Hedges, windbreaks, shelters and live fences; a treatise on the planting, growth and management of hedge plants for country and suburban homes

Hedges

Windbreaks
Shelters

and

UVG Tences

A Treatise on the Planting, Growth and Management of
Hedge Plants for Country and Suburban Homes

C. P. POWELL

Ncwtorft
ORANGE JUDO COMPANY

1914

COPYRIGHT, 1900
BY ORANGE JUDD COMPANY

.

PRINTED IN U. S. A.

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the Farmers of America; the noblest
race of men God's sun ever shone upon ; a race headed by George
Washington and Thomas Jefferson ; a race that made the Republic,
and that has the future of American freedom and prosperity in its
keeping.

328411

Table of Contents

PAGE.

Introduction •••---•••-•- ix

CHAPTER I.
Live Fences ........... -i

CHAPTER II.
Deciduous Hedges ........ - - 13

CHAPTER III.

Hedges for Small Lawns, or for Dividing Lawns; and
Without Special Regard to Utility 38

CHAPTER IV.
Evergreens for Hedges ------ .--49

CHAPTER V.
Windbreaks, Shelters, Etc - 75

CHAPTER VI.
Neglected Beauty -----105

CHAPTER VII.
Misplaced Hedges, Windbreaks, Etc - - - - - H3

CHAPTER VIII.
Renovating the Deserted Homestead ----- 125

CHAPTER IX.
Homes 131

List of Illustrations

1 Buckthorn Hedge — Frontispiece - PAGE.

2 Evergreen Hedge Bordering Drives 14

3 Windbreak on Grounds of Houghton Seminary, Clin-

ton, N. Y. 22

4 Ground Plan of Suburban Home, with Fruit Garden - 37

5 Hemlock Hedge About Suburban Home - - - - 50

6 Arbor- Vitse Hedge Leading to Country Cottage - - 53

7 Entrance to Suburban Home of Twelve Acres - -64

8 Ground Plan of Village Plot, with Flowers, Hedges

and Windbreaks -------- -.73

9 Second Entrance to Suburban Home of Twelve Acres 74

10 Windbreak of Cedar Forty Feet High— House About

Entirely Concealed --.-...-82

11 Ground Plan of Country Place with Arbor-Vitse

Hedges 86

12 Hedge of Arbor- Vitae in Winter - - - - - 92

13 Shrubbery Lawn with Ornamental Hedges - - - 96

14 Ground Plan of Country Place, Sheltered by Norway

Spruce ....-.-..-.98

15 Woman's Sewing Balcony ...... 101

16 Ground Plan of Country Place ------ 106

17 Ground Plan of Farm Plot with Tartarian Honey-

suckle Hedges --------- 112

18 Residence with Street Hedge, and Another Without 126

19 Village Plot with Hemlock Hedges - - - - 124

20 Evergreen Circle on Lawn, with Bird House • • 126

21 Shelter and Croquet Ground ---••• 134

22 Ground Plan of Suburban Place •••••« 139

INTRODUCTION

A book on hedges, live fences, windbreaks and
shelters is called for, and I shall respond to the call,
with the intention of preparing a compact handbook,
that will be of specific use to the largely increasing
class of people who appreciate the fact that country
life is, or may be, the ideal life. Live fences are of
much less importance in the United States since the
very general passage of stock laws and their nearly
universal enforcement. We do not any longer have
to build fences against all the world, but only to see
that our own stock commits no trespass. For this
purpose wire will be chosen generally where there
are ranches or large pastures, while lumber sections
will still use board fences. There is, however, suffi-
cient use of live fences to make it necessary to take
the subject under consideration. The subject of
windbreaks, on the contrary, is growing greatly in
importance. The people are waking up to the neces-
sity of an almost universal use of such protections
against the drying effect of winds and the breaking
force of storms. Ornamental hedges are also grow-
ing in favor because of their peculiar effectiveness in
producing variety in landscape — besides they always,
more or less, are serviceable as windbreaks. The
uses to which a hedge may be put are ( I ) as fence,
(2) ornament, (3) windbreak, (4) to equalize mois-
ture and temperature, (5) to furnish bird food.

ix

X INTRODUCTION.

This last point may not be considered by some people
of sufficient importance to be discussed in a prac-
tical treatise. I am not sure but it is the most
practical and important question that I can possibly
lay before my readers. Certainly it shall not be
overlooked. The materials to be used for the pur-
poses enumerated class themselves under the head
of deciduous and evergreen. These will be sepa-
rately discussed.

My object will not be to say everything- that
can be said about my topic, but succinctly and clearly
to give necessary information. I shall especially not
undertake to create an enthusiasm for hedge plant-
ing; knowing well that where such a tendency is
aroused it must be well sustained or the results will
soon be a disgrace to our farms and rural residences.
I shall keep this continually in view to stimulate my
readers, and through them the American public, to
a higher conception of the beautiful in home-making.
The truly beautiful cannot be established by making
a fad of any one sort of utilities, or of ornaments
like arbors, or of ornamental utilities like hedges.
It is by a judicious and thoughtful use of all that
nature provides that we make our surroundings the
best. It is especially desirable that we learn to dis-
cover— to see — what nature freely offers us; for
often the most glorious as well as the most
valuable things are overlooked, while the inferior
are cultivated.

Traveling through the New England states, I
am impressed with the fact that — with many noble
exceptions — the most beautiful places are those
where nature has had most freedom. I have

INTRODUCTION. XI

longed to own some of the superb gardens of pines
in New Hampshire, sown not by the hands of men ;
while my heart has grown warm over many a glori-
ous hillside in Massachusetts where Mother Nature
has thrown up her granite walls and lifted her wind-
breaks, and run charming hedge lines, and dotted
the trees just right, in groups and in singles, without
a house in sight. Man should go to school to nature
before he undertakes to improve nature. But this
we should all refuse to do, waste or distort or abuse
what is given to us freely. The fact that by far the
majority of so-called homes are not homes of reason,
taste and high sentiment, of beauty and utility har-
monized, remains as the chief disgrace of our com-
munities. I do not mean that we should let things
go wild, or that a beautiful shrubbery is most beau-
tiful when least cultivated. Not a spot exists on the
globe that does not need exactly what God put in
Eden — a man and a woman to trim and control it.
A soul is needed everywhere, and a hand, but a
brutish soul and a brute-force hand is needed
nowhere. Nature does best without both these.
Plant, but plant with brains. Trim, but trim
thoughtfully. So you will be, not a mere autocrat
over the vegetable and animal kingdoms, but a wise
and loving friend. The end will be that you will be
in love with all about you, and in turn will win all
love — till the birds sing for you an4 the roses blos-
som for you. Your work in the garden and in the
field will become a poem.

I take up this work all the more gladly because
of the unexpected, but none the less welcome,
reversal of the tide of population into congested city

Xll INTRODUCTION.

life. The tide townward, which has gone on since
the steam age began, about 1835-40, and with in-
creasing volume up to 1890, has at last begun to ebb.
The tendency to move outward has already taken
up nearly every deserted farm, and is buying up all
available land within one hundred miles or more of
the larger cities. The rise of electricity as the world's
motive power has made this possible. Steam power
never could serve the farmer as it could serve the
manufacturer. It built great factories, and around
factories grew our great towns. Steam took our
best brains and our best hands away from the farm.
It took our most interesting employments out of our
home life to do the knitting, sewing, soap-making,
spinning, weaving, candle-making and shoemaking
in vast establishments by machinery. The farmer
was left to do, as well as he could, what coarse things
were left for him to do, by hand power and animal
power. Electricity is bound to reverse all this.
Steam was concentrating, electricity is distributive.
You can carry steam only an eighth of a mile with
profit; electricity you may carry hundreds of miles.
The twentieth century will open with a vastly
increasing country population, all bound together
with telephones and trolley roads. A large share of
business will be done by telephone. Merchants will
sit in their houses one hundred miles from their
stores, yet within speaking distance of their em-
ployees. Coming out to breathe pure air and enjoy
green fields, the tide will bring wealth and culture
and refinement. The country will get back its
population, with a gain. We shall once more have
our farmer presidents, as in the days of Wash-

INTRODUCTION. Xlil

ington, Jefferson and Madison — all tillers of the
land.

With this drift of the times, nothing can give
more pleasure than to contribute to the most enlight-
ened use of the land and the things of the land.
We must hasten to reverse the waste of the useful
and the beautiful, the wanton destruction of our
windbreaks and water preserves. The small contri-
bution of a few rods of windbreaks or hedges or
a clump of shelter may seem an insignificant item,
but these taken in the aggregate of tens of thousands
will do more than large forest plantations and
reservations to equalize temperature and water pre-
cipitation. Whoever builds a beautiful home and
surrounds it with judicious plantings of trees is a
public benefactor.

CHAPTER I.

LIVE FENCES.

I shall discuss in this chapter the subject of
live fences ; not because of its general importance, but
because of its supreme importance where it is needed
at all. The introduction of wire as a material for
fencing has become so common, and its adaptation
to long ranges is so perfect, while the material is
cheap and the fence quickly built, that it has largely
displaced the use or need of live fences. The list
of plants serviceable for a fence has not greatly
changed during fifty years. The Osage orange
stands at the head of the list for many sections. It
is hardy, robust and capable of turning cattle. The
hawthorn is less robust, and is subject to attacks of
the woolly aphis. It is also less hardy, while very
liable to lose its foliage early in the summer, like most
of the thorns, from a fungous foe. The buckthorn
is decidedly preferable to the hawthorn for general
planting. It is free from blight and mildews, and
I have never known it to be attacked by any other
insect than the hop louse. This aphis, after several
generations on plum trees and buckthorn hedges,
migrates to the hop field. The damage done to the
buckthorn is not serious, but is defacing. The
leaves are curled and young growth is checked.
The wild or native crab apple makes a stout defense,
and it is also capable of being made ornamental.

I

2 < HEDGES,. WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS., ETC.

>>\H«"1;£' v l!iL.* d;, j

Its form can never be made regular, which is often
an advantage. Fences of seedling apples have been
occasionally tried, and have proved to be more or
less useful in turning animals. Their chief value,
however, is as windbreaks.

Such hedges if exposed to animals will be
pruned by them, and to some extent broken. Their
irregularity and unmanageableness soon makes them
occupy too much space for a fence. I have also
found that the individuality of apple growth is so
marked that no two trees can be relied upon to grow
with equal vigor or similar habits. One will rise
almost as direct as a Normandy poplar and the next
sprawl out or show a propensity for weeping. There
are special advantages about the three-thorned
Gleditschia or honey locust. It certainly makes a
formidable fence, and, if well trimmed, is the most
beautiful of our live fences. It is impenetrable to
man or beast. I have, however, found one trouble
that is fatal to this fence, except when used on a
small scale; it is very likely to be girdled by mice
during the winter months. Where there is a short
strip, the rodents can be stopped from their work by
the use of coal ashes freely piled along the roots.
Willow for fencing has not proved of any permanent
value. Where such fences have been planted they
have in some cases, however, developed into very
good windbreaks. We may therefore pass by all
material for live fences except the Osage orange, the
honey locust and buckthorn. These three require
more thorough examination and discussion.

Osage orange (Madura aurantiaca) is a native
of Arkansas and other southwestern states, where

LIVE FENCES. 3

it rises to a forest hight of sixty feet. It is really
one of the handsomest of the forest trees of the
southwest. The wood is very durable, and said to be
more valuable in shipbuilding than live oak. It is
otherwise of great use because of taking on a fine
polish for furniture. The Indians found it so elastic
and tough for bows that they called it bow wood,
and the French termed it Bois d'Arc. About 1800
Mr. Choteau of St. Louis planted seed of this tree,
and Mr. Landreth of Philadelphia planted it in 1803.
Hedges were first tried about 1840. In 1845, tnat
genius of horticulture, Professor Turner of Jackson-
ville, 111., reported that it had proved hardy with him
during six years of trial. The seed soon became
"valuable, and was so sought for that the speculative
price went up to $50 dollars a bushel. From 1850
to 1870 there was no subject of more importance
to agriculture than live fences. Everywhere the
best material was sought for, and nothing seemed
to be better, especially for the prairie land, than
Osage orange. The prairie farmers went wild with
excitement. In 1868 alone, Texas and Arkansas
received over $100,000 for seed. One nurseryman
of Illinois had 400 acres of plants. It was estimated
that 60,000 miles of fence were planted in 1869.
The cost was figured out at $48 a mile for the first
year, about $20 for the second year, about $12 for
the third, and after that very little beyond the
expense of trimming. But, alas, here was where
the trouble came in. Not one mile in ten was ever
properly trimmed. The fences grew out of all
bounds. The lower limbs died, breaks occurred,
while upper limbs threw out ferocious arms to

4 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

scratch and tear. I do not know one Osage orange
fence now remaining in central New York that is in
prime condition. Most of them have been cut down.
A few stand as windbreaks, but are scraggy, irregu-
lar and unsightly.

On the lower lands of the west, the Osage
orange proved not quite hardy. The difficulty was
largely with conditions of the soil. Careful drainage
was always requisite. Planters soon learned to
throw up ridges on which the plants were set. These
ridges, twenty inches high, were rapidly prepared
with plows, and the plants found the soil thus thrown
up in admirable condition to be filled with fibrous
roots. As soon as the hedge became strong enough
to serve as a fence and turn cattle, root pruning was
easily applied — also done with the plow — cutting off
the ends of the roots with a revolving coulter. This
combination of hedge and ditch was found to make a
very admirable fence. These open ditches, run
alongside of the hedges, served as drainage channels
during the wet months, also holding water for stock
during the dry season. When deepened into pools,
they were found to be of decided value on the level
lands of the west. During the dry season such
channels act as ditches always do, not to render the
soil more dry but more moist. In some cases
farmers grew corn rows on both sides of a ditch in
order to preserve the water as late as possible in
summer. As a rule, the best live fences required
double setting. Single rows did not prove absolutely
a defense against hogs and sheep.

The use of honey locust (Gleditschia triacan-
Ihos) began a few years after that of Osage orange.

LIVE FENCES. 5

It proved to be more hardy, and although the foliage
gives it a more delicate appearance, the thorns are
strong and the wood is stiff from the outset. A
very young hedge of this sort will turn animals.
About 1870 the honey locust was considered just
the thing we had long sought after and needed. It
was planted in the eastern states much more freely
than the Osage orange had been used. From obser-
vation I conclude it has not proved entirely unsatis-
factory, yet there are more short lines of this fence
still in existence than of any other throughout New
York state, and a few of them are in good condition
as fences.

Next to the Osage orange and honey locust, the
buckthorn, although less robust, makes a fairly good
live fence. It has the advantage of being more
beautiful in growth than the Osage orange and less
savage in its thorns than the locust. It is possible
to tolerate a buckthorn fence very near your house.

In preparing the soil for a hedge fence it should
be thoroughly cultivated for a width of at least three
or four feet. The ridges that are made by the plow
should be thrown toward the center. In stiff soils
this may be advantageously done in autumn by
throwing the furrows on each side from the center
of the hedge line. This will enable the frosts to
penetrate, and loosen the soil and the subsoil. A
little preparation in spring and you are ready for
planting.

If it is desired to create a fence for immediate
use, set your plants from twelve to fifteen inches
apart, and in a single row. But if the object of the
fence is to turn animals, and the desire is to have a

6 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

long-lived and perfect fence, set your plants at least
two feet apart. If the land be dry and high, it is
as well to plant in the fall; perhaps, indeed, this is
preferable; but on low and wet soils, by all means
defer until spring; although the ground should be
under preparation, as I have stated.

A perfect live fence depends, however, not only
upon the planting, but also upon the treatment it
receives during its early years of growth. It should
in all cases be sharply cut back to uniform hight at
the very outset. As a rule, two-thirds of the wood
should be cut away by this first pruning. After the
first year, the object of pruning should be to broaden
the base about one-third as fast as the top is raised.
When the fence is grown to a hight of six feet the
base should be at least four feet. All pruning must
be directed to the establishment of this pyramidal
form. Supposing the young plants to be cut back
to five or six inches from the ground at the first
pruning, during the first summer they should be cut
back so as to increase the hight not to exceed two
inches. There will always be a tendency to throw
up a few very strong stems, and these will draw the
strength from others, so that if not checked they will
very speedily ruin your fence. These stronger shoots
should be kept well in hand, cutting them back so
that they will break their force into several shoots
in line with the fence. In fact, the application of
common sense must be continuous through the first
year's growth of your fence. Bear in mind simply
that the object is to create a pyramidal form and to
compel the side shoots to form thickly near the
ground. The failure with live fences has always

LIVE FENCES. 7

laid at this point, that farmers have not been dis-
posed to give their hedges sufficient attention to keep
them in proper style of growth. If such attention
can be secured for the first four years, the fence will
need comparatively little attention thereafter.

When the live fence is intended to serve also as
windbreak, and the enclosure is for horses and sheep,
it is possible to use evergreens. Where cattle are to
be enclosed, evergreens would be speedily torn and
their beauty destroyed, if not their utility. However,
I know highly valuable windbreaks of spruce and
others of arbor-vitae that are as stout as if built of
oak posts and hemlock boards. It takes twenty
years to get such a fence well grown. The plants
should be set two or two and one-half feet apart.
Growth will gradually close up the spaces so as to
present a nearly solid wall at the base. A close park
can be created of this sort, as a. deer enclosure, or for
ordinary farm stock. Meanwhile the fence is serv-
ing a much better purpose as windbreak. But of
this topic I am to speak more distinctively in another
chapter of this book.

About 1870, stock laws began to be passed by
the states compelling every citizen to fence in his
own animals, and not to fence out those of his neigh-
bors. These laws, although at first met with bitter
opposition, proved to be so just and economical that
by 1880 they were nearly universal. A few states
made them optional to the vote of counties ; but while
this gave conservatism a chance to discuss, the result
was overwhelming in favor of the new system. It
was established that New York alone saved $150,-
000,000 in fencing material, and Missouri was

8 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS., SHELTERS, ETC.

estimated to save at least $90,000,000. It was a dis-
tinct triumph of progressive agriculture. A secon-
dary result was to greatly decrease the call for
material for live fences. The use of wire had already
begun and shortly completed the revolution. From
that time, about 1885, the enthusiasm for live fences
waned. I have not seen such a fence planted in
central New York during the last twenty years. It
is only in conjunction with hedges and windbreaks
that the live fence topic remains of any importance.
I shall be excused if I give to this branch of my topic
only this brief chapter.

Confirmatory of my own views of live fences,
I shall give at this point two or three letters from
some of the most eminent horticulturists of the
United States:

ITHACA, N. Y.
Dear Mr. Powell:—

Hedge fences, or live fences, are no longer used to any
great extent in America, so far as my observation goes; and
there are several reasons for it. The chief of these is, I think,
that timber has become so very cheap ; another is that labor is
high priced, and another that our distances are so great that
the expense of putting in live fences has proved to be con-
siderable. Perhaps the dry and severe climate has something
to do with it. I presume the national taste or temper also has
an influence. Hedges are used for small effects about build-
ings, but it is comparatively rare that they are used for the
main fences of the farm. In fact, fences are no longer looked
upon as necessary features of the farm. They are liable to
be in the way of the requirements of grazing changes. The
farmer is no longer obliged in New York state to keep up his
line fence. Yours very truly, L. H. BAILEY.

