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Wisconsin State agricultural society. 
I am aware that there is a prejudice in some portions of the 
state against the willow hedge, from the fact that some years since 
parties traveled over the state selling willow slips for hedges — 
that many were purchased and proved a failure. I am not pre¬ 
pared to say that the kind sold was the best of the numerous va¬ 
rieties of this hedge plant, but so far as my information and obser¬ 
vation extends, none of the parties purchasing and planting at 
that time have been especially benefitted. Some cases which 
came under my observation — and I doubt not it was so in nearly 
all trials — the land was not properly prepared, the slips planted 
in an imperfect and unintelligent manner, no care bestowed upon 
them by culture, cutting back, mulching or other proper treat¬ 
ment and attention; hence the result was anything but satisfac¬ 
tory. He who undertakes to grow a live fence must understand 
that the young plants must have proper care and protection, the 
same as corn or other products of the farm in their early stages of 
growth, or a partial or total failure is sure to follow the experi¬ 
ment. 
Honey Locust.—This hedge plant stands high in northern local¬ 
ities, many believing it to be one of, if not the most valuable 
plants for a live fence. In a prize essay on the honey locust, the 
writer states its merits as follows : 
“ I am convinced by experience and observation that for a hedge plant suit - 
able to the requirements of a northern latitude there is none superior to the 
honey locust. The following are a few of its superior qualities: 
“1. That it will stand the severest Winters uninjured. 2. There is no 
hedge plant that will grow and make a hedge in so short a time. 3. When 
it once becomes a fence it will with little care remain so, not like some 
plants, in which, when constantly pruned, the lower branches die out, anti 
thus make an ineffectual hedge. Some may imagine it to be only the com¬ 
mon locust growing here as an ornamental tree. It belongs, in fact, to a 
family of plants which do not sprout and upon which the borer never works. 
The red bud and Kentucky coffee tree belong to the same order as the so- 
called honey locust. There is a honey locust hedge at Elizabethtown, Kew 
Jersey, over forty years old. It is one mile in length and has always been 
tight and strong, and it is at this time known to be the best hedge on the 
continent. The hedges of J. L. Budd, of Benton county, Iowa, some four 
miles in length, are also beautiful, 'symmetrical and a perfect protection 
against all farm stock. I mention these two instances because the one is in 
he rich prairies of the West and the other in the sterile soil of the East.” 
The importance of this live fence question should be apparent 
