A dictionary of modern gardening - University Library

H E D 2S8 HED
not been clipped. Very high hedges are
both troublesome and expensive to cut.
The clipping is sometimes performed
by the assistance of a high machine,
scaffolding or stage, twenty or thirty
feet high or more, having platforms at
different heights for the men to stand
upon, the whole made to move along
upon wheels ; it is composed of four
long poles for uprights, well framed
together, eight or ten feet wide at bottom,
narrowing gradually to four or
five at top, having a platform or stage
at every seven or eight feet high, and
one at the top of all; and upon these
the man stands to work, each platform
having a rail waist high to keep the
man from falling ; and a sort of a ladder
formed on one side for the man to
ascend, and at bottom four low wheels
to move it along ; upon this machine a
man may be employed on each stage
or platform, trimming the hedge with
shears, and sometimes with a garden
hedge bill fixed on a handle five or six
feet long, which is more expeditious,
though it will not make so neat work
as cutting with shears.
A hedge is not only an imperfect
screen, but in other respects is worse
than useless, since nothing can be
trained to it, and its roots exhaust the
soil in their neighborhood very considerably;
as the south fence of a garden
it may be employed, and hawthorn
is perhaps the worst shrub that could
be made use of. It is the nursery of
the same aphides, beetles, and caterpillars,
that feed upon the foliage of
the apple and pear, from whence they
spread to the trees nearest the hedge,
and finally overrun the whole garden ;
evergreen are better than deciduous
hedges, and more especially the holly,
which is not so slow a grower as is
generally imagined.
In a cloudy day in April or May, the
wind seems to be actually refrigerated
in passing through a thick hawthorn
hedge, and this may be accounted for
on the same principle that cool air is
obtained in the houses of India, by
sprinkling branches of trees with water
in their verandas. Holly, laurel, and
most evergreens, exhale but little moisture
from their leaves, except for about
a month in June, consequently in April
and May, when we most require warmth,
and in September and October, the
leaves of these, when fully exposed to
the sun become heated to the touch to
85° or 90"^. Added to this, hoar frost
or a deposition of moisture of any kind
never attaches so readily or remains
for so long a time upon the foliage of
evergreens as upon the sprays of deciduous
shrubs, consequently the refrigeratory
power is greatly diminished.
When the garden is of considerable
extent, three or four acres and upwards,
it admits of cross-walls or
fences for an increase of training surface
and additional shelter.
Hedges should always be clipped into
a conical form, as the diminution of the
branches towards the top increases their
developement at the bottom.
Furze makes one of the best and
handsomest of hedges, if kept regularly
clipped. Upon the formation of such a
hedge, we have the following remarks
by Mr. McI. of Hillsborough :
—
" The most ancient and perhaps the
most simple of all fences are walls
made of turf. These walls, however,
are much injured by the atmosphere,
and the rubbing and butting of the cattle.
To guard against this they should
be planted or sown with the Ulex Europaus
or Furze. The roots of this plant
will soon penetrate the turf, and tend
to bind the wall. The plants not only
afford shelter as well as food for the
cattle, but add to the height of the wall
and give it a formidable appearance.
When walls are made for this, the
foundation should be three feet wide,
and tapering to fifteen inches at top.
As the plants advance in growth, they
should be regularly trimmed with the
shears ;
by proper attention to this they
will be prevented from growing too tall
and thin at the bottom. If this is annually
repeated, the plants will be
longer preserved in a healthy and vigorous
state; clipping has also a good
effect in checking the furze from spreading
over the field. A good and substantial
fence may thus be quickly formed
over on a soil that will not produce a
biding fence of any other kind.
" Sweet Briar (Rosa Rubiginosa)
makes a good hedge. Its heps may be
sown in the autumn, as soon as ripe,
or, which is better, in the month of
March, having kept them in the mean
time mixed with sand. But it is far
more convenient to buy for sweet briar
layeryoung plants from the nurserymen,
and to plant them a foot apart early in