GERMAN-TOWN, PA.
Dear Mr. Powell:—

Live fences as means of turning cattle have been practically
abandoned in Pennsylvania, but as fences for ornament they
are very popular. Some little is being done by combinations
of galvanized wire and inclined Osage orange fastened to the

LIVE FENCES. 9

wire, as a protective fence; but the ignorance of sound prin-
ciples in pruning, which has had much to do with the failure
of live fences, will soon leave these combinations as inverted
broomsticks turned over by the wind. For all our literature,
I am ashamed to say that sound horticultural knowledge has
not thoroughly prospered in the United States.

Sincerely yours, THOS. MEEHAN.

GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.
My Dear Mr. Powell:—

There are constant reminders of the wave theory of ac-
counting for almost everything in the universe. We had a
wave of planting live fences along in the seventies — a regular
tidal wave. But after a few years we began to feel very tired
over the results, and the digging-out process is still going on.
The hedge fence is entirely unsuited to the American farmer.
He will not give it the attention necessary to make it effective
as a fence, and when it does not accomplish that purpose he
has no use for it. Osage orange was used mostly in our sec-
tion, but there are relics of honey locust fences occasionally
to be found. In some places where windbreaks are desired,
the Osage is still retained and is quite effective although
for this purpose alone other plants are more desirable. In a
few places in our state the white willow was sold by enter-
prising agents, and the farmers were deluded into the belief
that in ten years they would become a stock barrier. Of course,
for fencing purposes, the willow was a failure ; yet many miles
of these willows have done good service in holding snow on
wheat fields during trying seasons. My own opinion of hedge
fences is that they do not add to the attractiveness of the
country. Compared with wire they are expensive. If allowed
to grow high they hide the landscape, and give an air of
exclusiveness that is un-American. Fences are growing un-
popular, and the meanest fence to get rid of is the hedge fence.
Cordially yours, CHAS. W. GARFIELD.

There may be, however, some people who still
desire to plant live fences, and I desire in this brief
chapter to give to such all the information that is
requisite. I shall therefore close the discussion by
giving a short and admirable paper by Robert C.
McMurtrie of Philadelphia — in its entirety. It is
the best brief statement I have ever seen for dealing
with the Osage orange.

IO HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.
OSAGE ORANGE FENCES.

Raising Plants. — The seed can generally be
purchased of any seedsman. I soaked the seeds in
water for forty-eight hours before planting. When
treated thus they sprouted almost as freely as could
be desired. Those not soaked came up sparsely arid
very badly.

The ground was prepared as for ordinary gar-
den seeds. The seed was placed in rows, about one
foot apart and about one inch deep. I kept the
plants carefully weeded from their first appearance
till the autumn. The result has been that plants
raised one spring are fit for setting out as hedges
the next spring.

Preparing Ground for the Hedge. — In the
autumn the line of the ground on which the hedge
is to stand is dug as a trench, about eighteen inches
wide and one foot deep. The earth is laid on the
side of the trench and the bottom broken with a pick.
In that condition I left it during the winter for the
frost to do its work.

Cultivating or Tilling. — In the spring when
the ground is warm enough to cause the plants to
show the first symptoms of life, by pushing, I put a
quantity of the best barnyard manure in the trench
or ditch, and on that placed the loose earth left lying
at the side during the winter. In this ground the
plants were placed. If in two rows, eighteen inches
apart ; if in one row, nine inches apart. The latter,
I am inclined to think from experience, is the best for
every purpose.

The plants thus set out were kept carefully

. LIVE FENCES. II

weeded and cultivated all summer. They sprouted
slowly and very irregularly. But these were plants
purchased. Those I grew were much quicker and
more uniform. By the end of July nearly every
plant was growing. In one instance, by count, I
found but two out of two hundred and eighty failed.

Subsequent Treatment. — In the autumn, the
plants treated as above stated had grown, in single
stems, from three to six feet high, depending on the
earlier or later start. The stems were quite thick.

These I laid down without cutting, nicking or
breaking, by simply bending them nearly flat to the
ground and weaving them as one would osiers in
wicker work. There is little elasticity but great
toughness in the wood, and the thorns secure them
in place, when bent and woven, without tying or any
other sort of fastening.

The next year the hedge started with an average
hight of six inches from the ground, or the stems
thus lying laterally along the ground. The leaf buds
sent up shoots similar to those of the first year, but
thicker and higher; many grew eight feet. The
ground was cultivated with a hoe and weeded. In
the autumn these stems were again laid down, with-
out nicking, breaking or cutting. This made a
hedge of lateral stems about eighteen inches from
the ground.

The next summer the shoots grew, the upright
ones much more vigorously than the laterals. When
the upright shoots reached three feet or more I cut
the tops with a sickle at the hight I determined.
This was repeated at intervals, whenever there were
a few inches above the line determined, from time

12 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

to time, as the hight of the hedge. This permitted
the shorter and weaker stems to grow without check-
ing till they reached the proper line.

The result was, that in the third summer from
setting out the plants there was a good hedge, suffi-
cient to turn ordinary cattle, as it seemed. Cer-
tainly in all subsequent years it was impervious to
man or beast. And it had a foundation as firm
as a fence.

Cutting. — If this is done when the plants are
young, they are so succulent that an amateur can
readily trim two hundred feet in an hour, and feel
no fatigue.

Laying Down. — I have this year adopted a plan
that I deem a great improvement, and I have done
it with stems varying from a quarter to an inch in
diameter, thus : I cut off with nippers a number of
stems to the hight of two fret, so that the stems, left
at each end of the cutting, when laid down and woven
into the upright cut stems, would cross each other,
and give at least two lines of lateral stems, passing
in and out of the cut stems, thus giving a living
fence of about two feet high. I expect to trim the
growth from these next summer to about three feet
high, leaving the laterals to grow with little or no
trimming, to form the hedge into the pyramidical
form ; which is essential, as lower branches will not
flourish if upper branches overhang them.

If anyone can show more perfect fences that
have thus been produced, I have yet to see or hear
of them.

CHAPTER II.

DECIDUOUS HEDGES.

The satisfaction with which we dismiss live
fences is more than doubled by the gratification
derived from the study of hedges; whether those
strictly for ornament or those for utility as well as
ornament. It is a confirmation of the belief that
horticultural taste is developing in America, that
hedges are growing in popularity. In all parts of
the country the demand for plants is increasing ; and
this book will find its more specific use in giving all
required information on the planting, growth and
management of this department of horticulture. I
shall be compelled in this chapter to refer to some
material developed in the previous chapter; because
the thorns, the Osage orange and the honey locust
may be used for beautiful as well as discordant pur-
poses— and so need not be discarded from our beau-
tiful plantations.

SECTION I — MATERIAL.

There is no mistaking the conviction of farmers
that where a hedge is needed the gleditschia or honey
locust hedge is more satisfactory than the maclura
or Osage orange. I find very few hedges of the
latter in even tolerable condition, but many of the
former. The gleditschia should not be allowed to

13

14 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS,, SHELTERS., ETC

FIG. 2. EVERGREEN HEDGE BORDERING DRIVES.

DECIDUOUS HEDGES. 15

grow over two to three feet in hight, if you expect
it to keep good form. The tendency is very strong
to die out at the bottom, and expand the top limbs.
When this is allowed, there are sure to follow gaps
in the outline of the foliage. The Osage orange has
this one advantage, that it is free of insects, and in
the hedge form I have found it to be entirely hardy
in central New York. It is not given to suckering
unless cut down, when it does incline to be trouble-
some by filling the ground. I have no doubt that
both the plants will for some time to come be favor-
ites with the farmer. He cannot divest himself of
the sentiment that whatever he does must have more
or less of utility in its purpose. He will undertake
to have his hedges of some direct value besides orna-
ment. Nevertheless, I advise hedge planters to dis-
card both the maclura and the gleditschia, because
they are very liable to get out of complete command,
and so become merely thorny, irregular and homely
nuisances.

The pyracantha thorn as a hedge plant has the
advantage that it is not only capable of resisting
cattle and even turning hogs and sheep and fowls,
but its growth is compact and so close to the ground
that it is easily managed. The southern or red-
fruited pyracantha is not quite hardy at the north,
while the white-fruited is entirely hardy as far north
as New York. I find its foliage blisters somewhat
and the ends of the twigs are sometimes killed in
central New York. I can hardly conceive a pyra-
cantha hedge looking very badly from neglect.
When not somewhat blistered by the frost it keeps
green all winter. My own plants blossom not unfre-

l6 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS^ SHELTERS, ETC.

quently, and yet give me very few seeds. Notwith-
standing the slight damage done by frost, I think it
fair to recommejid this thorn as a very good hedge
plant as far north as the lower counties of New York
state. It will work admirably also to fill in larger
gaps that occur in larger hedges.

This thorn is not a native, but was introduced
from Germany by Parsons and company, about 1860.
It is grown readily from cuttings, which is the only
practicable method of multiplying it, owing to its shy
seeding. Bear in mind, however, that the pyra-
cantha is very thorny. It is ornamental if you do
not get too near it. Its place is on small farms or
fruit-growing homesteads, where it is desirable to
prevent the too free movement of fowls. It would
be just the thing around an exposed fruit yard. A
thief would never twice try to get over or through it.
It would not be possible to mutilate the hedge or cut
a passage in a hurry.

The thorn genus has been very generally used
in America. Before the introduction of the maclura
the different members of this genus constituted
nearly all the hedge plants in general use. The
hawthorn is best known because of its reputation in
England. The moist climate of that country suits
it far better than our dry summers. The very hand-
some foliage is liable, with us, in common with that
of other thorns, to mildew and turn black soon
after the period of flowering. It is a very long-
lived plant; Loudon says that it lives to be
one hundred or two hundred years old. Among
our more common shrubs and trees it has no rival
in age, except perhaps the apple and pear. Of

DECIDUOUS HEDGES. 17

the apple, I have on my ground specimens that
are one hundred and ten years old. These were
planted when the Iroquois were still in posses-
sion of central New York. Pear trees are known in
Michigan, planted by the French, as long ago as the
founding of Detroit. I do not know of any haw-
thorn bushes in this country that are very old, but
in England the record is fully two hundred years.
Growing wild, the hawthorn is almost always found
as a dense bush, somewhat like wild apples. This
is owing to the fact that cattle have browsed the
young trees and made them dwarf bushes. These are
the favorite resorts of the sly catbird. On our lawns,
when well cultivated, the hawthorn grows to about
twenty feet high, and is covered with delightful
flowers. It takes cions of pear and apple as it is
a member of the rose family. All the tall grow-
ing varieties are much alike in shape and vigor
and growth. In our nurseries are to be found sev-
eral beautiful sports aiid crosses. Among these are
Paul's double scarlet, the tansy-leaved, the black-
fruited, the glossy-leaved, Gumpper's and the double
white. Many of these I have found growing wild
in our forest edges and glens, probably the result of
seed sown by the birds. All of these varieties are
equally useful for hedges.

The cockspur thorn is more commonly used in
this country than the hawthorn, or any other thorn,
except the black or buckthorn. It has a single sharp
spur under the leaf, like the spur of a cock. In the
West I have seen these growing wild in most pic-
turesque and delightful forms. It only needed man's
hand to arrange and control their growth, in order

1 8 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS., SHELTERS, ETC.

to create a work of great beauty. They spread out
their heads densely compacted, and if undisturbed
they will touch the ground with their overhanging
limbs. When browsed by sheep they form a won-
derful canopy over wide patches of the pastures,
where these animals lie down out of reach of the
sun's rays. There are many varieties, characterized
by form of leaves and color and by size of bush.
They are, everyone, admirable for hedge work.

The honey locust deserves a few additional
words owing to the peculiar beauty of its foliage.
Its thorns are the most perfect weapons known in
nature, but unfortunately they are dangerous. When
broken from the hedge they cannot be stepped upon
with impunity by man or beast. The trimmings are
not easily gathered and removed, yet they should be
not only removed but burned. It will not do to
throw them into refuse holes or brush piles — espe-
cially not by the roadside. Notwithstanding the
beauty of the plant and its usefulness as a hedge, the
danger from its thorns is so great that I believe, as a
rule, it should be given up. I have not in my own
range of observation known of a single rod of gle-
ditschia hedge that remains in preservation. I have
seen miles of it planted, and miles of it gone wild
and unmanageable. When once out of hand it can
never be reduced to order and beauty. It is as much
as a man's life is worth to undertake such a task.
I go so far as to refuse to allow even a tree of this
brutal thorn to grow on my land.

There is, however, a thornless variety of gle-
ditschia, very little disseminated, which will surely
make a remarkably strong and beautiful hedge, I

DECIDUOUS HEDGES. IQ

obtained my seed from Kansas, but some of the prod-
ucts have more or less of thorn. I have now grow-
ing one superb tree which is absolutely thornless.
It has the exquisite leaf beauty of the thorny variety,
its fine foliage, and is what no other tree is even
comparatively, a sifter of the moonbeams, a most
elegant tree for night scenery. Apart from the
gnawing of mice in the winter, I see no reason why
this plant should not be very valuable for hedges on
our choicest lawns. It has the most remarkable
combination of strength and compact growth with
beauty. It is also a very rapid grower, while it en-
dures the severest cutting. I am inclined to think
the plants should stand at least two feet apart, and
a good deal of care be taken to have them of nearly
equal vigor of stem and root in planting. Even if
it be desired to have the hedge turn back animals, I
think we have here a very promising plant.

Michaux, who was as capital a landscape econo-
mist as he was a botanist, called attention to the value
of the scrub oak (Quercus ilicifolia), sometimes
called the bear oak, as a material at hand in New
Jersey, and elsewhere in sandy soils, for hedges. He
says: "The presence of this oak is considered an
infallible index of a barren soil, and is usually met
with on dry, sandy land mingled with gravel. It is
too small to be adapted to any use, but near Goshen
on the road to New York I observed an attempt to
turn it to advantage by planting it about the fields
for the purpose of strengthening the fences. Though
this experiment seemed to have failed, I believe the
bear oak might be usefully adopted in the Northern
states for hedges, which might be formed from

2O HEDGES, WINDBREAKS., SHELTERS, ETC.

twenty to twenty- four inches thick by sowing the
acorns in three parallel rows. They would be per-
fected in a short time, would be agreeable to the eye,
and would probably be sufficient to prevent the pass-
age of horses and cows." The plant is an abundant
bearer of seed, yet I do not know that the suggestion
of Michaux has been put to test. But nature has
used the scrub oak very freely in making wild hedges
of great beauty. The chief advantage of such sug-
gestions is to teach us to keep our eyes open to the
possibilities about us, and be ready to put an old
thing to a new use. A wide-awake mind is never at a
loss to find a chance to exercise a creative purpose. A
person blind to nature is always compelled to follow
in old routine tracks, and so misses some of the finest
opportunities that nature affords him.

Among the newer shrubs and trees available for
hedges we may enumerate the Siberian Pea tree
(Caragana arborescens). This is a small tree, grow-
ing from fifteen to eighteen feet in hight, but it bears
pruning admirably well. It is hardy even to the very
northern limits of our states and Canada, at the same
time endures severe drouths. I think this will prove
to be a desirable addition to our hedge plants. The
Kei apple is another importation of our Department
of Agriculture which promises to be of considerable
use to us. It is the best South African hedge plant ;
and becomes, if untrimmed, only a tall shrub. It
may be ranked among the strictly ornamental
hedge plants.

However, I do not myself believe there is anj
deciduous plant anywhere near equal to the buck-
thorn (or black thorn) for universal use as a decidu-

DECIDUOUS HEDGES. 21

ous hedge plant. I place it at the front, as I shall
hereafter place arbor-vitae at the front of evergreen
plants for hedges. It grows with an even spread
and bears rational cutting admirably. It has no
enemy that I ever heard of except the hop louse,
which it is compelled to harbor for a couple of
months. This louse does not appear every year,
and if properly attacked it can be destroyed with a
spray of strong kerosene emulsion. Although not
a thorny or harsh plant, the buckthorn is very firm
in growth. I have already spoken of its capacity,
in a previous chapter, for turning cattle, when it is
allowed to grow six or eight feet high. At that
hight it is also a very handsome screen, but for ordi-
nary purposes a hedge of four to six feet is much
better. At this hight it is easily trimmed, and the
form of the hedge can always be kept without
trouble. The growth is neat and tidy, if not remark-
ably handsome. When neglected, it can be cut back
to renew its form without injuring the hedge, and it
does not become at any time, under the worst neg-
lect, as horrible a sight and as terrible a nuisance as
neglected Osage orange or honey locust. In fact,
I have seldom seen a buckthorn row given up. Even
when neglected and practically useless as a fence, the
owner is inclined to keep it as a hedge.

I find, after careful examination, that among the
farmers of the Eastern and Middle states, the hedges
which have been best preserved and most useful are
( i ) the buckthorn, ( 2 ) the gleditschia or locust. I
find also that the buckthorn is invariably in the best
form as a hedge; although I judge that the thorn
has done the most service. The latter is, however,

CO

6
E

DECIDUOUS HEDGES. 23

in no case that I know, presentable as a landscape
ornament. Invariably it has become scraggy, gappy
and very uneven. Most of the hedges that are
retained are evidently pieces, where most of the origi-
nal planting has died away. I asked a farmer why
he kept a rather disreputable strip in front of his
homestead. He answered that, bad as it looked, it
hid his yard, which looked worse. It is not impos-
sible that a good many others feel like this, and
choose the street hedge as a cover for nasty habits.
Therefore, I say once more, down with street hedges
or street fences, alive or dead.

There is the common trouble in growing Osage
orange and gleditschia that mice will gnaw them in
the winter. They frequently girdle a large number
of plants in a single season. Where it is desirable
to grow a short strip for ornamental purposes, or for
landscape use, the intrusion of these rodents can be
in part prevented by keeping from about the roots
any refuse or grass, and raking away the leaves
before winter sets in. Besides this, I would recom-
mend in October or November a good mulch of coal
ashes. It has been recommended to scatter along
the hedge, peas soaked in arsenic to poison the mice.
Any ill-smelling stuff is an additional protection.
But I believe that coal ashes will always prove the
best preventive, while it is at the same time a grand
weed killer. There has been a very substantial error
about this material in the minds of the people.
Because it is in a very small degree a direct fertilizer
does not argue that any material may not help roots
to take manure from the air. This is exactly the
office performed by coal ashes. It lightens clay soil,

24 HEDGES., WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, Etc.

and helps it to absorb nitrogen. The soil under a
mulch of coal ashes will be found to be friable and
rich. I have seen the most barren ground made into
a rich garden with nothing but coal ashes forked in
in considerable quantity. I use it about young apple
trees to prevent the borer from working ; it is equally
good about all other trees that are occasionally
attacked by boring insects. You will make no mis-
take in using anthracite coal ash about your hedge
row. You may place it on very heavily, and you
will find the result will be beneficial in all ways. It
will at least have checked the working of mice, and
in almost all cases have prevented it.

SECTION II — PLANTING DECIDUOUS HEDGES.

(1) Size of Plants. — Whatever the material, 1
prefer two-year-olds or sometimes three-year-olds
to yearlings. Such plants, to make rapid and satis-
factory growth, should be stocky to begin with, and
then cut sharply back. However, when long lines
are to be run, one-year-old plants will be generally
planted, and will probably be satisfactory.

