plan. We will here¬ 
after give his remarks on this subject entire, together with his drawings of 
his finished hedge, and a detailed estimate of its fair cost. 
HEDGE BILL HOOK—Fig. 49. 
Referred to in Mr. 
nication in our last 
Chiswell’s commu- 
publication. 
DOMESTIC FOWLS. 
The raising of Poultry , although, superficially viewed, of comparative 
insignificance, is a branch of rural economy w’hich may be made to con¬ 
tribute largely to the economy and comfort of a family, and not a little to 
the profits of the farm. Chickens and eggs—ducks, geese and turkies— 
may be classed among the innocent luxuries of life. They also always 
command a ready market, and a liberal price, in our cities and towns, to 
which may they be transported a great distance, at trifling expense, as their 
carriage is comparatively light. Eggs are now taken to our cities from a 
distance of one or two hundred miles, and poultry still further. Individu¬ 
als who have entered into the business systematically, for the purpose of 
supplying the market, have found it a source of substantial profit, particu¬ 
larly when located near large towns or navigable streams. The outlay is 
trifling—a little land and acheap structure for a poultry-house. The stock 
costs but little, and the attendance no great, as it can be principally given 
by the young or non-producing members of the family. To the farmer 
the cost is hardly any thing, but the extra food which is sometimes re¬ 
quired during the winter months. Poultry will live upon what they can 
pick up of the offal of the garden and farm, at other seasons; and if they 
have ; access to a well stocked barn and cattle yard, they will even get 
along in winter; but with these means they will seldom become fat. 
Grain, roots, fruit, &c. are required to make poultry fat, as much as they 
are to make other animals so;—the economy of the business lies in pro¬ 
curing cheap nutritious food, and in feeding it out judiciously, and in pro¬ 
viding proper shelter. 
The commerce in eggs, in Great Britain, is very great. Besides.those 
produced in Great Britain, the annual importations from France amount to 
55,000,000, from Germany and the Netherlands to 17,000,000 more, 
while the'importations of eggs from Ireland are stated to average 500/. 
(about $2,400) per day through the year. At the average price of ten 
cents a dozen, the importations from the continent amount to $600,000 a 
year. The average price in our cities and towns may be stated at fifteen 
to eighteen cents per dozen, and the amount annually paid by consumers, 
must exceed half a million of dollars per annum. At least an equal amount 
is consumed by those who raise the poultry; so that a million of dollars 
per annum is a low estimate for the value of the eggs annually consumed 
in our country. This gives an average of about six eggs to each individu¬ 
al of our population. So much for the consumption of eggs. As to the 
product of hens, and expense of keep, we will cite a case, which, although 
an extraordinary one, and above a fair average, will nevertheless serve to 
give some idea of the profits which may be made in the business. We 
quote from Mr. Mount. He received three pullets of the Poland breed, 
or top-knots., on the first of December, 1835, which had been hatched in 
June previous, and they commenced laying on the 15th December. The 
number of eggs which they laid between the first of December, 1835, and 
first December, 1836, was 524, or 174 and 175 each, and only one of them 
showed a desire to set. During the twelve months they consumed three 
bushels of barley, seventeen pounds of rice, and a small quantity of barley 
meal and peas, the cost of which, in England, amounted to 16#. lOd— $3.- 
71. The number of eggs being 524, there were thirty-one eggs produced 
for each shilling (24 cents) expended, assuming the weight of each egg to 
