HOUSE AND GARDEN 
266 
April, 1914 
Of the evergreen hedges, hemlock spruce is the first choice. It lends itself to precise 
lines and its feathery grace has no rival either in summer or winter 
not exceeding two feet, when the plants should be set eight inches 
apart, it makes, with its delicate, airy foliage, one of the most 
beautiful of hedges and sweet when in blossom. Its cost at this 
age and size of plants is so trifling, too, that only lack of knowl¬ 
edge concerning it, I am sure, prevents its being used more ex¬ 
tensively than any other species; for, from a cent and a half to 
two cents a plant, is surely the very minimum price one may expect 
to pay for anything. Nothing that 1 know of for the garden is 
any cheaper than this, save possibly seeds in their packets! 
Another thorny plant used to a considerable degree before wire 
fencing came into such general farm popularity is the buckthorn — 
not a native, though now growing wild to a limited degree through 
If one wants an uncropped evergreen hedge, arborvitae will grow up erect and trim of its own accord and, with its density 
and strength, it makes an admirable protective boundary 
“escapes" from cultivated plantings. This should be planted in 
the same way as the honey locust, and at the same size. 
The native black-cap, whose branches take root at their tips 
as soon as these touch the ground, is almost, if not quite, un¬ 
heard of as a hedge planting nowadays; yet some of the earliest 
defensive hedges planted on this continent were of it. The 
plants were set six inches apart in the old time, and the over¬ 
arching branches allowed to widen the hedge out by tip rooting, 
until it was as wide as desired. After this these branches were 
“whipped off" in August annually, to prevent further spreading. 
A better way, now that land is less available for wide hedges, 
is to direct the tip rooting by a little training, crossing the 
branches as they grow and confining all those allowed to take 
root to the plane of the hedge’s direction. The others should be 
cut away completely. This results hr a more definite surface, 
although, of course, by its very nature such a hedge is a tangled 
mass, with new growth interwoven around old dead canes until 
neither can be extricated from the other. This is exactly what 
is wanted; and as a protective hedge and a protective cover for 
birds it is unequaled. It is therefore a harrier of twofold value 
to the fruit or truck garden. 
The English hawthorn is not advisable here, being subject to a 
fungous disease which only constant spraying would keep in 
check; whereas constant spraying is hardly practicable, nor, in¬ 
deed, worth while, when wiser planting will make it unnecessary. 
Hedges of this large type and scale are hardly suited to the 
limits of a small place, however, and are consequently not ad¬ 
vised where land space is restricted. On an acre of ground they 
do not, perhaps, encroach too much, but on anything less I feel 
that a less arboreal species than the honey locust or buckthorn, 
and a less aggressive species than the blackcap, serves better. 
This is not altogether because of the ground space occupied, but 
partly because a large, broad hedge is generally out of scale with a 
division of land into units 
smaller than the acre. Outly¬ 
ing circumstances must he 
considered, however, as well 
as the place itself, in deciding 
on any planting that affects in 
appearance, or is affected bv 
these general outside condi¬ 
tions. 
No hedge in the world is 
more beautiful than one of 
beech, although the hornbeam 
is similar enough, perhaps, to 
have very strong claims. Both 
of these are trees also, but, as 
they lend themselves to very 
even, close shearing, they are 
not quite so impossible in re¬ 
stricted areas as the ones just 
mentioned. They should go 
into the ground fifteen inches 
apart when planted as a hedge, 
and plants two feet in height 
are the maximum that should 
be chosen for this sort of 
thing. 
One of the most interesting 
living barriers that I have 
ever seen I once found sur¬ 
rounding a tiny farm that was 
brought to its state of high 
productiveness by a humble 
immigrant, some time since 