(2) Running Lines. — When drives are to be
bordered, curves are frequently necessary. In this
case great care is needed at the outset, for if a mis-
take is made it is going to show worse and worse as
long as your hedge exists. My plan is to set small
stakes over the lines to be followed, and then to
go over these again and again, until I am quite
sure that my curves are where they should
be, to accommodate drives and to satisfy the
eye. At this point be sure that you do not

DECIDUOUS HEDGES. 2j

trust a landscape gardener implicitly, for while
he may be skilled in his selection and grouping
of plants, he may wholly lack an eye for such lines.
Many a time such a defect in vision is unknown to its
possessor. In fifty years of landscape work I have
never found but one man who could materially assist
me in working out long and double curves — he was
a common Irish laborer with a gift. A long sweep-
ing curve is not easily established and it grows all
the worse when one curve is to be multiplied by
another.

(3) Preparing the Ground. — This is an impor-
tant point. The ground must be as clean as a gar-
den and thoroughly tilled into loose friable condition.
There is no use sticking plants into half-prepared
soil. Where the sod is tough and vigorous it should
have been tilled with some hoed crop during the
previous year. The rotted turf will then make
excellent soil for hedge planting. Before setting,
let the soil be thrown, by back furrowing or by the
spade, toward the center, enough to form a slight
rise, that will carry off rather than retain water.
After planting, there will be more or less settling, and
your ridge will not be perceptible. If you are
obliged to run through wet places, drain on both
sides, throwing up the line of the hedge with soil
from the ditches.

(4) Setting the Plants. — All tricks and devices
for saving labor at this point are undesirable, if you
intend to make sure of your hedge. There must
be no mistake about the mellowness of the soil, and
if two-year-old plants are used, a trench must be
ready along the line of your stakes. If one-year-old

26 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

plants are to be set, you may use a spade as you pro-
ceed, or a dibble. Spread the roots at the bottom of
the trench, and set the plant two or three inches
deeper than it was in the nursery row. Firm the
soil with great care. This is the most important
point in setting out plants of any kind as well as in
planting trees. In the case of the hedge plants, it is
absolutely necessary. I advise you to tramp the soil
as solid as possible with your feet, or let a man follow
whose business it is to pound down the soil with a
heavy rammer. You may be sure that no harm
will be done.

(5) Spacing. — My own preference is decidedly
for more room for each plant than is generally given.
When placed six inches apart, many plants in the
process of growth are dwarfed or weakened in
vitality, if not killed outright. I set two or three feet
apart. Dr. Warder recommends this in his book on
hedges (now out of print) and he did wisely. He
says : "I consider that most writers and planters have
committed the great error of crowding. The dif-
ferent plants used in hedges are so varied in their
habits that no fixed rule can be laid down for all of
them, but be sure to avoid setting the plants too
closely." For the honey locust, which attains in its
individual growth a diameter of from one to three
feet, Dr. Warder would prefer a distance of twelve,
eighteen or twenty inches. I have found this plan
far better for every plant that I have ever tried or
seen tried. The honey locust, the hawthorn, the
buckthorn, the Osage orange and all of the shrubs
that attain any size, should be given at least one foot
in the row, and from that up to two or even three.

DECIDUOUS HEDGES. 2?

I have suggested requisite room for requisite
strength and vigor. In other words, every plant
must have root room in order to make a healthy top.
I object entirely to the plan of setting plants in
double rows alternately. There will be trouble
enough in keeping a well-trimmed hedge within
bounds. Therefore, begin with one row of plants.
Those who argue for close planting do so on the
ground that gaps will be rilled by overhanging limbs.
But a rightly managed hedge must not have gaps.
The whole space should be filled wholly with
branches interlaced until the wall will be too close
for us to see through. The question is asked, why
not set the plants still farther apart, and by bending
down interlacing branches, create a compact wall or
even impermeable fence? Simply because it would
require patience and care and labor that would not
often be given to a hedge, and the result would be,
in all probability, a failure within two years. Rustic
walls of the kind suggested, like rustic arbors, are
the work of time and of genius. They are seldom
produced in perfection.

(6) Mulching. — As fast as your hedge plants
are set they should be mulched. Use whatever
material is most easily obtainable in your section.
As a rule, sawdust is most convenient and cheap.
Others may most readily obtain coal ashes. I have
referred to the use of this material already. It must
be understood that reference is made to anthracite
coal ashes and not to bituminous. The latter mate-
rial contains too much sulphur to make it safe to use
in any large amount in our plantations. The coal
ash from anthracite coal is not only safe but

28 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

unexcelled in all ways for mulch. It is pervious to
the air and it retains moisture. It does not permit
weeds to grow readily, and it keeps clay soils from
hardening. Use all that you can get, in your com-
post piles and lor mulching. When it is more con-
venient, fine cut straw or fresh cut grass makes a
fair substitute; yet it is liable to attract mice, and
will be blown away unless held in place by a sprinkle
of earth.

(?), Renewals. — The first year will certainly
develop gaps in your hedge, whatever care may have
been used in planting and mulching. These gaps
should be filled the next spring without fail. It will
not be easy at best to give these new plants a good
chance between the older ones. It will be well to
select as large plants as possible, and to take special
care in setting and puddling them. Let mulching
be very carefully and promptly applied.

(8) Watering. — It frequently occurs, as in set-
ting trees, that a dry spell follows. Whatever care
may have been used in thoroughly watering the
hedge when planted, it will be necessary to keep up
the supply for some weeks afterward. At all events,
the hedge plants must be well started into growth,
and the young rootlets be well developed before they
are given over to nature. Watering is always a
science. As it is usually performed it kills more
than it benefits. It should never be superficial, for
that will solidify the soil and then bake a crust, from
which the showers will flow quickly off. TV's
crust also prevents the natural absorption of mois-
ture from the air. To water correctly, dig a hole
by the side of every tree or bush, and pour in enough

DECIDUOUS HEDGES. 2Q

water to wet the roots thoroughly. This will require
a good deal of labor, but when once performed it
need not be frequently repeated. After the water
is poured in and has settled, draw over a little dry
soil to prevent evaporation. In this way the soil
becomes permeated, and remains wet. This is the
rule for all plants. Pour a quart for a strawberry,
pour a pailful for a tree. For a hedge it may be
best to run a furrow on each side and pour the water
in the trough. Then haul back the soil to cover with
the plow. If you have a well near by, attach a hose
and let the trench be filled by pumping. But to
throw water with a hose through a sprinkler
over the soil is worse than nothing. It requires
almost continuous sprinkling to make this method
of watering of any value, even for a lawn of
grass.

(p) Trimming. — I have suggested that plants
should be cut back when set. This matter of trim-
ming is one of the most important, from first to last.
It is requisite to get a thick bottom to the hedge, and
to do this, in almost all cases, the plants must be cut
nearly to the base the first year, and compelled to
spread laterals. Cut down to the collar, making the
branching start out so that the lower limbs will lie
upon the ground. If you have followed directions
you have set your plants two or three inches deeper
than where they were as seedlings. It will now be
your object to keep the hedge from growing upward,
and make it spread out and keep its lower limbs vital.
This is the constant aim in hedge-growing. The
law of nature, that a tree shall climb upward, and as
it climbs take away a part of the strength of the

3O HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

lower branches to make new ones above, must be
held in check.

Where hedges have to serve partly for utility,
in turning hens or possibly larger creatures, impene-
trability must be sought for. Your wish is to divide
vitality and distribute the growth evenly to all
branches. A perfect hedge is as strong in one point
as in another. To secure this requires that there be
no neglect during the first three years after planting.
No part must get the advantage. Then after your
hedge is well established, if neglected for a year or
two, the balance will be broken ; and a few branches
will have surmounted the rest, while a part will have
died out altogether.

Most of the deciduous hedges as they grow
require trimming twice a year. This should be done
in May, and at such time later as growth may indicate
necessity. The buckthorn, as a rule, should be cut
the second time in July or August. When the
growth has been checked by drouth I have sometimes
trimmed as late as September. When first planted,
and until well shaped, I trim three times or even
more, being regulated solely by the rapidity of
growth. Nearly all deciduous hedges have a habit,
while young, of sending out a shoot here and there
of unusual strength. These must not be allowed to
get much start, or they will have accomplished a good
deal very quickly in the way of weakening other
shoots. It must, however, be remembered con-
stantly that, if you trim a hedge very late in the
season, there will be a growth put forth that will not
have time to ripen its wood, and you will get winter-
killing- of even very hardy plants,

DECIDUOUS HEDGES. 31

The shape of a deciduous hedge should be aboXit
that of a very young bush of the same plant where
it stands wild. It should have a broad base and rise
to a round top — never to a sharp or pointed top — •
and equally never to a flattened top. The hawthorn,
and particularly the buckthorn, submit to a very neat
oval shaping, but should have the lower branches a
little longer than the others. The Osage orange is
not so submissive to form, but it may be kept reason-
ably in bounds if never given any freedom. The
pyramidal form is an outrage on nature, because it
is never undertaken with deciduous plants in their
native state. In all cases avoid artifice and the arti-
ficial; follow nature's outlines, and heed nature's
suggestions.

Whatever may be said of special tools for more
rapid cutting, nothing is so satisfactory as the long-
handled hedge-shears. The blades of these should
be fifteen to twenty inches long. If trimming is
done coarsely it will tell, in the process of the years,
in an ungainly hedge. For cutting strong branches
it is necessary also to have what are called hedge-
clippers. These are short curved shears with handles
three feet long. They will sever a half-inch branch
readily. For ordinary trimming these are not
needed, but will be of importance when the hedge
is to be cut back, or when from neglect a hedge has
to be reshaped. The same tools are useful for much
other work about trees and shrubbery. They should
be kept sharp so that one-half of power may be saved
in using them. Dull tools of all sorts will be found
a dead loss. They use up wastefully a large part of
your power, and all of your patience and good cheer,

32 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

Successful horticulture is a happy combination of
wit and grit. Failure in farming is mostly the result
of leakage of power and waste of crops. However,
when economy of time is very greatly desired, the
trimming of the first three or four years can be per-
formed with a sickle. Give a quick motion in the
way the branch grows — that is, with a slant upward.
Hold the sickle reversed and strike sharp and quick ;
a slow movement will drag the branch. This tool
is satisfactory for all fairly strong and stiff shoots.
But as the hedge gets shaped, and the shoots
become finer, they require more smooth and
accurate cutting. Bear in mind that I do not
recommend the use of such tools, but by all
means would prefer the shears.

Can the spring pruning of a deciduous hedge be
as well done in midwinter, or March ? I can only an-
swer this with a very positive negative, when you are
dealing with an evergreen hedge, but it may be
advantageously done in the case of such plants as
buckthorn, hawthorn and Osage orange. There is
no reason why a sharp heading-in of a thoroughly
hardy plant shall not take place at any time after
nature has laid aside her tools, and the hedge is in a
state of absolute rest. I would not, however, begin
the work before near the close of winter. There is
one advantage in following this line of advice,
because you can observe more completely the condi-
tion of the leafless branches, and determine where
nature is being too sharply turned or forced from
her natural tendency. Where there is a mere bunch
of twigs starting instead of a good number of
branches, remove part of them. This is always a

DECIDUOUS HEDGES. 33

possible mischief when we crowd a tree down to
bush growth.

(10) Cultivation. — Do not plow close to a
hedge, with the idea of benefiting it. Nearly all
plants that make good hedges do so largely because
they make a great mass of surface roots, and most
of these form a close network of roots. These
should not be ripped up by plow or hoe. If you wish
a stout hedge you must give it root room. I would
not plow within six feet of a well-established hedge.
Outside of this line I would keep the ground clear
and forbid the hedge getting a grip on it.

It is, however, superfluous to undertake direc-
tions minute enough for every conceivable difficulty.
I have covered the ground sufficiently to lead the
amateur workman out of the way of easily made
mistakes. The general direction is, use common
sense. You will easily master all the difficulties of
horticulture in that way, and in no other. Study the
situation and do what you think is wise under the
circumstances. You will find hints always ready
for you if you are ready to heed them.

( u) Cost. — No estimate of cost can be any-
thing more than approximate, as cultivation, seed,
cost of plants, cost of labor, will vary everywhere
and all the time. Professor Turner some years ago
estimated that, while the cheapest wood fence would
cost $300 a mile, his four miles of hedging did not
altogether cost over $100, which would be $25 a
mile. "Here, then, is a clear difference of $275 per
mile, or say $1000 in the cost of four miles when first
put upon the ground. The annual interest of $1000
would hire a good young man to tend the hedges for
3

34 HEDGES^ WINDBREAKS., SHELTERS, ETC.

five months in the year. But instead of requiring
a hand five months a year, it does not require such
help for one month even in the most laborious part
of the work, and after the third or fourth year it
does not require the half of that." Professor Turner
was always an enthusiast, and I quote him only as
able to show the rosy side of hedge-growing.

The first cost of a hedge of Osage orange would
in most soils be at the present time more than three
times the above estimate. Nor is it in the least desir-
able to underestimate the real cost of hedging, which
is not in the outlay for plants and for planting, but
is in the subsequent care and pruning. Professor
Turner made his estimates with the understanding
that his pruning was to be done with a sickle and
rapid slashing. The chief trouble seems to be that
the hedge will not allow of delays such as the farmer
often feels to be imperative. The season of trim-
ming passes by, and the rank growth gets difficult to
handle. Then the owner thinks he may as well
defer still longer before giving a sharp cut. In a
couple of years the hedge is a ferocious, thorny
defiance to approach, and the chances are that it will
never be reduced to subjection by the owner. Then
comes a hard job, and a costly one, of cutting the
whole thing down to the ground for a new start.
The brush must be burned, and is a bad job to
handle. On the whole T think we must let the esti-
mates of Professor Turner stand as fairly good for
live fences, but of little value for hedges such as we
are now discussing. Henry Shaw's estimate of
the cost of a deciduous hedge is from twenty-
five to fifty cents a rod. As a matter pf fact

DECIDUOUS HEDGES. 35

our ornamental and semi-ornamental hedges will
cost double that.

(12) Devices. — The use of wire with hedges
is a combination of considerable value under certain
conditions. It serves to make an ornamental hedge
able to hold back an animal that happens to break
loose. I have found it equally useful against inter-
lopers and fruit thieves. The wire may be entirely
concealed by skillful interweaving through the
branches of the hedge. I have known of such a
hedge, when somewhat dilapidated, being used as a
background or trellis for climbing roses. These
almost entirely covered the original hedge and
became an object of remarkable beauty.

We are not shut out entirely from devices for
wet land. I never saw a willow hedge of much use
except where it ran along by wet places. Yet a close
grove of willows makes a splendid protection against
the northwest. Let such a hedge pass on into the
form of a windbreak, and then front it with a row
of red bark dogwood, a bush which remarkably
enjoys itself in marshy ground. Plant it freely and
you will say that of all hedges in winter it is the most
beautiful. As the leaves fall in autumn the bark
turns a beautiful crimson, and retains a warm glow
throughout the winter. Nothing in the shrubbery
equals it for contrast with the unbroken white of the
snow. A single bush will grow only to a hight of
ten feet, and fifteen feet in diameter. It does not,
therefore, need any severe cutting or pruning. For
a moist swale it is just the thing, but it will grow
finely on a dry knoll, only much more slowly, and
not to above half the size.

36 HEDGES., WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

Either have a good hedge, or none at all. A
poor hedge is unsightly and a nuisance. If by the
roadside, and untrimmed or poorly trimmed, it
scratches the pedestrian who passes by, and in wet
weather it brushes him with its wet branches. If
bordering a drive it disgraces the owner instead of
honoring him. If I were to sum up this section, I
should say that, under ordinary conditions, I should
prefer the buckthorn for the general purposes which
I have indicated, and as likely to endure all the
provocations likely to be inflicted upon it by care-
lessness and negligence.

Note I. — It may be necessary to add a note on
winter injury to hedges. This will rarely if ever
occur where the wood has not been weakened by too
late or improper trimming. A very thorough report
on hedges injured during the winter of 1898 says:
"The neglected hedges, that is, those having one
year's growth or more on the old stalks, came out
universally alive. On a new purchase of 240 acres
I had some three miles of untrimmed hedge, a con-
siderable part of which had been neglected for some
years. We trimmed about 100 rods in January, just
before the noted cold spell; this was badly injured.
The remainder was trimmed after March ist, and
made a fine new growth. Ninety per cent of our
hedges throughout this section are dead, and this
much is certain, that the hedge not trimmed during
the winter or just previous to the winter is all right."
From personal observation I am satisfied that winter-
killing may be in all cases traced to enfeeblement of
the plants by improper trimming.

Note 2. — Kerosene emulsion, for spraying

DECIDUOUS HEDGES.

37

hedges infested with lice, should always be kept on
hand. It is made by dissolving one pound of hard
soap in one gallon of hot water; to this add three
gallons of kerosene. Churn together with a force
pump for ten minutes, or until the materials are
thoroughly assimilated into a mass, semi-fluid, and
much like the best soft soap. Store this for usage,
and it will keep for several weeks or months. When
needed, use about one pint to a pail of water. If
this solution does not prove strong enough to kill the
lice, double the quantity of the emulsion. Let the
spray be applied as soon as the lice appear, and so
thoroughly, that the undersides of the leaves will be
well wetted. Use the McGowan nozzle, adjusted to
any good spraying pump.

FIG. 4. GROUND PLAN OF SUBURBAN HOME, WITH
FRUIT GARDEN.

CHAPTER III.

HEDGES FOR SMALL LAWNS, OR FOR DIVIDING LAWNS ;
AND WITHOUT SPECIAL REGARD TO UTILITY.

The distinction which I here draw between
hedges strictly ornamental and those which are both
ornamental and useful, is one that cannot be strictly
carried out, for every hedge is useful and every hedge
ought to be ornamental. Yet there is a distinction
which owners of landscape gardens thoroughly
appreciate.

SECTION I MATERIAL.

In the line of deciduous ornamental hedges I
do not believe that anything can surpass the Tar-
tarian honeysuckles. These occur in several shades
of color, and are somewhat varied in vigor of growth.
The pink-flowering is the most robust, sending up
strong shoots with great rapidity, and wheri these
are injured, renewing them quickly. The red-flow-
ering is very handsome, and hardly inferior to the
pink for hedging. The white-flowering is several
degrees feebler in shoots, and it is less vigorous every
way. Whichever color is selected, if you wish for
an even growing hedge, do not select but one color.
In May the flowering is astonishingly profuse, filling
the whole air with sweetness. I should like to know
where one can find a more charming sight -than such
a hedge in full bloom, unless it be the same hedge

38

HEDGES FOR SMALL LAWNS. 39

when loaded with berries in July and August. These
are of different shades of color, according to the
color of the flowers. The pink-flowering produces
a fine carmine berry. Of the value of these berries
as bird food I shall speak in another place.

The lilac has some value as a hedge plant, but
easily grows ugly with age, while the intense suck-
ering tendency of the plant decreases the blossoming
power of the bushes. The Persian lilacs will do much
the best, provided you have room for them; but a
good Persian lilac hedge will require from ten to
fifteen feet in diameter. The show of flowers will
be inconceivably beautiful during May, and after
that the bushes are dense enough to make a very
good windbreak. Set the bushes eight or ten feet
apart, or if you prefer, set them five feet apart, and
later remove every other bush. At the best the
inside branches of any lilac will die out every year,
and must be carefully removed. Josikaea and Charles
X are later-blooming varieties, with stout trunks,
and can be used in the hedge form. Some of the
more recently developed varieties are far better, but
at present somewhat costly. I have seen the com-
mon white lilac used as a hedge, but with nothing to
recommend it, except that it served as a windbreak,
and would turn a stray animal.

