SECTION III.

HEDGES AND FENCES OF VARIOUS KINDS; REARING

QUICKSETS, TREE-GUARDS, ETC.

Ir is an established practice in this country for the owner of a wood to maintain a substantial fence or hedge round the same, with a ditch on the outside, so that surveyors, in measuring a wood, include this ditch in computing the contents; an allowance of four feet being made from the stake or centre of the fence for the width of the ditch, and the outside of the ditch in the actual boundary-line shown on the plan. This practice has reason and fairness on its side, for in felling timber the hedge is liable to be broken and injured; and it would be clearly unjust to call upon the occupiers of the adjoining land to make good such damage; at the same time the wood affords the requisite materials for repairs. For inclosing woods, perhaps, the hawthorn fence is preferable to all others; or hawthorn, blackthorn, crab, and holly mixed. The ditch outside should be well cleansed from time to time, and the bank and hedge kept in proper repair by the old method of plashing, and using stakes and binders. For inclosing ornamental plantations, and such as form part of the home grounds, the holly makes the handsomest and

most enduring hedge. The slowness of its growth forms one of the objections urged against it; but, with proper management, this may, in a great measure, be overcome. The perpetual verdure, and the shelter that holly hedges afford, are great recommendations for its use, and by cutting and trimming the sides, they may be raised to any height, and in a few years will become not only handsomer, but not less permanent and impassable barriers than stone walls. The holly thrives well on almost any soil; "but thin-soiled heights seem to be its natural situation." It may be planted for hedge-rows, mixed with thorn, yew, or other plants, with success. The clipping of holly fences should be performed in the summer. The best plants for forming hedge-rows are those which have been twice transplanted, and four years old, before they are taken from the nursery; and properly prepared by having their downward roots cut at the time of their second planting. The plants may be placed in the hedge-row about two feet apart, being removed with a ball of earth, which will naturally adhere to the roots: the removal should take place in the summer, and they should be planted at the same depth that they stood in the nursery. The roots should be kept clear of weeds for a few years, and the hedge clipped annually, cutting the top to a uniform level; they may be made to take any form, according to the fancy of the operator. Until the hedge is eight or nine years old, it should be protected from the injuries of cattle, by driving strong

stakes into the ground, and straining four or five lines of thick iron wire through holes made in them, strong posts being fixed at intervals for securing the wires: rakingprops may be fixed at intervals to prevent the stakes from leaning out of the upright position. Fences formed in this way will require very small or no ditches, and therefore take up little room. The plants should be watered once or twice on removal, and afterwards, if they seem to require it. The varieties of the holly are numerous, and when they are planted in shrubberies, a pleasing effect may be produced by planting the different kinds in irregular order,-as those which bear golden-coloured berries amongst others which bear red. Perhaps the best form that can be given to hedges of all kinds is that called the Scotch, being triangular in section, with the sides slightly swelling out. The figure No. 2 represents the section of such a hedge. It possesses the advantage of casting little shadow, compared to hedges with broad square heads, and will grow thick from the bottom upwards, while the squaretopped fences have a tendency to become thin in boughs at the bottom. Mr. Boutcher, in his treatise on Forest Trees, makes the following remarks:

Fig. 2.

"I cannot leave this subject without taking notice of, and warning against, the baneful practice of almost universally clipping our hedges thick, and broader at top than bottom. This, in my time, has

rendered of little benefit the greatest part of the fences within my knowledge, which, properly trained, would have been the highest ornament, aud most solid improvement our fields are capable of receiving. How a practice so glaringly opposite to nature, and even common sense, should be adopted in a country devoted both to the study and practice of planting, is strange to imagine! But, unluckily, it requires no proof that such is the case. The under-parts of the hedges so trained, are quite deprived of the benefit of the rains and dews-these indispensable supports of their strength and verdure-and are in some degree smothered, from whence the weakest branches annually perish, till at last the bottom becomes quite naked, which no future care or industry can repair but by cutting them over, or at least reducing their height, and pruning them close to naked trunks. This, though a certain, is yet a tedious remedy; and to expose one's fields to their original cold and defenceless state, after for many years bestowing as much as, properly applied, would have made them continue beautiful and fencible for ages, must be a mortifying circumstance to any man; but, the shortness of life considered, doubly so to one advanced in years. Let it, then, be invariably observed from the first clipping till your hedges arrive at their intended height, that you make them gradually taper from the bottom, till they become quite sharp at the top, in form of a razor. This, too, is saving money, as the apparatus of standing-ladders, scaffolds, &c.,

necessary for cutting the tops of high hedges, becomes expensive, and, with the hands required constantly to move them, will cost much more than clipping both the sides, which can easily be performed, to the height of fifteen feet, by a man standing on the ground, with the assistance of spring-shears."

For sheltering paddocks, nurseries, and gardens, from the severities of the winter season, hedges formed of hornbeam will be found excellent; by keeping the sides trimmed, it may be raised almost to any height. It is thickly set with leaves, which it retains, although withered, nearly all the winter. It will grow on the coldest hills and the most barren ground, and is, therefore, valuable for sheltering trees of a more delicate nature. Hares and rabbits are fond of the tree; but it is said that deer will not touch it. Being of quick growth, and not liable to injury from the winds, it is well fitted to be planted in exposed situations. In appearance it closely resembles the beech, and grows to a height sufficient to class it with the trees of middle rank.

The aquatic tribes do not furnish us with many kinds suitable for hedge-making; but in low, marshy situations, the alder, black poplar, dogwood, elder, and birch, mixed with sallow and willows of different kinds, and, properly managed, will form strong fences, particularly if planted on a bank thrown up from trenches or ditches on both sides, and periodically cut, staked, and bound like hawthorn fences.