The Weigelas are among the prettiest plants
for hedge rows, but more particularly the variegated-
leaved sort. This is one of the handsomest of all
shrubs, as its variegation is clear and bright and
lasting. It is not in the least sickly in hue, like many
variegations. It has a drooping but compact form,
and in florescence is a marvel of beauty. As it is

4O HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

low-growing, I should like it best for a border for
beds of flowers, or for a winding drive. It rarely
exceeds four feet in hight, and can be cut to some
extent. You will especially like it fronted with a
line of Deutzia gracilis. This latter plant will lift
itself about one foot in hight, and adjust its method
of growth very closely to that of Weigela.

Almost any of our best known shrubs make
ornamental lines when needed to divide gardens or
to outline fields; not so many of them are suitable
for bordering drives. It is not a bad plan to grow
morning glories at the foot of such hedges, and so
secure a fine autumn blossoming, since most of the
shrubs blossom in April, May or June. But we
have two exceedingly fine shrubs blossoming in
August and September, that can be used with admir-
able effect, the Hydrangea paniculata grandiftora,
and the althea, sometimes called Rose of Sharon.
The former will stand about six to ten feet in hight,
and show a complete mass of magnificent heads of
flowers. This bush will endure considerable cut-
ting, and on the whole should rank, I think, close
after Tartarian honeysuckle for a strictly ornamental
hedge. The altheas are of as different styles of
growth as they are of different colors of bloom. It
is necessary to select those which grow alike, if one
desires any uniformity in hedge growth; and it is
better in most cases to select the erect growing than
the spreading. Many of the altheas, perhaps all of
them, will need protection for the first two years
from seed, and after that they will be found to be
entirely hardy as far north as New York. Most of
the varieties are hardy as far north as Albany. One

HEDGES FOR SMALL LAWNS. 4!

variety on my lawns I find objectionable, owing to
its brittle wood. Still, on the whole, with a little
extra care, long lines of altheas can hardly be sur-
passed for beauty during the autumn months.

I have already spoken of the beauty of the red-
barked dogwood as a hedge in winter. To enliven
the landscape and take the chill from the winter
months there is nothing quite so good. The color
becomes a deep crimson in November, and remains
a brilliant sight for the eye until the leaves put forth
in spring. It has only one rival, the barberry.
Although the barberry has often been used for
hedges, it has one fatal defect, its branches are con-
stantly reaching over out of place, and breaking with
readiness. The wood is very brittle, so that it is
difficult to keep anything like symmetry of outline.
I should prefer the barberry in individual plants. If
used in line, I should set the plants several feet apart
and retain the branches in place with a strong wire
around each plant.

Mr. S. B. Parsons of Flushing has, for a long
time, urged the value of the purple beeches for
hedges. Some years ago C. H. Miller of Phila-
delphia called attention to the fact that seed-
lings of this tree came with purple foliage,
and were hardier than the parent: There is
a good deal of variation in the color, but I
think he is right about their hardiness. The ordinary
purple beech is not hardy. The variety called Rivers
is absolutely frost proof. It is one of the grandest
trees in existence for a shelter. If you desire a short
hedge or a hedge to close in a warm nook, the purple
beech will serve you admirably. It does not easily

42 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

yield ground to a crowding neighbor, nor does it
die out in spots.

Those who desire to form an ornamental trellis
will find nothing to surpass the sweet honeysuckle
(Lonicera Canadensis) and other varieties of con-
stant blooming honeysuckles. They should be
grown to a stout wire trellis, and kept well fed. A
pretty effect is made by growing alternately the
sweet and the trumpet honeysuckles. The latter
variety, however, is much the more rapid and robust
in growth, and likes to climb as high as twenty-five
feet. It needs close cutting, while both varieties
require considerable compulsion to correct a wild
straggling style of growth. The fragrance of the
honeysuckle, if it does not surpass all other vines, is
at least unexcelled. It is possible on such trellises
to combine with the honeysuckle the large-flowering
clematis. The tall climbing varieties are more suit-
able for balconies or rockeries.

The Southern states have the advantage of
being able to use for hedges those roses which are too
tender to grow perfectly in the Northern states. They
can also make grand hedges of the Chinese privet,
and of Cape Jasmine, and the Japan Euonymus.
But imagine a hedge or a windbreak of the broad-
leaved evergreens ! At the North, however, we may
grow many varieties of roses with enough effect to
be highly gratifying. I have seen hedges of General
Jacqueminot, Caroline de Sansal, John Hopper, and
other hybrid-perpetuals which were certainly mar-
vels of beauty during the blossoming season. But,
alas, our tea roses are too tender to become suffi-
ciently large plants for effective hedges. I shall

HEDGES FOR SMALL LAWNS. 43

hardly venture upon a special section on roses,
because the constant development of new varieties
makes it desirable that the rose grower shall seek
the information of experts. However, we may be
sure that the Soupert roses are among the best at
present for hedge growth, and that the Ramblers
cannot be excelled during their period of blossoming.
The new Rugosa roses are exceedingly attractive
because of their luxuriant, glossy green foliage.
Several of our perpetuals are very nearly ever-
blooming. In using them for a hedge let every fifth
plant be one of the climbing ever-bloomers, and be
trained sideways on wires over the tops of the
other bushes.

Meehan tells us that he has seen the tea plant
grown as a garden hedge in the Southern states.
The nearest approach at the North is a border of
sage, which really is veiy pretty in bloom and can
be neatly clipped. Too much emphasis cannot be
easily placed on the multiplication of sweet odors
about our homes. They are associated with ozone,
and therefore with health. I recommend the use of
the wild grapes, but these are more directly asso-
ciated with windbreaks, and will be spoken of farther
on. From the flower bed edges to the walls of
tropeolums and sweet peas, flower hedges are pretty
enough to add to our pleasure, and they are so inex-
pensive as to be everybody's luxury.

The tropeolum or nasturtium is the poor man's
flower. It belonged to our fathers and mothers as
a pickle producer and border plant; and to this day
it remains par excellence the sweetest, healthiest and
most floriferous annual in our whole list. It likes

44 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

poor soil, with a plenty of water, and makes a trellis
that never gets tired of blooming. It is a peculiarly
wholesome flower, fit for the sick room as well as
the dining room. When you want an annual screen
or hedge of flowers, there is not one of them all to
surpass it. The sweet pea is its only rival, but the
sweet pea exhausts itself in half the season, and it
requires extra good soil and constant attention to
keep a fine screen. The tropeolum runs irregularly,
freely, and with a sort of flowery abandon.

Morning-glories are perhaps our next be:,t
screen maker, and for a porch or tall screen, our best.
They blossom profusely all summer, provided only
that you will keep the seed picked off. Better still
it is to sow a second drill of seed outside the other
later in the spring. I am accustomed to let morning
glories sow themselves along a board and wire fence.
They grow all over it and cover it with a luxuriant
glory in August, September and October. You can
use either of these flowers to climb up any wall or
fence that needs decorating.

SECTION II TREATMENT.

Ornamental hedges depend for their beauty on
more or less neglect. That is, if made of bushes,
they must be allowed to follow natural outlines witli
considerable irregularity. The Tartarian honey-
suckle is, however, specially excellent for keeping a
good form and enduring pruning. You may lop off
branches that overreach or you may cut a whole side
back without materially damaging the hedge.
Indeed, I cannot say too much for this admirable

HEDGES FOR SMALL LAWNS. 45

shrub. It is very close-growing, and makes new
shoots so quickly that a clipping does not long
remain unpleasantly formal. In general that which
we wish of an ordinary hedge we do not wish of a
hedge planted only for ornament ; that is, we do not
require exact lines and precision of growth. But
where approximate accuracy and formality are
needed, the Tartarian honeysuckle is, above all
others, the plant that you need.

Hedge growers, while learning to abhor the
monstrous and misplaced, may make hedge-growing
contribute to the general beauty of the place by such
contrivances as living arbors, bowered seats, and
arched walks. One of my living arbors, slightly
separated however, from the hedge rows, lifts its
peaks about twenty-five feet high, and inside is a cool
shaded enclosure of eighteen feet diameter. Origi-
nally intended to be a place to conceal a refuse pile,
I have found it more useful to use the enclosure as
a retreat. With seats and a hammock it becomes
delightful. The roots of the arbor-vitse create a dry
mat inside like the floor of evergreen woods. If left
to arch over a pathway, your hedges may easily give
a cool, arbor-like pathway. One of my own leads
to an enclosure, where is found a well, useful for
watering the grounds. Over the well is trained an
arbor of grapes. Hedges for screens are of great
importance. This is not to cover the disagreeable,
but to secure quiet nooks, places for hotbeds, and
enclosures for wells and reservoirs. These, as a
rule, are not what we can blend pleasantly into gen-
eral lawn work However, our wells may be so con-
structed with rock work as to be highly ornamental.

46 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, 'ETC.

A screen can be advantageously used to cover
the work that creates litter, work that must at
all seasons be going on. However, be careful about
carrying this system to excess. A lot of petty
screens or bits of hedges do not create the beautiful ;
they suggest children's playgrounds. I have in
mind an elaborate set of lawns which err in this
direction, so as to create a sensation of pettiness.

The removal of hedges and hedge fences from
the highways is a reform that follows close after the
removal of board fences. The removal of cattle
from the streets leaves no object whatever for the
street fence, alive or dead, except that of seclusive-
ness. This is conjoined in public sentiment with
exclusiveness, and rightfully it is resented. But for
other reasons these obstructions should never be
placed along the street. They make the highway
something foreign to the owners of adjacent land.
Less interest is taken in road improvement than if
ownership were felt, and assumed, to the center of
the street, or at least to the driveway. I advise all
landscapists and owners of pleasant residences to
sweep away these things entirely, and let each person
feel that he owns and is responsible for the cleanli-
ness and beauty of the highway. The roadway is
rightfully a part of those homesteads through which
it runs. It is only in a narrow sense a public affair,
to be temporarily used by the passer-by; while it is
eminently private. The whole highway should be
a continuous garden. If hedges appear adjoining it,
or as a part of it, they should not be on a straight
fence line. It is much better to plant our lawns clear
to the ditches. That is. let your shrubbery which

HEDGES FOR SMALL LAWNS. 47

has heretofore extended to the fence line, occupy also
the street line to the ditch. Then the driveway,
which alone has public ownership, will pass through
continuous shrubbery.

In some instances I find fruit trees along the
highway. This is peculiarly the opposite of the use
of hedges, for instead of fencing people out it invites
them to participate with us. It is hospitable; but I
have not observed that such trees are largely meddled
with by pedestrians. I find the grouping of ever-
greens down to the roadway is very agreeable. In
New Jersey towns and a few New York towns I
have seen the choicer shrubs in full bloom within
reach of the hands of passers-by. The lilac reaches
to you its perfume and the cherry tree its fruit in the
suburbs and main streets of Ithaca. This is delight-
ful; and why not? It is vastly more human than
cultivating your fine things behind stone walls or
board fences or hedges. Flower beds in the street
are better than cows and swine. I think it will be
the idea of the twentieth century. We shall prob-
ably see by the end of twenty-five more years all of
our ugly, weed-bedraggled highways turned into a
public garden, reaching everywhere ; and binding all
homes together with bands of beauty and of
good will.

I have not undertaken to suggest all the appro-
priate uses of shrubs and other hedge plants about,
our homes. It is enough to say that no one should
undertake the establishment of a beautiful home
until he has first made a thorough and personal study
of his land, and so become identified with it that he
will comprehend its best use and its possibilities for

48 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS., SHELTERS, ETC.

developing the beautiful. It is not enough that one
shall employ a landscape artist, to get the highest
good from this home-creating. A home should be
the growth of a man's soul into house and land. If
you follow out this idea you will soon discover where
a strictly ornamental hedge will assist you in making
your home more home-like, and where a hedge,
partly for utility, will best accomplish the ends which
you seek.

If a hedge has gone wild for a few years, the
question arises, what can be done with it. If the
hedge be deciduous the problem is not so generally
one that cannot be answered. Cut it down nearly
or quite to the ground, as your first step toward
improvement. Then inaugurate a system of careful
trimming, not too severe; but let the rapid growth
have considerable free play. Give the plants one
or two feet of new development the first year. Or
if the hedge has been neglected for only a year or
two, you may cut it down to two or three feet in
hight, carefully shaping the hedge as you cut it.
Deciduous hedges have always this advantage that
they can be built up again after neglect, whereas you
cannot do anything of the sort with evergreen
hedges. I shall refer to this topic again in connec-
tion with evergreens, but may as well say here that
if an old evergreen hedge has gaps that you wish to
fill up, this may be accomplished with no difficulty
if you will have patience; whereas, if the hedge is
badly killed in places and thoroughly out of shape,
cutting back will do no good ; it must be destroyed.

CHAPTER IV.

EVERGREENS FOR HEDGES.

Notwitstanding the enthusiasm we may genu-
inely feel for deciduous hedges, and the delight we
get from the shelters of sweet flowering shrubs, the
longer a man cultivates gardens and garden homes,
the more he will find himself convinced that no
deciduous bush or tree of any sort makes as good
a hedge for ornamental grounds, or so good a pro-
tection against winds, as an evergreen. The latter
creates a wall unchanged by the season. When the
day is bitter outside, the moment I step into my
drives between my arbor-vitse hedges the climate
becomes comfortable. Here, behind and between
these walls, I can grow shrubs and fruits that cannot
be grown across the street, where the wind and
weather have their way. Even in November or in
March I can find a cozy corner in a curve of arbor-
vitse. My Concords and even my Isabellas are
given a chance to ripen. Under the lee of protect-
ing hedges, December not seldom gives me a dande-
lion. Better yet, the birds know all about it ; robins
linger in the lap of winter and do not find it so bad
to tarry with us. But best of all is it to be able to
look out the dreariest and bleakest days of mid-
winter and rest my eyes on greenery as fresh as
May or October, My own evergreen hedges and

4 49

EVERGREENS FOR HEDGES. 51

windbreaks, if extended in a continuous line, would
cover over half a mile; nor do I wish to part with a
single rod of them.

SECTION I MATERIAL.

The handsomest of all evergreen hedges is made
of our native hemlock spruce. The foliage is fine
and hangs with peculiar grace. Another advantage
is that the color does not change during the winter
months. Arbor-vitse becomes a russet brown, very
beautiful, but hemlock is as green in January as in
June. A hemlock hedge is, however, more easily
spoiled by wrong trimming or neglect, and I cannot
therefore recommend it for general planting, as fully
equal to the arbor-vitae. By all means, try it for
small enclosures, especially near the house, or to pro-
tect roses and delicate shrubbery. The Norway
spruce makes an admirable hedge, but needs severe
pruning, and is almost certain to get out of control
or become unsightly after a few years. Nearly all
that I have seen planted I have also seen dug out.
The junipers can be more safely used, especially
red cedar. Its special value is, however, to create
shelter. It will readily make a wall from twenty to
thirty feet high, and as such its value will be appre-
ciated in keen wild weather. It is thoroughly hardy
and the growth is quite rapid. The low-growing
junipers make pleasant but irregular hedges, while
the savin is important mainly to grow along the
foot of high windbreaks, or to be associated with a
rockery.

Very similar in growth to the savin is our
native evergreen bush, the mahonia. This is the

52 HEDGES., WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

handsomest shrub in existence when well grown,
with its glossy holly-like leaves that are red when
young, and its flowers that appear in May as huge
balls of gold. A line of these makes a magnificent
sight early in spring. The mahonia is, however,
slightly tender in northern latitudes. I find it essen-
tial to cover my bushes with a sprinkle of leaves, held
on with branches of evergreen or with brush. In the
northeast angle of a building, where the winter sun
cannot reach it freely, it shows no winter-killing.

I have referred to the common hemlock (Abies
Canadensis), but there are many other varieties of
hemlock which may be used to vary landscape work.
For low hedges and borders, Parsons' Dwarf is
excellent. It must also be borne in mind that the
hemlock, unlike most evergreens, is very much given
to sporting. You will find so great variation in the
growth, even in the same opening, as to almost con-
stitute varieties. I have been able to select those
which were very drooping in their foliage, and others
nearly as stiff and formal in growth as the arbor-
vitse. It must always be borne in mind that the
hemlock loves moist soil, and that it does not take
with any liking to pine lands or any other soils that
are light and sandy. Yet it will thrive on high
knolls, provided it be well mulched. I have seldom
lost a bush by removing it from a swampy ground,
unless from neglect of immediate mulching.

I have ranked as next to hemlock, and in some
respects superior to it, the arbor-vitse. I think that,
as generally treated, it is preferable for long hedges.
It is stiffer and stouter in growth, and will bet-
ter endure a degree of neglect. I do not mean,

54 HEDGES,, WINDBREAKS., SHELTERS, ETC.

however, to imply that any hedge of any sort will be
worth having after a protracted season of shifting
for itself. The arbor-vitae grows dense and stout
lower branches, and I have left a fine hedge (during
a season of illness) untrimmed for one full year.

Bear in mind that the arbor-vitae is capable of
adjusting itself to a wide range of climate, and for
growth, hardiness and readiness to take the shears,
is also useful. I think it is found over as wide a
range of our Northern states as any evergreen that
we have. While fond of wet lands, it adapts itself
quite as well to dry soils, and I have it successfully
growing on knolls, ridges, and along the faces of
cliffs. The hemlock, after the spring trimming,
sends out a drooping growth which at the tip is
almost equal to florescence. It is best suited for low
hedges, and the arbor-vitae for taller ones.

Select as a rule the evergreen that is native to
your section. You will best understand its growth,
and can secure the soil it desires. Do not think that
because the tree is native it is less desirable in culti-
vated grounds. The finest ornamental lawns in
America, including their hedges, have a preponder-
ance of shrubs and trees selected from adjacent wild
land. You will find a veritable revelation when
once you have set yourself to a study of your vege-
table neighbors. You will also find that you can
have for the digging some of nature's finest treasures.

I have not attempted anything like a full list of
evergreens suitable for hedges and similar work.
Indeed, ve/y few are unsuited to this purpose.
Among the best are the following, with golden
foliage :

EVERGREENS FOR HEDGES. 55

1 i ) The Golden arbor-vitse. This -is a beau-
tiful variety of Chinese origin, with a bright
yellowish-green foliage. I have not found it entirely
hardy in central New York, but nearly so. Its
growth is compact and round.

(2) Two other small-growing varieties of
arbor-vitse with golden foliage are the Hovey and
the George Peabody. These are capital little trees
for low-growing and compact screens or hedges.

(3) Among the Retinosporas are two exceed-
ingly beautiful bushes or small trees, with rich
golden color and foliage of a plume sort. These are
very graceful, the R. plumosa aurea and the gracilis
aurea. I do not know anything more pretty or
graceful.

(4) Among upright growing evergreens wre
have a number that are exceedingly well adapted to
hedges and hedge-like growth. The pyramidalis
arbor-vitse resembles the Irish juniper when seen at
a distance, but is useful where that is not and is more
hardy. The foliage is a rich, deep green; a color
which it retains all winter. This tree is not made
near as much use of as it should be. Indeed, our fine
lawns rarely have a proportionate number of pyra-
midal or erect-growing trees.

(5) The Swedish juniper, the Irish juniper and
the Neoboriensis constitute three exceedingly fine
erect-growing evergreens suitable for hedges. The
Irish is perhaps the finest in growth, making a splen-
did column ten to fifteen feet high. Of the red cedar
I have already spoken.

(6) Of dwarf-growing plants nothing could be
finer than the Tom Thumb arbor-vitse. Much like

56 HEDGES., WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

it is the heath-leaved arbor-vitae, and the pumila. All
of these are natural dwarfs. They will make a hedge
from one to three feet high.

(7) The Retinospora squarrosa is another very
graceful and very beautiful small-growing evergreen,
with glaucous green foliage.

(8) At the South may be planted to great
advantage the Irish yew, the English yew and other
varieties of the evergreen. The Variegata is edged
with golden yellow. These cannot be recommended
for the North as perfectly hardy. The yew is popu-
lar in England because it can be so easily sheared.
It grows with very dense foliage.

(9) Among the large strong-growing ever-
greens the Austrian pine and the Scotch pine make
two of our very best for screens, but not the best for
close hedges.

(10) But whatever else we overlook we must
not forget the Siberian arbor-vitae. This variety is
very much like the American, except that its foliage
is heavier and grows cultriform, that is, perpendic-
ular instead of horizontal. It bears trimming per-
fectly and can be kept in as good shape as our native
arbor-vitse.

(n) The Balsam fir I mention not to recom-
mend it, but simply to warn all hedge growers from
undertaking the use of it. It is the most disappoint-
ing of all our evergreens for every purpose what-
ever. Exceedingly beautiful when young, it begins
to die out at the base very early, and as it becomes
a tree it becomes scraggy and unsightly. It also
has the exceedingly bad fault of breaking down
easily in high winds.

EVERGREENS FOR HEDGES. 5?

Our Southern states have a few other evergreens
adapted to hedges, such as Ilex cassine, a species of
holly. The leaves are described as small and much
like that of the arbutus. The berries are large and
brilliant red — not liked by birds, and therefore per-
sistent throughout the winter. The rhododendrons
are peculiarly beautiful for hedges, where they are
hardy, as are also the low-growing laurels or
kalmias. However, they will not thrive in lime-
stone soils sufficiently well to be of any use for hedge
work. By using made soil, and by persistent atten-
tion, individual shrubs may be grown, and short
hedges. If you try them at all, get good garden soil
without the least admixture of manure, add sand and
wood mold, and take care to mulch in the winter.

The Box deserves special notice. The low-
growing bushy variety is admirable in garden work,
bordering beds and walks. The larger growing
makes an admirable low hedge. It endures cutting
as well as the holly, and is responsible for no end of
fancies and abnormal shapings called art. In Eng-
lish and French gardens during the last century,
houses of box were not uncommon. Topiary work
is, however, no longer as fashionable in English
gardens or even in French. In this country it has
never secured any serious attention from our better
home-builders. As our own lives grow natural and
democratic, the conventional in art becomes dis-
tasteful.

It is no small advantage to have near our homes
such plants as can be cut for winter house decoration.
The savin is admirable for this purpose. The
mahonia is perhaps best of all; for although the

58 HEDGES., WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

leaves may be beneath the snow, they have lost none
of their rich summer brightness. Below the line of
New York, Magnolia glauca serves a similar pur-
pose, while farther south it becomes so entirely hardy
that it may be used for windbreaks with remarkable
effect. The leaves are large and glaucous, occa-
sionally acting as deciduous. The flowers are
exceedingly sweet as well as beautiful. Other mag-
nolias are very valuable for hedges, especially con-
spicua and Soulangeana. Indeed, ajl of the Chinese
varieties may be made useful for hedge work. Few
of them are evergreen, but I name them here as asso-
ciated with the glauca. The holly is a favorite in
Europe as well as in our Southern states. It will
thrive perfectly as far north as New Jersey and New
York city. Its historical and poetical associations
place it quite as high as its real beauty. It bears
winter clipping as well as the mahonia. For this
reason it has had its grotesque and fantastic shear-
ing. Fortunately no one any longer cares for mon-
strosities in landscape, and we shall probably never
again have a reign of vegetable griffins, roosters and
dogs. There are holly hedges in existence known
to be over two hundred years old. This is one of
the hedge plants that thrives best in sandy soil. It
grows very slowly, but will at the last, if untrimmed,
reach a hight of twenty-five feet.

SECTION II-— TREATMENT.

(a) The time for planting evergreens is iden-
tical with the time for planting deciduous trees.
The old notion that it was advisable to plant them

EVERGREENS FOR HEDGES. 59

in August is entirely given up. It resulted in a loss
of a large proportion of all that were planted. Why
the hobby ever found so general acceptance is diffi-
cult of explanation. Set your plants early in April,
and plant them precisely as you do deciduous trees
— only with extra precautions. When I say April
I mean for the sections of country running from
Boston westward.

(b) Before digging your trees, have your
trenches dug for planting them. These should be
of ample width, probably three feet will never be too
wide for the trench, and two feet in depth. Let the
bottom be filled with loose earth and then puddled,
that is, thoroughly soaked with water. When set-
ting, wet down the roots constantly, and thoroughly
puddle each tree as it is planted. This is the impor-
tant point with evergreens, that they be thoroughlv
puddled. It is, however, equally important that the
plants be handled right in digging. The roots of
an evergreen should never be exposed to the sun, or
the wind, or allowed to get dry. Wrap the roots as
soon as out of the ground with wet straw or matting
or old cloth. Keep these well wetted until you reach
your planting ground. Then, if not to be imme-
diately put into the soil, puddle the roots by thrust-
ing them into a tank or pond or brook. Keep them
here until you are ready to plant them, drawing them
out one by one. It is necessary to add that if the
soil be exceedingly solid and retentive, drainage
should be prepared beforehand. This may be accom-
plished by tile drains or a series of tile drains. If
the hedge be a straight one, I should be inclined to
run a drain parallel, and within a few feet through

6O HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

the whole length. If the trench dug for setting
your plants be a little deeper than needed for the
plants, and the bottom filled with rubble stone, this
will suffice, unless the soil is low.

(c) As soon as planted and thoroughly soaked
to the surface, let your hedge be mulched. This
must never be overlooked or delayed. Use sawdust
if convenient, or coal ashes, if more convenient, — •
always those of anthracite coal. Bear in mind that
manure from the barnyard, and the commercial fer-
tilizers, have nothing to do with the soil in which
you place evergreens. If you wish to destroy your
hedge impromptu, use barnyard manure.

(d) If the hedge plants were not cut back
before setting, let it be done at once, and let it be
done very severely. Bring all the plants into as
nearly the same size as possible. The only rule to
be given is to remove from one-third to two-thirds
of the wood, including all the long straggling and
irregular branches. The permanent shaping of the
hedge will require a watchful eye and careful hand
for not less than four or five years. Meanwhile the
hedge will have a somewhat open look, not altogether
beautiful, but closing up steadily into a solid wall.

This shaping is the key to all your success or
failure. You cannot compel evergreens to continue
healthy if you insist on artificial forms of growth.
Whatever kind you are planting, study first its
natural method of growth and outlines as the trees
stand wild. Then follow very nearly these same
outlines as you train the bushes into a hedge. The
arbor-vitae should rise, on an easy slope from the
ground, to near what you intend shall be the top of

EVERGREENS FOR HEDGES. 6 1

the hedge ; after reaching that point there should be
an easy roll over the top to the other side. This top
should never be sharp cut nor flat, nor should it be
very broad from the sides. For some reason that I
am unable to explain, the hemlock does not, when
rounded from near the bottom, refuse to grow as
well as when it takes the somewhat conical form of
the wild tree. This roll of the hedge is not exactly
what we might term the natural form of the hemlock
tree, nevertheless, I have found it desirable, and
entirely practicable to grow my hemlock hedges
much more rolling from the bottom on the one side
to the bottom on the other than my arbor-vitse
hedges. I have never had a gap in either of these
hedges due to winter-killing, or in any way traceable
to the trimming. You will find it possible, probably,
on this style of trimming to get a fairly compact
hedge by the end of the fourth year. The hemlock
should improve in form and compactness for ten
years longer. With careful handling it should
retain its completeness and beauty for forty or fifty
years more.

If trees grow near by, or shrubbery crowds
against an evergreen hedge, there will surely be dead
branches rapidly formed on the side encroached upon.
Sometimes this may be endurable, where it occurs
on the back side of the hedge, and you do not care
to sacrifice a very choice shrub. Where I have found
it necessary or desirable to fill up such gaps in arbor-
vitse hedges, I have found it much more practicable
to fill with hemlock than with arbor-vitae. Take
small plants of not more than one foot in hight, set
them carefully, and be patient. This fusion of two

62 HEDGES., WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

species of evergreens is not always undesirable. The
arbor-vitse and hemlock work specially well together.
It must be borne in mind that evergreen will not
grow with equal thrift in sun and in shade, or when
half shaded. These inequalities can be partially
remedied by careful trimming. I have been able to
run my arbor-vitse hedges for over a quarter of a
mile over the ground, and so adjust them to the grade
that they do not give to the eye an unpleasant lack
of either symmetry or uniformity. I know that they
are not of equal hight or equal fullness, but I know
that my shears have made them appear to be such.

Evergreen hedges are ruined more often by
errors in trimming than by all other causes com-
bined. The following rules, if followed carefully,
will be sure to keep any well-grown hedge in good
condition for thirty or forty years, probably longer :
( I ) Trim only once a year, and always before new
growth appears, in the latter part of April or early
in May. That is, if the spring be warm, cut in
March, if not, in April. Never cut in midwinter,
for the tips that you cut away are intended b.y nature
as a protection for the buds which will make next
summer's growth. If cut away, the probabilities are
that cold days and severe frosts will either kill back
the hedge in spots, or nip the buds enough to spoil
the beauty of the coming growth. Remember that
a hemlock hedge is beautiful not simply for its shape,
but for the exquisite blossoming of its fresh growth.
Nor should you ever cut in autumn, and that for the
same reason, that ygu would be cutting away the
cloak that nature has prepared for the hedge during
the coming winter. If you do cut in autumn you will

EVERGREENS FOR HEDGES. 63

almost certainly be inquiring of some one, in the
spring, why some of your hedges are killed altogether
and others show dead bushes. A gentleman of my
acquaintance who owned very fine hemlock hedges
insisted on keeping them clipped throughout the
season. The result is that he now has so wretched
a hedge and so unsightly that what he has not already
dug out will soon be removed. I bear strong empha-
sis on this point, because so many people who seek
to have beautiful homes have a passion for eternally
clipping something. Their hedges must be sheared ;
the lawn must be equally sheared. To them growth
is never beautiful — only smoothness.

(2) When you trim, cut close to the wood of
the previous year, but never so close that you do not
leave a small portion of wood with leaves on it, for
here are the only buds for new growth. Evergreens,
unlike deciduous trees, have no dormant buds on old
wood that can be developed. If you cut away the
leaves, or needles as we should call them, entirely,
then you have killed the hedge, or whatever part of
the hedge you have so cut. This mischief also
occurs from the employment of professional trim-
mers— that is, of a class of men who do not under-
stand anything beyond the formalities of cutting.
They seldom comprehend the nature of the growth,
and are intent only on keeping the outlines of the
wood. You must bear in mind that they will charge
the damage to the severity of the winter, or to the
heat of the summer, or to some other cause which
will not stand investigation; they will not be them-
selves responsible. The evergreens I have indicated
as hardy do not winter-kill, nor do they burn out in

EVERGREENS FOR HEDGES. 6$

summer if properly trimmed. (3) Have as little of
last year's growth as possible left by the shears,
because if a hedge gains only one inch on each side
each year, it will in twenty 3^ears have gained forty
inches or considerably over three feet. In many
places this spread of the hedge will not be endurable.
It will encroach too much on your drive or on your
lawn. (4) There is great danger that your trim-
mer, using long shears, will bear his weight a little
more heavily as he reaches higher up, and so will
valley in a hedge. Insist on it that the contour I
have previously described be kept without infringe-
ment. If not, your hedge will begin to decay.
(5) Do not allow the lower branches to be short-
ened in \vith those that lie just above. They must
reach out so as to form, from the very ground, a
slight inclination all the way up, and leave a solid
base for the hedge. If possible these lower branches
should lie flat on the ground. (6) If your hedge
runs east and west, or nearly so, the north side will
be in danger from close pruning. It must have
light and air.

A few things must be borne in mind in the
care of evergreen hedges apart from the pruning:
(i) That they must not be touched roughly when
hard frozen. The branches are then as brittle as glass
and will break sharp off, leaving rents and breaches.
It is clear, therefore, that careless drivers must not
be tolerated among your drives that are bordered
with this class of hedges. If the hedge is loaded
with snow that needs to be removed, let it be done
if possible when the branches are not frozen. (2)
Urine kills a hedge, and dogs become a nuisance.
5

66 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

If you keep a dog at all, a collie is the safest, and a
spayed female the best of all. I hardly need add
that you must keep sharp watch lest about the roots
of your hedge be poured brine or any other salty
material. (3) You must not leave the heavy snows
of winter to do as they will with your hedges. If a
heavy snow falls on them, let it be loosened up and
tossed off by the use of a rake or a pitchfork or with
a long pole. I sometimes use a tool made of a bit of
board firmly fastened to the end of a pole.

It will of course be asked (i) How long
will it take to establish a perfect evergreen
hedge? All depends on the common sense
and care that it receives. An evergreen
hedge should look very well, as I have before
said, by the third year. It should be in splendid form
by the fifth year. (2) How long will an evergreen
hedge last? I have hedges of arbor-vitse thirty-five
years old, which my friend, Professor Bailey, says
are the finest between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
My hemlock hedges of the same age are as fresh and
as perfect as at ten years of age.

One of the most important subjects is, where
not to have an evergreen hedge. I do not know
that it is possible to give any directions, excepting
that you study your ground carefully before plant-
ing. A hedge, a screen, or a windbreak may be so
placed as to throw the drift of snow directly into
your drives, or they may be so planted as to divert
such lines of drift. This can be accomplished only,
as I said, by a previous and careful study of your
grounds and the tendency to drifting. Other sug-
gestions I prefer to make in the form of sketches.

EVERGREENS FOR HEDGES. /

Note. — I do not know of anyone in America
better qualified to speak on evergreens than Samuel
Parsons, Jr. I think so highly of a brief essay from
his pen on Japanese evergreens that I shall close this
section by copying the same. While it is not strictly
a discussion of hedges, it will give precisely that
information which will be sought for by those who
desire to experiment with some of the more rare and
beautiful of these trees. "Abies polita, the tiger-tail
spruce, is one of the finest and most valuable of the
Japanese conifers. It is rich and very characteristic
in form. The yellow-barked branches extend out
stiff and straight, and the glossy, bright green, stiff-
pointed leaves are as sharp and not unlike the spines
of a hedgehog. The curious appearance of the ends
of the young growth or half bursting leaf buds
doubtless suggested the name, tiger-tail spruce.
Abies polita grows slowly and, therefore, belongs to
the class of evergreens specially fitted for small
places. But this little cluster of evergreens close by
is even better fitted for such work. They are Jap-
anese junipers, and very hardy. Their elegant forms
and rich tints would indeed render them distin-
guished anywhere. One is silvery, at least on a
portion of its leaves ; another is almost solid gold, and
another (Juniperus aurea variegata) has its leaves
simply tipped with gold in the daintiest fashion
imaginable.

"Let us look at these two Japanese pines that
show so richly, even at a little distance. One is
Finns densiflora, with bright green leaves, long and
very effective. This tree grows very rapidly, soon
requiring the application of the pruning knife. In

68 HEDGES,, WINDBREAKS., SHELTERS., ETC.

coloring and general habit it is perhaps the best of
Japanese pines, except Pinus Massoniana, which only
surpasses it in a yellowish tint that generally per-
vades the leaves. But the Pinus Massoniana par
excellence is the golden-leaved form of that species.
It is bright gold that seems to gain a touch of deeper
gold as you pause to look at it. This peculiar effect
is greatly enhanced by the fact that Pinus Masso-
niana has two leaves only in a sheath, and these
leaves are so clustered on the end of the branches as
to spread in every direction. It was this peculiarity
that gave rise to the name, sun-ray pine. But the
noteworthy habit of this pine is its late variegation.
In June, while in full growth, it is rather greenish-
golden than golden; but all through the summer its
yellow grows brighter, until in September it makes
a very striking object amid the fading leaves of fall.
It makes, in fact, a worthy companion for the golden
oak (Quercus Concordia), which you will remember
has the same peculiarity. It should be also noted
that the brightness of the sun-ray pine remains unin-
jured during winter, and never burns in summer, a
quality that other so-called golden pines have sadly
needed. The bright yellow of the sun-ray pine is
confined in a peculiar manner to about two-thirds of
the leaf. Beginning at the base, first comes gold,
then an equal amount of green and then again as
much gold at the tip. The dividing lines between
these colors are marked out with singular distinct-
ness, thus giving the utmost delicacy and finish to
the variegation. Pinus Massoniana variegata is on
the lawn in question, but it is, nevertheless, very rare
and hardly to be obtained anywhere.

EVERGREENS FOR HEDGES. 69

"We come now to the Retinosporas (Japan
cypresses), choicest, I was about to say, of all ever-
greens; certainly the choicest, as a class, of all
recently introduced evergreens. To Robert Fortune,
the great English collector of plants in Japan, we
owe probably the real introduction of the leading
species of Retinosporas — namely, R. plumosa aurea,
R. pisifem and R. obtusa — and a greater benefit
could hardly have been done the lawn planter than
the introduction of these evergreens. They are
hardy, of slow growth and of most varied beauty in
individual specimens, the latter being a quality
greatly wanting among some evergreens commonly
used throughout the country, arbor-vitses for in-
stance. And, apropos of arbor-vitses, let me say
that the Retinosporas bear a much more close rela-
tion to that species than they do to cypresses, not-
withstanding the latter has been adopted as the Eng-
lish name. The Retinosporas graft readily on the
Thujas or arbor-vitaes and bear a certain resem-
blance to them, but the resemblance only that
can exist between a beautiful plant and one
much less attractive. Let us look at a group
of the new and rare Retinosporas, although
unfortunately all Retinosporas are comparatively
rare on our lawns. In asking you to look
first at filicoidcs, I am selecting one of the
very choicest and most curious green species
or varieties. If it were not for a peculiarly thick-
curled border along the leaf of this Retino-
spora, it might be readily taken while young for an
evergreen fern. It is a spreading plant, of slow
growth and great hardiness. Indeed, I might say,

7O HEDGES., WINDBREAKS^ SHELTERS, ETC.

once for all, that the Retinosporas are of unexcelled
hardiness, both winter and summer, and that their
variegations are all permanent. Can a higher char-
acter be given to any other evergreen?

"There are two distinct kinds of weeping
Retinosporas — namely, a beautiful fern-like pendu-
lous form of R. obtusa, originating in Flushing, and
an extravagant, attenuated form, imported recently
from Japan through Mr. Thomas Hogg. The long
thread-like leaves of this variety fall directly down
and curve about the stem in swaying, meager masses,
which suggest that in this plant the extreme of the
weeping form among evergreens has been reached.
Almost as curious as this is another introduction of
Mr. Thomas Hogg, R. filifera aurea. We have
known R. nlifera for some time as a rare tree with
tesselated shaggy masses of green, thread-like foli-
age, but Mr. Hogg's new variety offers the same
strange mass of foliage, only in this case it is turned
into gold, broad, solid, permanent gold. While I
am pointing out the Golden Retinosporas, which are
veritable sunbeams amid other evergreens, let me
call your attention to R. obtusa aurea, one of the best
and most distinct of all variegated forms. It is free-
growing, with a beautiful combination of gold color
intermixed with glossy rich green, all over the plant.
Although not exactly a new plant, I am constrained
to call your passing attention to R. obtusa nana,
one of the very best of dwarf evergreens, a
dense flat tuft of glossy, deep green spray, a
cushion or ball of evergreen foliage that will
hardly grow two feet in ten years. The golden
form of R. obtusa nana is charming. Its yel-

EVERGREENS FOR HEDGES. 7!

low is a rich bronze, and I do not know any-
thing of the kind more attractive. R. pisifera
nana varicgata is also very beautiful, a dense minia-
ture bush of a general bluish-gray aspect, except a
portion of the lesser branchlets and leaves, which are
pale yellow. But do not think I have begun to
exhaust the curious forms of these Retinosporas.
I have only given the most noteworthy to be found
on a superior lawn. Any large group of R. obtusa
will give a dozen beautiful diverse forms of weeping,
pyramidal and dwarf or spreading evergreens. All
or practically all kinds of Retinosporas now used
came from Japan, where they are common, but highly
valued in the beautiful gardens of that country. Mr.
Hogg has not only introduced several of these new
Retinosporas, but has given us possibly more new
Japanese plants than any collector since the time of
Robert Fortune's famous horticultural explorations.
"I must not leave these Retinosporas without
calling attention again to their excellent adaptation
to small places. If we restrict the planting on a
small lawn to Japanese maples, Retinosporas and two
or three shrubs, like Spiraea crispifolia, we may
almost defy, with a little skill, the power of time to
compass, by means of trees, the destruction of our
grass plots. I must add, however, one other conifer
to this seemingly short, but really varied, list of
new hardy plants suited to miniature lawn planting.
I refer to Sciadopitys verticillata, the parasol pine,
one of the most extraordinary evergreens known.
The plant we see on this lawn is scarcely two feet
high, and yet it is more than ten years old. Trav-
elers in Japan tell us of specimens in Japanese gar-

72 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

dens fifty and one hundred feet high ; but certainly
in youth the plant is wonderfully dwarf. Its strange
habit is produced by the curiously long, broad, dark,
green needles, or narrow-shaped leaves, that cluster
in parasol-like tufts at the end of each succeeding
year's growth. The color is as dark as that of the
yew, and the growth as compact. It is, moreover,
very hardy, and thus presents a combination of choice
qualities of the most strange, attractive, and valuable
character. The plant is so entirely original in its
forms that it seems some lone type, the correlations
of which are lost, or yet to be found. As we look
upon it, we commence to realize how thoroughly
most plants of the same genus, all over the globe, are
related to each other, just because we can think of
nothing else that resembles the parasol pine.

"A Japanese yew, near by, of rich and spreading
habit, exemplifies this resemblance between various
members of a genus situated in various parts of the
earth. This Japanese yew (Taxus cuspidate) is
however, very noteworthy for great hardiness, a
character that can be scarcely accorded to any other
yew in this climate. Thuiopsis Standishii is another
Japanese plant on this lawn, of comparatively recent
introduction. I want to call your attention to it,
situated near the Retinosporas, not only because it is
a beautiful evergreen, somewhat like the arbor-vitse
in general appearance, but because it does better here,
apparently, than in England. This is a peculiarity
remarkable in an evergreen, for the moist climate of
England seems to make for them a very home."

I do not need to apologize for inserting this
essay in full ; because it will surely be helpful to a

EVERGREENS FOR HEDGES.

73

very large class of those whom I desire to aid in
making home delightful by the use of evergreens.
Most of the trees which Mr. Parsons describes can be
used in hedges, groups, and shelters. The true home
builder is also a decorative artist.

FIG. 8. GROUND PLAN OF VILLAGE PLOT, WITH
FLOWERS, HEDGES AND WINDBREAKS.

CHAPTER V.

WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS., ETC.

While the hedge proper also serves largely as
a protection against wind and storm, it is presumed
not to be planted primarily for that purpose. The
true windbreak is a very tall hedge, or a close row
of evergreens, or grove, or a strip of forest. While
I am an enthusiast on beautiful and useful hedges, I
believe the subject of supreme importance for Ameri-
can agriculture and horticulture is just now how to
protect ourselves and our grounds from violent
winds and changes of temperature. Professor Bailey,
in his admirable discussion of the subject, suggests
that one reason why fruit growing is attended with
increasing difficulties is because of the removal of
the forests The result of forest destruction has been
to make our summers hotter and dryer and our win-
ters more extreme. It is not so much that the
weather is colder than formerly, but that the changes
are more frequent and sharper.

The forest aids the fruit grower in two ways:
first, it prevents the severe sweep of winds breaking
trees, and creating sudden atmospheric changes;
second, it conserves and balances atmospheric mois-
ture. The sweep of winds when undisturbed bears
away the moisture from the soil and also from the
trees and their buds. It is well known that fruit

75

7,6 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

buds will endure two or three degrees severer freez-
ing when the air is moist than when it is dry. It is
true that hedges and windbreaks and forests may
hinder the free circulation of air over a very adjacent
orchard, and they may harbor both insect ene-
mies and fungous diseases. Professor Bailey
suggests that we can and ought to do a
great deal, in the way of eliminating from
our forests, trees that are specially the breed-
ers of our enemies. For instance, the wild cherry,
which grows along the edge of our woods, is espe-
cially occupied by the tent caterpillar, and as a rule
should be cut down. I follow Professor Bailey still
farther, in his suggestion that we do not wish or
need to protect ourselves from all sorts of winds. If
wind passes over a large body of water, it becomes
warmer by taking heat from the water as well as
moisture. In this case a windbreak would be detri-
mental to the interests of the horticulturist. "From
a general study of the subject it appears that, for
interior localities, dense belts of evergreens, backed
by forest trees to prevent evergreens from becoming
ragged, are advisable, because winds coming off the
land are liable to make the plantation colder. In
localities influenced by bodies of water it is better to
plant just enough to break the force of the wind."
To sum up the whole subject : "A windbreak may
exert a great influence upon a fruit plantation. The
benefits derived from it are, protection from cold,
lessening of evaporation, decrease of windfalls, facili-
tation of labor, enabling trees to grow more erect,
encouragement of birds, and beauty of landscape."
I am so loath to divorce the useful and the beau-

WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC. 77

tiful that my taste inclines very strongly to those
forms of windbreaks that give more or less return of
fruit. It is amazing how large an amount of grapes
can be grown on a close row of deciduous trees, which
become interlaced with the vines. It is true that as
the vines climb higher much of the fruit will be out
of reach for easy gathering, and that very little
of it will be really marketable, but it is never out
of reach of the birds. In the orchard we also have
at hand an eminently fine tree for constructing fruit-
ful windbreaks — I refer to the Buffum pear. This
tree grows almost as a counterpart of the Lombardy
poplar, erect, stiff and compact. It should never be
cut back at the top, for it has no capacity for lateral
growth. Set the trees about eight feet apart, arid
then let them take their own way. The result will
be a wall, as smooth and perfect as a trimmed hedge.
In blossom, the Buffum pear is simply superb, and
later it will be loaded with golden pears, which while
not first class are yet a very good second class. The
fruit is one of the best that we have for pickling, and
if picked before ripe becomes a very good dessert
pear. Let them begin to yellow before picking, and
then store or sell. The cropping power is astonish-
ing. After the pears are gone, and in the later sea-
son, the leaves become a brilliant crimson. Of all
lawn trees there are only two or three equal to the
Buffum pear in autumn coloring, and I do not know
one other pear that is equal to it. The leaves hang-
on until late, and a wall of them cannot be surpassed
for magnificence. If instead of a windbreak you
desire an avenue that shall be part shelter for your
drives the Buffum pear still surpasses all trees for

78 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

close growth and rich foliage. In other words, here
is a fruit that we would not select to any extent for
orchard-growing, and yet it is so good that it will be
welcomed when it affords us bushels, without any
further labor than that of planting a windbreak.

A close row of dwarf apples is another device
for combining fruit and shelter. Some of the dwarfs
are delightfully compact and beautiful, whether
singly or in rows. They are useful, however, only
where you will be content with a windbreak ten feet
high. The Ben Davis is a good apple for this pur-
pose. Its branches droop, and in autumn bend
gracefully down with a load of crimson fruit. The
Astrakhan, not dwarfed, makes a splendid wind-
break, bearing quite as well as in an open orchard.
The Kirkland is extremely fine for close-growing,
for dense foliage and for heavy cropping. The main
point to be looked after, in planting apple tree shel-
ters, is to select varieties with tough enduring wood.
Other varieties, like the Baldwin and the Pound
Sweet, will soon give way under the loads of fruit,
or in windstorms ; and present in the course of two
or three years after bearing, a mass of brushwood.
Such a windbreak must be trimmed of suckers as
carefully as the trees in an orchard.

I have seen nature create some remarkably good
windbreaks with wild cherries and wild plums. The
latter particularly are good for their fruit as well as
their shelter. It is well for us to give nature the cue,
by starting along a required line a choice variety of
plums like the Lombard, from which suckers will
soon fill up all the space allowed. But here again
there will be constant need of the saw and pruning

WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC. 7Q

knife, because as new trees appear, some of the old
ones are sure of continually dying. I have already
suggested the danger from wild cherry trees, that
they will become breeders of tent and other cater-
pillars, yet they are very beautiful in close rows.

A protective wall of crab apple trees is one of the
easiest to be made and one of the most useful. These
trees, however, should not be set closer than fifteen
feet. Let them branch out six or eight feet in each
direction, and let the branches start about five or six
feet from the ground. After the first crop of apples
these branches will droop to the sod. Remember
that such a row of trees must have room. It must
not be used as a close hedge, for then its beauty as
well as its utility will be sacrificed. If you know of
anything more beautiful than a Martha or Hyslop
crab in full bloom, it must be the same tree in full
fruit. A row of these trees standing twenty feet
high, and touching the ground with their branches,
will delight the dullest eye. The value of the fruit
is at the same time considerable for home use, or
market. The demand for the best varieties of
crab apples is on the increase. Prices range about
with the prices of dessert apples in the autumn
months.

No one can fail to get excellent hints from the
way nature creates her windbreaks wherever she is
permitted an opportunity. Watch how rapidly along
every line of old fence these appear. The farmer
can do no better than to let them grow. Oaks, ashes,
elms, chestnuts, will thus stand close, or in groups,
while underneath crowd elders, haws and hazels.
Wild grapevines climb through and interlace the

80 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

whole, with here and there a few loops of Virginia
creeper. I defy you to find anything more beautiful.
But it is the value of these palisades against the storm
and tfre wind that we should most think of. I know
farmers who have shown their first title to owner-
ship by cutting down all such encumbrances. They
look upon them as occupants of good soil which
should be put to better purposes. In one case, where
I have had excellent opportunity for observation, the
owner has so changed the climate that where quince
orchards grew to perfection, nothing of the kind will
at present thrive. It is well sometimes to join hands
with nature and board up or otherwise protect such a
line of trees. Behind such a protection half-hardy
crops and trees will be sufficiently helped to become
toughened to the climate. Many of our shrubs and
trees only need guarding carefully for the first four
or five years of tlieir growth, after which they
become acclimated and hardy.

In a few cases I have found it advisable to use
movable winter fences instead of planting shrubs or
trees, removing them when spring returns. These
are especially useful to the north and west of vine-
yards and quince orchards. I have also found them
useful in making a currant crop certain and in break-
ing from my gooseberry rows the full force of the
wind, but in the latter case the protection is of more
importance in breaking the force of the hot winds
in summer. Such fences are not desirable to shield
peach trees and plums, which are more likely to be
induced to make late growth or soften their blossom
buds in the warm winter sun. Some of the pear
trees, notably the Seckel and Sheldon, are easily

WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC. 8 1

started by warm exposure in midwinter, and the
buds afterward killed by a sharp freeze.

However, I believe that in most cases where the
climate is severe, or where the winds have a broad
sweep, our best resort is to evergreen trees. In this
section I do not know of any tree that is better than
the arbor-vitae, either the American or the Siberian
variety. Next to this I should select the Norway
spruce. This magnificent tree has shown its capacity
for adapting itself to a great range of soils, and is
everywhere absolutely hardy. In planting the Nor-
way spruce I should by all means prefer a row of
trees standing so far apart that each one might be
individually well developed. This would require a
distance of at least twenty feet. If it be desirable
to form a windbreak very speedily, plant interme-
diate trees, which shall be carefully removed as soon
as the trees begin to impinge. Where space and
room are of no special importance, additional beauty
can be secured by planting at determinate points
groups of these trees, that is, at every ten or twenty
rods let the line be broken by a group of three to five
trees. These should stand closer together, so that
when they are twenty or thirty feet high they will
make but one compact outline. If desired these may
be made very pleasant shelters for seats in summer.

The arbor-vitae I should plant as a rule more
after the manner of a hedge, letting the plants at
the outset stand four or five feet apart. The erect
arbor-vitae is exceedingly fine for the purpose we arc
considering, but it should stand even closer in the
row than the common arbor-vitae. The beautiful
hemlock is not so perfect for a windbreak as it is for
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WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC. 83

a hedge, because of its propensity to lose the lower
branches. Still its dense foliage and noble green color
make it rank high for shelter. In New England
and some parts of the Northwest, what can be finer
than the white pine, wrhile in the Southern states the
yellow pine is used by nature for a shelter and may
well be used by man. One of the grandest of the
'pines to create a solid wall is Pinus Ceinbra. This
tree does not rise with me above eighteen or twenty
feet, and it makes a diameter of about ten feet, while
each tree is compact and sits firmly on the sod. It
is a grand tree for all purposes.

I quote from a very judicious article issued by
the Iowa Horticultural Society. For wind-swept
prairies "white spruce, silver spruce and Black Hills
spruce are all good for single row evergreen shelters.
Norway and arbor-vitse are good on dark, retentive
black loams, but not generally on light, thin prairie
soils or exposed hilly locations. Farm shelter belts
should differ. They should be located around build-
ing sites and yards, and the inside rows should be
one hundred and fifty feet back to keep snowdrifts
out of the yard. If land is not plenty, use only ever-
greens, but if plenty the quickest growing deciduous
cottonwood and willow can be used. For the out-
side rows, next to the wind, .plant two rows of cot-
tonwood cuttings, then come in sixteen feet toward
the buildings and plant two rows of willow cuttings
parallel with the cottonwood. So in alternate plant-
ing set four pairs of rows each. Thickly-set wil-
low will keep wind out below, but cottonwood throws
it up. Now, inside toward the buildings, thirty-two
feet from the last row of willows, plant Scotch pine;

84 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

thirty-two feet further in a row of white pine; and
thirty-two feet in further a row of white spruce,
Black Hill spruce, or silver spruce. Set evergreens
twelve feet apart in rows alternate ; willows and cot-
tonwood four feet apart in rows. All trees should
be planted on ground in high tilth. It should be
given all summer annual cultivation, and mulch each
fall for over winter. Continue cultivation until you
cannot get through, then seed to clover, where it will
grow. Evergreens ten to fifteen inches high, that
have been transplanted, are best to use. A grove of
all Northern red cedar makes the best grove for high
dry prairie soil. Do not let evergreen trees lay
around exposed to dry air or winds when planted.
Do not water them, but cultivate and hoe them the
same as the best garden crop." I agree with most
of this so thoroughly that I give it in full. I do not,
however, assent to the position that it is best to plant
small evergreens ten to fifteen inches high. It is
more than can be asked of most farmers to wait for
the development of such trees to become good wind-
breaks. I should set, by all means, trees four or five
feet high, provided they can be obtained. As for
watering trees, I have already suggested that they
should be thoroughly watered, but it is understood
by good cultivators that hoeing a plant is equivalent
to watering it. At all events do not let an evergreen
even approach dryness of the roots.

Among deciduous trees and shrubs the willow
is quite as good in the East as in the West. The
cottonwood is not procurable or usable in most of
the Eastern states. Both of these trees prefer moist
soil. I have seen some admirable windbreaks made

WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC. 85

by thrusting long sticks of willows into the soil, about
eight feet apart. These develop into trees with
great rapidity. It is very desirable in some sections
to multiply our nut trees by allowing them to grow
along the fences. The butternut in this section
makes a very good protection against the wind, but
the trees should not stand nearer than twenty feet.

Among smaller trees, I recommend as exceed-
ingly fine for both protection and ornament the cork-
barked maple. When I first procured this tree it
was mentioned to me as not quite hardy, but I have
found it entirely so and very enduring. The tree
rises to a hight of twelve feet, is almost exactly
round, and the foliage is as novel as the bark. It
has almost the exact form of some of our round-
topped evergreens. The beeches, which I have
already spoken of as suitable for hedges, make also
the very best of low windbreaks. In growth they
are very solid, and the tendency is to retain leaves
late in the winter. I do not know of anything more
superb than the thorns in blossom. None of them
take a very large amount of root room, and a wall
of double scarlet thorn would, I imagine, lead a pil-
grimage of the whole population to gaze on it. A
single tree is a marvel of beauty. If used for the
purpose I suggest, plant them about eight feet apart.

For low-growing windbreaks I would recom-
mend very especially the Exochorda grandiflora,
growing about ten feet high. It is very tough in
wood and very rarely is affected at all by the severest
weather. I have in a few cases had a few twigs
killed back. The blossoms are saucer-shaped, large
and pure white, and in May are among the most

86 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS., SHELTERS, ETC.

&« <r c «. t ~k K',

FIG. II. GROUND PLAN OF COUNTRY PLACE WITH
ARBOR-VITAE HEDGES.

WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, Ef C. 87

beautiful of the flowers borne by our shrubs. To
thicken the growth of such a windbreak or to make
more beautiful the frontage, I would use with great
freedom the Japan quince. This shrub occurs in
red, white and pink flowers. The fruit is often quite
abundant later in the season and is of the very highest
quality for making jelly. It is also very valuable
as a perfume in drawers of clothes. It will send out
a rich fragrance for years without rotting. I would
suggest for an ornamental windbreak, a background
of hemlock or arbor-vitae, with a row of thorns,
fronted by a third row of Japan quince. Our gar-
den quince, where it is entirely hardy, is also a really
admirable plant for hedge or windbreak. Its growth
is irregular, but it can be very easily controlled.

There is some appropriate demand in our orna-
mental grounds for shelters or hedges of double lines,
through which we shall have sheltered walks leading
to sheltered seats. We have several small-growing
trees suited to this purpose. Among the best are
the weeping elm, the sassafras, the Judas tree and
the wild apples. A densely covered walk of the
latter, run over with wild grapes, makes a remark-
ably cool retreat in summer and warm in winter.
Scott, in his "Beautiful Homes," recommends the
sassafras, cutting back the top, and compelling an
umbrella form, until the trees weave their tops to-
gether to make a complete canopy to cover as much
space as you please. The mulberry can be compelled
with ease to take on a similar growth. The Judas
tree is equally good, and a double row of these, arched
together, is a wonderfully fine sight in spring when,
before leaves appear, the whole is a mass of bloom.

88 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS., SHELTERS, ETC.

A single tree will cover a square of twenty feet, when
grown under the best conditions. But it must be
remembered that we have always to recKon with the
tendency of this tree to split down directly through
the heart or to break off large branches. This must
be prevented by watching for indications of the split,
and binding it with bands of hoop iron. The
arrangement suggested above does not forfeit the
rule of doing nothing antagonistic to nature. Such
a development of these trees is entirely natural, be-
cause in all ways the tree suggests massiveness.

All weave on high a verdant roof,
That keeps the very sun aloof;
Making a twilight soft and green
Within the column-vaulted scene.

SECTION I WINDBREAKS FOR SPECIAL PURPOSES.

It will not be foreign to the purpose of this
chapter if I suggest windbreaks for special purposes.
( I ) For bees : Every landowner will do well to have
an apiary. Bees are indispensable to aid in polleniz-
ing our fruits, many of which are unable to pollenize
themselves. Besides half a dozen hives will give
a very welcome supply of honey for family use,
while a surplus is very useful in adding to the farm-
er's income. The best honey tree in the world is
the basswood. This tree bears cutting remarkably
well, and can be kept, by persistent cutting, in the
form of a round-headed shrub. I have them thirty
years old and ten feet in hight and diameter. Now
let a hedge of this sort be established, and then let
rise out of it, twenty feet apart, shoots that shall

WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC. 89

make blossoming trees. You will then have a shelter
for your bees as well as honey-making food. But a
grove or double row of basswood, where there is
abundance of land, will prove exceedingly valuable,
both as a windbreak and honey producer. This tree
should be planted much more freely in our streets,
and everywhere, as the great American shade tree.
(2) Give to your pastures corners where the wind
cannot penetrate. This, even where your land is not
extensive, will be no loss, but by affording your
animals comfort will increase the flow of milk as
much as good pasturage. It is the misery of animals,
both in the cold of winter and the heat of summer,
that makes them less valuable as milk producers. A
very convenient arrangement can be made by grow-
ing vines — preferably grapevines — over a group of
small growing trees, wild apples, or thorns, or Eng-
lish elms, or any trees with tough wood. You get
your crops of grapes, or your cowboys do, and your
cows get their shelter. They will accept of it at all
seasons, for it is a mistake that the cow does not
appreciate the beautiful. I think I never saw a cow
lie down with her back to the moon and to a pleasant
outlook.

You will probably be astonished to find how
much the general humidity of your acres is increased
as you increase your windbreaks. For the same
reason grow grapes all over your houses and barns.
Let them climb not on the clapboards, but by a series
of wires running a few feet apart across the whole
of the faces of the building. You will then staple
your wire at convenient distances, and tie the grow-
ing vines as they climb. Here once more you will

9O HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

get immense crops of grapes; and you will gain
greatly in the coolness of the barn and stables for
your cattle, and of the house for its occupants. While
the temperature is equalized and the soil of your
land is increased in humidity, you will find that there
is no gathering of dampness in your walls, provided
you have followed the directions I have given, that
is, of tying to wires instead of nailing to the boards.

The windbreak and the brook — this is the com-
bination that expresses the most of possible delight.
The farmer too seldom utilizes his water supply,
except to serve the barnyard and house. A wind-
break of willows arching over the brook is not only
useful, but one of the most beautiful pictures that
nature allows. You have only to procure good sticks
of willow and insert them in the moist banks. A
neighbor's willow grove serves as a grand entrance
way to his mansion, but for me, being on the east-
ward side of it, it serves as a windbreak. But if yon
have a brook you should at least utilize it in some
way as a summer retreat. It offers a place for a
wild grape or bittersweet shelter. Let it be as wild
as possible. But if the brook runs through the open
meadow or pasture, a double row of nut trees on the
banks will do far more than furnish a summer shelter
and a winter windbreak, it will make home doubly
joyful for the young folk. Almost all of the nut
trees, such as butternuts, hickory nuts, walnuts,
chestnuts, associate pleasantly with water.

Of vines capable of use in interweaving wind-
breaks, the bittersweet is exceedingly fine. It is
perfectly hardy, very tenacious, and hangs in fes-
toons and loops of vine and berry. Combined with

WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC. Qt

Virginia creeper we get the gold and the crimson
together. Among the really good grapes, capable
of helping us in the way of making shelters, I know
nothing to surpass the August Giant. This grape
should be better known on the farm. It is the most
rapid grower that I have found among nearly one
hundred varieties. It will make canes twenty, thirty
and even forty feet long in a single season, while the
foliage is very large, rich and abundant. The leaves
are like palmleaf fans. The fruit is also thoroughly
good. The time of ripening is rather late in central
New York, but, as a rule, it perfects itself by the first
to the tenth of October. The Gaertner and the Her-
bert are also very large-leaved varieties and of mag-
nificent growth, while their fruit is of the highest
quality. They will both need considerable care,
because not absolutely hardy, nor self-pollenizing,
while August Giant will take excellent care of itself.
It will quickly cover an arbor or interlace your trees,
and will not be easily torn down by wind.

But in the consideration of this subject I can
do nothing so well for you as to say, get into some
wild section and study nature. See what beautiful
things she can construct, and then go you and do
likewise, or as near likewise as your opportunities
afford. The most beautiful things in this world are
in the forest openings and in the wild glens and in
the forests.

"Whether we look, or whether we listen.
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten ;
Every clod feels a stir of might,

An instinct within it that reaches and towers,
And, groping blindly above it for light,

Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers."

WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC. 93

Planting for winter is too much overlooked —
that is, planting our grounds in such a way that they
will be cheerful and warmer to the eye. But it is
one of the most important matters in the country
to warm up the landscape during cheerless months.
I have before spoken of the use of the red-bark dog-
wood. The high-bush cranberry is also admirable,
although as it gets older its tallest stalks are liable
to get topheavy and split down. The barberry, in
its several varieties, makes a charming plant for this
purpose. It is a delightful winter bush. The
Euonymus is a bush that for early winter cannot
be surpassed. Its growth is irregular and its form
uncertain. I cannot recommend either this or the
high-bush cranberry, excepting as they are inter-
spaced with other bushes, as good for either hedges
or windbreaks. However, the man who studies
nature will find that he can use all of this class of
trees and shrubs for beauty and utility alike.

One of my nooks, made up in part of hemlock
hedges and in part of these warm winter shrubs, I
call my Sunlight Catcher. It catches the full rays
of the winter's suns, and has complete protection
from the northern and western winds. It is often
a delightful spot during November and December,
and in the spring there are March days when it is an
invigorating retreat. I can find a few spears of
grass or a dandelion blossom almost in midwinter,
when a single one is worth more than an acre of
them in June. The hedge itself is eight feet high,
curved completely around toward the northwest,
while to the south at a distance of twenty-five feet
is another windbreak. But now note the need of

94 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

making things match well together. In here stands
a great barberry bush, that all winter is so red that
you can warm your fingers by it. Here come the
earliest violets, like finger-tips of Spring thrust
through the snow.

While planting windbreaks we have of course
to consuk our neighbors' wishes and tastes, if they
are near enough to be affected by what we propose.
It is morally illegal to cut off the pleasures of a neigh-
bor by a high hedge, a row of trees or a fence. With
neighborly good will we can generally manage not
to infringe on other's tastes or desires. I trust we
shall see before long co-operation and town systems
of establishing defenses against the wind. No per-
son should be privileged to destroy that which affects
his neighbor's crops and comforts as well as his own.
If street trees should be under the protection of the
law, so also should windbreaks and strips of forest
land. Towns should assume the right in very
exposed points to plant trees at public expense on
private property. Co-operative tree planting, I
think, may yet do a great deal for the general good
of horticulture. I would especially recommend the
establishment of rural societies, whose object it shall
be to set out trees for the public welfare, and to pro-
tect others in which the public has a general interest.
Such societies will have much also to do in the way
of investigating the causes of tree diseases, and their
remedies. In central New York such a society has
existed at Clinton for forty-five years, and it has fos-
tered rural improvement in every direction. The
meetings are held monthly, and the range of discus-
sion covers every topic pertaining to the welfare of

WINDBREAKS., SHELTERS, ETC. 95

rural homes. Clinton, Conn., has perhaps the parent
society of this sort. Street trees are planted by these
associations; but better yet is the advice given to
private owners, in the way of selecting trees and
plants for their lawns and hedges.

SECTION II BIRD CULTURE.

So very important at the present time is the
cultivation of birds in the interest of horticulture
and agriculture that I make a separate section of the
discussion. Hedges and windbreaks may serve a
very important end, both in furnishing shelter and
in furnishing food for these feathered friends of ours.
We are learning that success in agriculture depends
much upon their alliance. Among the more impor-
tant in this section are the catbirds, robins, song
sparrows and their cousins, with the goldfinches
and other seed eaters. The first of these destroy
vast quantities of insects, while the latter destroy the
seeds of noxious weeds. The benefit that accrues to
us is so great that we can hardly succeed in some
branches of horticulture without them. Apart from
the benefit which they do us in the way of destroying
our foes, we must count in the advantage to us from
making home delightful with their songs. Man
cannot live by bread alone — that is, he cannot live in
a manly way. I will go so far as to say there is no
other object in hedge planting and the growing of
windbreaks more important than that of bird protec-
tion and bird fostering. The destruction of our
feathered friends is but one degree worse than their
neglect.

WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC. 97

• It is winter as I write these words. The snow
covers the ground and is piled deep in every direc-
tion. But as I look out of my window I see pine
grosbeaks on my barberry bushes and high-bush
cranberries ; and there are dozens of chickadees, nut-
hatches and woodpeckers working at bones which
my children have tied to the trees near the doors.
These birds add much to the good cheer of life, and
to feed them inculcates the very noblest sentiment
of sympathy with God and God's world of life. I
am sure that no girl brought up in this manner would
ever wear a dead bird on her hat, or even the wing of
one. I am farther sure that my children will appre-
ciate better the relations of things; love free nature
better, and be students of that horticulture which
includes all life. I should indeed be sorry if they
looked upon horticulture as covering only the grow-
ing of corn and fruit — all things which cannot sing
and cannot express gratitude. The end of land cul-
ture is noble men, not merely potatoes and parsnips.
Put these things together, and you will see that you
have not planted your hedges and made beauty and
comfort for yourself alone, but for all that is
animate.

The birds must be fed ; this is our first duty and
relation to them, — to make our places just as fully
theirs as our own. But our policy is also to feed
them at the least possible cost to ourselves. A Tar-
tarian honeysuckle hedge or windbreak of five rods'
length will feed all the robins and catbirds that will
come to any household, and will do it just when it is
desirable to attract them away from the raspberry
gardens and from the blackberries. The crop of red
7

98 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

berries on these bushes is enormous, and while they
are to us bitter and worthless, they seem to be pecu-
liarly grateful to the fruit-eating birds. Perhaps
next in importance is a row of mountain ash trees

FIG. 14. GROUND PLAN OF COUNTRY PLACE,

SHELTERED BY NORWAY SPRUCE.

grown as a windbreak. If you prefer, you may com-
bine the two by inserting a mountain ash at every
twenty or thirty feet in your honeysuckle hedge.
This mountain ash tree grows to a hight of about

WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC. 99

twenty-five or thirty feet. A single fully-grown tree
will feed flocks of birds from early August until
late in winter. All winter through, birds of passage
will drop down to a breakfast or a dinner. This, en-
livens your house besides making it a bird paradise. I
should never establish a home without a liberal plant-
ing of the mountain ash ; and to make them doubly
useful, I would not only have them singly near my
house, but growing as a windbreak at some distance.
The twigs are set very thick and intertwined, so that
they constitute a very excellent shield against the
wind at all seasons. Another remarkably fine bush,
both for its beauty and for the food which it affords
the birds, I have before specified as the high-bush
cranberry. If it were not for the liability of this
bush to become sprawling with age, it would be ad-
mirable for a tall hedge or low windbreak. The ten-
dency can be counteracted by running a couple of
lines of strong wire, with an occasional loop, about
the heavier stalks. The flowers are inconspicuous,
but the berries, which begin to color in July a bright
yellow, hang in most prolific bunches of great beauty.
In August these have become deepened in color to a
dark, rich crimson. Ttfe birds rarely feed on these
berries before winter, that is, if there be an abun-
dance of the mountain ash. But in midwinter, cedar
birds, stray robins and pine grosbeaks get from them
many a hearty meal. The magnificent coloring and
the hearty good nature of the pine grosbeak makes
it a remarkably welcome bird. It is the winter robin.
How far we can modify the migratory habits of
birds by giving- shelter and food, I do not dare to
say, although some ornithologists insist that they do

TOO HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

not go South on account of the climate; but purely
on account of the insufficiency of food at the North
during the winter months. I am sure that we can
do very much to retain our visitors through a longer
season, and make them feel that this is not a mere
summer home. I have noted the catbird catching
flies and eating grapes about October first, indicating
a shortage of the food which he prefers. But my pet
bird (I have six catbirds' nests in my bushes and
hedges, all of them members of my family) always
sings to me the day before going away, and that is
about tne twenty-eighth of September. These glo-
rious musicians, the mocking-birds of the North, do
not sing at all as a rule after about August first, but
this one, that nests every year near my library bal-
cony and considers himself a little the most at home
with us, hunts me up the day before leaving, peeps in
at the window and sings a long and tender farewell.
I do not think he needs to go away because food is cut
off, or because of bad weather. It may be that he
knows something that he likes is just then getting
ripe down South, and he proposes to make it a visit.
However, I am sure we can make these beautiful and
useful friends feel at home with us by giving them
acceptable nesting places and food. This one bird,
of all others, most desirable as a singer and friend,
will not come to us or near to our homes unless we
furnish coverts for hiding, such as he will find in
hedges and windbreaks. After you have once made
the catbirds feel at home with you, so that they pour
out their music without fear or restraint, you will
never be willing to pass a summer without them.
The berry grower is very likely to disagree with

I.O2 IJEDGES^ \yiNDBREAKS, SHELTERS., ETC.

me, at first thought, with reference to the neighbor-
hood of fruit-eaters. Bear this in mind, that if you
plant a very few bushes of berries or a single cherry
tree you are likely to find that you have only a supply
for either the birds or yourself, and the birds will find
out the same thing. As a consequence you will
probably go without cherries and berries, and the
birds will take them. The better plan is to count
the birds into the family, and plant for both. I do
not easily forget a father who, many years ago, I
detected grafting the wild cherry trees with sweeter
sorts, along the edge of the woods, in order that, as
he said, "the birds might have all they wanted."
That father was not only wise as a bird friend, but
wise as a horticulturist.

SECTION III — THE WOMAN'S CORNER.

Of course every woman is interested in all
measures to beautify home and make it more valu-
able, but there are certain feminine needs not quite
covered in the general plan of horticultural work.
For instance, woman is specifically the sewer of rents
and the artist of the needle. As such she should
have (i) a sewing balcony. Let me describe one.
It is in the northeast corner of the house over a
veranda. The building to south and west cuts off
the afternoon sun. There is a grapevine that climbs
up the north side of the veranda below, then goes
up over a strong trellis that reaches over the balcony.
It is a wild grape and a rampant grower, and it has
made a complete awning overhead. It bears profit-
ably a good jelly grape. The floor of the balcony

WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC. IC>3

is made waterproof. Opening upon it is a double
door from the wife's chamber. It is called in house-
hold terms, "My sewing balcony." I cannot posi-
tively say that she does much sewing there ; but I do
know that it is a most delightful spot of a summer
afternoon, where one might sew if so inclined, and
with great comfort. A hammock swings across one
corner, admirably fixed for an afternoon siesta. I
will not say that the hammock and the book do not
frequently displace the needle. The outlook is over
lawns of flowers and trees, over hedges and groves,
down the most beautiful of valleys, and overlooking
hills that hold villages in their bosoms. Woman has
a right to such retreats, sheltered from the sun, and
peculiarly her own. She does the hardest task — the
fretting, nerve-wearing work.

(2) Woman should have a living arbor for a
little tea party of half a dozen neighbors. Let me
also describe one of these. A circle of arbor-vitse,
fifteen or twenty feet in diameter, and grown together
overhead. Inside, the branches are cut out, up to a
hight of fifteen feet. The only entrance is where
you pull aside the branches. Inside you find a little
table, a small solid, plain writing-desk, and half a
dozen hardwood chairs that will endure the rain. A
hammock swings on one side, which can be stretched
across when it is desired. This shelter is adjacent to
a fine croquet ground, and, if you please, you may
invite your friends to a game, alternated with rest.
Here a wife may fix a charming enclosure for a baby,
giving him plenty of freedom as well as protection
from the sun, or she may have her friends for a tea
party. I have known a club of ladies meeting in

IO4 HEDGES., WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

such a close retreat, and heartily enjoying the read-
ing of their papers.

(3) Woman should have a cozy nook for some
outdoor household work, such as washing and hang-
ing clothes to dry. This is the meanest desecration
of a beautiful lawn — a lot of shirts and socks and
"sich like" on exhibition once every week. Some
of these are not yet mended, and they are not attrac-
tive, at the best. A delicate housewife hates to pro-
claim to all the world the condition of the family
wardrobe. Why should not every beautiful home
have a retreat and shelter, behind a windbreak, or
high hedge, where family affairs of this sort may
be kept private. It is not a tax on a householder to
have a cistern in such a nook where the water can be
easily drawn, and where the clothes may be hung out
to dry without much walking or carrying. There is
also the safety of the clothes to be looked after, and
that is secured by such a retired spot. At any rate,
let our pleasant country homes get rid of the display
of their weekly cleansing.

(4) Woman needs her particular flower nook,
where she can work a little, rest a little, think a little,
and sleep in a hammock if she likes. I assure you
I shall feel that my book has done some good if I
discover hereafter that I have induced some of our
housekeepers to take an afternoon sleep of a single
hour. Especially should farmers and farmers' wives
have a rest corner, shut out of sight of the ordinary
work of house and field, so that there will be sugges-
tions of rest and peace, and none at all of toil. They
will be able to do more in the long run by not running
life's machinery down in great speed.

CHAPTER VI.

NEGLECTED BEAUTY.

I should like to write a chapter on the neglected
beautiful things that surround us, a sort of eye-
opener to help folk see what is right before their
faces. I know a man — not cut from a fashion plate
— who sees none of the things that most people see,
an impracticable fellow ; but he sees everything that
we do not see. If you will visit him, you will find
his barn is almost embowered with grapevines and
bittersweet and Virginia creeper. He has cut holes
for his team to drive through. "Pretty, ain't it,"
he says, "and it's sort o' comfortin' to see the red,
and then I get lots of grapes for nothin'. The vines
break the wind, and some days it's mighty nice to
get inside of them. It's most like having two roofs
on your barn, and growin' a crop between them.
Besides the birds like it. There's a dozen nests of
them up there — all snug as you please. Did you
ever notice the two kinds of bittersweet? This kind
is the male and don't bear any seed. That clematis
over there is female. See what splendid bunches of
seed pods it has, like balls of flaxen hair." So he
rattles on, full of natural enthusiasm, and I find he
is quite a student as well as observer. In his shop
he has a collection of esthetic birds' nests, the finest
I ever saw or heard of. He has collected all the
springs on his upper lot, and down below has scooped

105

IO6 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

•ne* .Wi

FIG. 1 6 GROUND PLAN OF COUNTRY PLACE.

NEGLECTED BEAUTY. 1 07

out a pond to hold water; behind and around are
huge willows, and here is a perfect paradise for his
fowls. An arbor of stone down the swale, with a
few bits of hedges adjacent, all the work of his own
hand, makes a quaint but delightful combination. I
asked him how he came to think of it. "Why, they
came up there; and I didn't want to cut them after
they had got up, so I .trimmed them into hedges.
The arbor is just a lot of the stones that I wanted
picked up. It's better than a heap of stones, isn't it?
Folks ain't observing enough. If they were, nature
would help them to a good many nice-looking things,
just as easy as she does to so many old brush heaps
and stone piles. That's my reckoning. And them
things don't pay, either; but it does pay to have
things pretty and nice. If a fellow keeps his eyes
open he doesn't have to work so hard. You see I
didn't hardly have to touch these things — just took
advantage of what nature did. Did you ever see
anything finer than that old rail fence? It's just a
wall of crimson, and I didn't plant one of them Vir-
ginia creepers; I only let them alone. They took
possession of the old fence and made it beautiful.
But it would pay anyone to plant such vines along
his old fences, just to look at. Don't you agree with
me?" I told him I thought I did. But said I, "What
have you got there ?" "Oh, that's a bunch of elms,
and those grapes came up and run all over them.
Just see how they hang down in ropes all over! It's
a great windbreak, that is; and there's another
mighty nice one over there — those evergreens. I
haven't got so many jimcracks as most folks have —
I never bought half so much; but you bet I look out

IO8 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS., ETC.

not to let some one spoil what's been planted for
me, without money and without price." Among
his treasures is a plum tree hedge, not of much value
for plums, but useful around his henyard.

I found him rather too conservative about cut-
ting, so that there was a tendency to thicket growth
in his groves, and even around his house. His love
for trees and vines, and all the artist touches of
nature, goes down to the minutest twig, and it hurts
him not to save every tree. Each bush gets to be
dear to him. I am afraid that this temperament is
not quite the thing for a farmer, unless he can have
a large area and keep his thickets at a little distance
from his house. It is a duty to cut liberally and
judiciously, as well as to plant freely and wisely.
There are hundreds of places where the ax is needed
more than the spade. The art of cutting is the fine
art of horticulture — finer than that o-f planting.
Physical nature is never complete without a man in
it to trim and guide. Yet between the two, that is,
wild nature and an untrained man, give me the
former. What this man, my neighbor, had learned
was to do exactly what a man is designed for, to take
advantage of what nature does, to aid her and not
to thwart her in the accomplishment of her best work.
He could see along nature's lines.

I sincerely believe the worst thing about our
country homes is imitation, the desire to plant what
others plant, to do what others do, and in general
to have what others have. For really, there are
rarely two spots of land that allow of just the same
treatment, nor are there two building spots where
exactly similar houses ought to be put up. A house

NEGLECTED BEAUTY.

should be built to, or out of, the spot where it stands,
as if it grew there, quite as much as the trees grew
there that were cut down to make room for it. Those
trees did not grow with just the same physiognomy
as trees in another locality. Then a lot ought not
to be like a girl's apron, full of posies, but should
have in it or on it those plants or trees which fit
the lay of the land. One may accumulate a vast
amount of fine things in themselves, and yet the
whole of them be anything but beautiful in their
relation to each other and to the house. Perhaps
you do not need a hedge at all. If not, pray do not
have it, certainly not because Smith has one. I know
a village where a man put up a board fence with the
two middle boards crossed in the form of an X.
Inside of two years there were eighteen other such
fences put up in the same village. One of these
was quite enough.

My friend R — saw a cut-leaved weeping birch
and admired it. He ordered two set out in his door-
yard at once. One was enough; two spoiled the
oddity of the peculiar tree, and the pleasure of look-
ing at that one. Oddities should be odd, and not too
freely used. But if you will study a country village
you will rarely find much individuality in the plant-
ing. There will be perhaps three or four types of
houses, of yards, of shrubberies, of orchards. Every-
body is trying to do what everybody else is doing;
trying to think, trying to believe, trying to do and
trying to be happy in the same way. If a man like
Thoreau comes along, who sees wild nature and
enjoys it, they cannot either understand or tolerate
him — it must be allowed that he cannot tolerate

IIO HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

them. By the way, it was Thoreau who said, "The
forms of beauty fall naturally around the path of
him who is in the performance of his natural work,
as the curled shaving drops from the plane, and
borings cluster around the augur. Trees make an
admirable fence to a landscape. Art can never
match the luxury and superfluity of nature." In
another mood, he says, "Men nowhere lead a natural
life, round which the vines cling and which the elm
willingly shadows. Man will desecrate nature with
his touch, and so the beauty of the world remains
veiled to him." If you are doing the most wonder-
ful thing in the world, that is, making a home, let it
be your home — the home or house of you — not of
the ubiquitous, everlasting and universal Mr. They.

If you will go about the country and think of
it you will be surprised at the vast variety of the wild
plants, and their combinations, and the novelty of
every form and shade. There are nowhere two
groups just alike, rarely two trees that resemble each
other. I do not remember anywhere anything beau-
tiful in the wild state that had repetition, except,
possibly, white pine trees. These sometimes occur
along the mountain sides in absolute profusion and
much alike, both in grouping, and in color, and In
form. Still, even here, nature manages to give us
a flush of novelty at every rod. Sumac bushes blis-
ter the sides of the hills with fiery crimson, but no
two bunchings of these bushes are alike, not even
in color.

It will not be out of line with the purport of this
chapter to call attention to the neglected values of
stone on our stony farms. A stone wall, ten or

NEGLECTED BEAUTY. Ill

twelve feet high, built of waste or troublesome mate-
rial, can often be had, to the great advantage of the
sheltered property. Against this wall may be planted
a row of grapes, to train over it, or over a trellis
leaning against the wall. Or a row of pear trees
may be grown in like manner and trained espalier.
This plan of training fruit trees is not adopted to
any extent in this country, but is practical almost
anywhere, and by it may be produced much fine
fruit. This plan can be especially recommended for
growing peach trees. The wall will probably be
sufficient also for a quince garden. Such walls,
considering endurance and effect, would be cheaper
in the long run than high board fences, such as I
have known to be used in northern and central New
York and Massachusetts. The sheltering effect of
such a wall is the same as I have already noticed in
the use of evergreen hedges. Under the lee of them
I have seen dandelions blossoming in December. It
makes a capital shelter for winter violets, for the
Helleborus niger, and for hardy chrysanthemums.

112 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

FIG. 17. GROUND PLAN OF FARM PLOT, WITH TAR-
TARIAN HONEYSUCKLE HEDGES.

CHAPTER VII.

MISPLACED HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, ETC.

I have already spoken of the necessity of study
before planting. We must place a little more em-
phasis on this matter and consider it in brief detail.
The majority of planters look only at a thing which
is beautiful in its solitary unrelated charms. The
educated eye finds fault with detail that is out of
relation to the whole scene. I am frequently asked
to secure for someone three or four weeping cut-
leaved birches, or some other tree charming- in itself.
What will he do with them? Probably plant them
in a row, as my friend S — has done. Does he not
get all the charm from one ? Two or three bring him
the idea of a row. But a row of such trees is not
beautiful unless there is an object in having such a
row. So with any other charming thing. A hedge
is often misplaced because it is only an effort to get
a pretty thing multiplied. But more frequently it
is an effort to have a hedge at all events somewhere.
The owner has not studied his place, or the relations
of its parts. His first impulse is to plant along the
roadside. But the old reason for a road fence is
gone. A lawn is far more beautiful if left open to
the highway. Animals do not any longer run at
large, and our neighbors are not our foes. Besides
the expense of street hedges is a useless cost. They
generally run along lines of trees where the shade
3 113

114 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

injures them. But a hedge may also be misplaced
elsewhere. It should not cut off our own view
toward a pleasant scene. It should often break up
a view into pictures.

Windbreaks must be endured as a necessity,
sometimes, along lines where we do not wish to have
them. But neither windbreak, nor hedge, nor tree
are out of place because they do not let you see
everywhere without interruption and at once. A
true landscape home is one where you get glimpses
and pictures of hill, or valley, or town from different
points ; not the whole at once, and always the same.
I have seen some wicked cutting of trees and destruc-
tion of hedges because the new possessor of a home
was ambitious to see "far off." He did not wait long
enough to see that what he cut did no harm what-
ever, but on the contrary was an artistic supplement
to nature. The resident does not have the same
needs as the visitor — the latter desires to see the
whole landscape at one sweep, the resident enjoys
it better by glimpses and pictures. Study your
place ; study all its possibilities before you take either
spade to plant, or saw to trim, or ax to cut. Either
tool in the hands of a horticulturist fool will create
more folly in an hour than you can undo in half a
century. Go around the tree; walk up and down
the hedge; study it in all its relations and all its
possible relations ; then wait a few months and study
it once more at another season. You may be con-
verted to see that it is above all things not to be cut.
But if after that you do cut, you will do it wisely and
not for after-repentance.

The spirit of cutting something is only an

MISPLACED HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, ETC.

inheritance of barbarism. The Malay runs amuck
among his neighbors ; the farmer runs amuck among
trees. He must cut something when the spirit is
on ; so down goes the grand old tree that stood one
hundred years before that fellow was in his cradle :
a tree that has housed a thousand birds. I know a
man who would go crazy at certain periods of the
year if he could not lord it over his trees. He plants
orchards, and cuts down others. He is surrounded
by a queer combination of the garden of Eden and
the Sahara desert. Another neighbor has so identi-
fied himself with every bush that he cannot endure
to have the old wreckage cut away. His house is
in a wood lot. Seek the middle road. Remove
promptly the decayed and the hopeless; but love
trees with a tenderness that is protective. Not long
since some of the pioneer poplars of the streets of
Chicago were slain. The people could not stop it.
They begged and used every possible argument in
vain. When the foreman came to the last tree, a
quiet old gentleman who seemed too gentle to say
"shoo !" to a fly, walked up to him, looked him in the
eye, and with infinite contempt said, "Save the last
one, sir, — to hang yourself on."

You can, however, do very little in the way of
developing the grandest site with hedges, windbreaks
and shelters, if you have misplaced your house. I
am astonished at the persistence which Americans
show in building close by the roadside, where they
get no advantages except publicity and dust. The
true place for a house is, other things being equal,
as near the center of your property as it can be placed.
Of course we are to consider the relation of the

Il6 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

parts ; the relative hight of the land and convenience
to water. The house must be upon high land — on a
knoll if possible. It should be situated to take
advantage of swales, for easy approach, if the land
be hilly, and equally for convenient drainage. Yet
the general rule holds good, to get away from the
street, and as near as possible to the center of your
land. This is a sound principle even on a lot of sev-
eral acres. It is no loss of time that you involve
yourself in while reaching your own door; for on the
other hand, you are saving half the work of going
from your house to different points of your ground ;
that is, while you are farther from the street you are
nearer your gardens, orchards, pastures and mead-
ows. You can more easily direct the work, and
more thoroughly enjoy what is going on. But the
real point is this, that by such a residence you have
the sensation that the whole lot is your own. I think
that one result will be that you will not have a bit
of shaven lawn in front, over which you run the
lawn mower every day, but no end of neglected
lawns and other uncared-for property in the rear.
The house being placed far back and drives estab-
lished, you have a splendid opening for hedges to
border your driveways, and to break up your whole
plot into lawns, each one with its own idea. You
will live among your gardens and your orchards and
your shrubbery, all of which invite the aid of shel-
ters, windbreaks, and different sorts of dividing lines.
Bear in mind that a man who lays out a homestead
that does not express an idea might as well live in
the woods, or in the street.

Now I cannot get on rightly without saying that

MISPLACED HEDGES., WINDBREAKS,, ETC.

the notion that there can be a purely architecturally
handsome house is absurd. If a house is not built
to the place it stands on, and for that place, as well
as on that place, it is a humbug. It should have its
windows, its balconies, its verandas, and all sorts
of outlooks, adjusted to what can be seen and what
can be heard, all around, out of doors. Outdoors
and indoors should equally speak to each other. A
professional architect seldom has the slightest con-
ception of this need. He thinks only of the house ;
and it would be the same -house if he planned it to
stand somewhere else. But never should two houses
be built exactly alike, because no two places are
exactly alike where houses should stand. If you are
going to plant hedges and other beautiful surround-
ings, do so in conjunction with and in relation to the
house. A house should grow out of its position as
much as the trees and the hedges do.

Nor will I speak of hedges in another way, as
something that must be had, "you know," as a sort
of conventional necessity. They are to be, and must
be got in somehow. The result is a lot of green
walls in the way, and every one of which ought to
be dug out and burned. A right sort of hedge is a
necessity; a wrong sort of hedge is about as bad a
thing as a man can own. The right hedge ought to
be; and it ought to be right there where it is. So
you have first to study your place, to comprehend it,
to take in all its possibilities, and plant accordingly.
Nature generously gives you a hint here and there,
if you are a teachable pupil. "Do you not see/' she
says, "that a drive could come easily up that swale,
or around that knoll, and how thoroughly graceful

MISPLACED HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, ETC. 119

the outlines of a bordering hedge would appear?"
Then she takes you by the arm and says, "See there !
The wind jumps right down from that hill and hits
in front of your barn. What will you do about it?
I, old Mother Nature, know what you ought to do ;
I have seen this for a long while, and I wanted you
here for this particular purpose. You ought to have
a windbreak along that west line. It must not cut
off your outlook toward the bluff or the glen. It
need not do so." So when you once really make
the acquaintance of nature, she trots you about your
place pointing out needs and possibilities, until you
say, "By Jove ! It's ten times as much of a property
as I thought. And now with honest planting I am
not going merely to utilize it, I am going to improve
it. How clever nature is to leave us some things to
do ourselves — but also to hint to us what is best to be
done." Then she has her "studies" of all sorts;
around in the wild lots, where she sends us to learn
more about the beautiful and the useful.

Scott, in his "Beautiful Homes" cautions us
against hedging our grounds, so that the passer-by
cannot enjoy their beauty — "an absurd and unchris-
tian custom," as much out of place as if we adopted
walled courts and barred windows. This is a good
argument when used against street hedges, which I
have before stated should be abolished altogether, as
out of taste and generally a nuisance. Where the
streets are not artificially lightened, hedges darken
the sidewalk, and, if they are tall, they drip water
on the pedestrian in a rainstorm or tear away his
umbrella. If kept well trimmed and low, they still
have no object along the streets. I insist that we

I2O HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

shall always have this thought foremost: Does that
which we do express a rational idea?

The chief danger with amateur planters is that,
bewitched with the sense of the beautiful, they will
wish to do too much. They wish everything beau-
tiful that they see, or hear of, planted on their own
grounds. Trees and shrubs are crowded together,
and nothing is complete. Care and worry set in
with dissatisfaction. A beautiful hedge becomes
the ugliest thing in the world if not needed. It
might as well be in the parlor as to be crowded into
an over-full lawn. In and for itself alone it is beau-
tiful; but that beauty is spoiled by being out of rela-
tion to other things. As a rule it should always sug-
gest utility. It is closely associated with drives and
walks and shelter, and these are never to be put in
for mere ornament. Therefore not a rod of wind-
break, or hedge, that is not needed right where it
is placed, should ever be planted.

To create a sympathy with nature is the highest
object of any book that deals with a section of nature.
Nothing good can be done without it. We may stir
up an enthusiasm for planting something, but the
danger is that nothing exists in the minds of the
planters, corresponding to what they propose to
create outside of them and around them. A thou-
sand hedges may eventuate in nine hundred
wretched, neglected, obtrusive nuisances, struggling
across the land, and only one hundred really good
hedges. I should like to excite a mild passion for
cutting as well as planting; a desire to remove the
disagreeable, the offensive, and the idiotic. But in
both directions, go slowly. Study first; experiment

MISPLACED HEDGES., WINDBREAKS, ETC. 121

as you go ; waste no time nor money on great enter-
prises that you have not the culture or knowledge to
bring to perfection.

If a lawn should express an idea, a hedge or a
windbreak should have a part, and a very articulate
part, in that conception. Most of our American
landscape planting expresses confusion. A rightly-
planted place has something to say to the passer-by.
This group, this tree, this hedge, are here because
they ought to be here. They are as exactly adjusted
in the well-planted homestead as words in a well-
expressed sentence.

'•'Nothing in this ^orld is single,

All things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle — "

Every farmer should be a student of nature, and
so should everyone who dares to make his home in
the country. He should try to comprehend the
wonderful material that he handles — the earth, the
soil, the air, the trees, the insects, animal life and
vegetable life. To this end our rural schools should
point all their endeavor — to enable the young to
understand the things they must touch and see. I
shall be glad if I can get you to enter into the inner
life of the hedge and of the hedge, plant; the rela-
tion it bears to other plants; its inhabitants and
what they want. Work with a microscope as well
as a spade. I was one day about to destroy a lot of
new insects on one of my hedges, but my boy, better
educated, checked me with the exclamation, "Hold
on, father ! that is a friend of ours ; it is a parasite,
a new one, that has just appeared to destroy the hop
louse." You will be a very clean man in all senses

122 HEDGES., WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

of the word before you will be a good horticul-
turist. You will be something- of a poet, and
have a fullness of natural piety as well as careful
scholarship.

Lewes, in his "Studies of Animal Life and
Vegetable Life," says : "Come with me and lovingly
study nature, as she breathes, palpitates and works
under myriad forms of life — forms unseen, unsus-
pected, or unheeded by the mass of ordinary men.
Our course may be through park and meadow, gar-
den and land, over the swelling hills and spacious
heaths, beside the running and sequestered streams,
along the tawny coasts, out on the dark and danger-
ous reefs, or under dripping caves and slippery
ledges. It matters little where we go; everywhere
— in the air above, the earth beneath and waters
under the earth — we are surrounded with life. Our
studies will be of life. Nature lives; every pore is
bursting with life; every death is only a new birth,
every grave a cradle. Around us, above us, beneath
us, the great mystic drama of creation is being
enacted, and we will not even consent to be
spectators. The life that stirs within us stirs in all
else. We are all parts of one transcendant whole.

"The scales fall from our eyes when we think
of this; it is as if a new sense had been vouchsafed
to us, and we learn to look at nature with a more
intimate and personal love. If the sequestered cool-
ness of the wood tempt us to saunter into its check-
ered shade we are saluted by the murmurous din
of insects, the twitter of birds, the scrambling of
squirrels, the startled rush of unseen beasts, all tell-
ing how populous is this seeming solitude. We

MISPLACED HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, ETC.

pluck a flower, and in its bosom we see many a
charming insect busy at its appointed labor.
We pick up a fallen leaf, and if nothing is
visible on it, there is probably the trace of
an insect larva hidden in its tissues and await-
ing development. Our very Mother Earth is
formed of the debris of life. Begin our study
where we please, we shall never come to an
end — our curiosity will never slacken. Get a micro-
scope. If you cannot borrow, boldly buy one. Few
purchases will yield you so much pleasure. Soon
contempt for anything in nature will give place to
reverence. Soon you will discover that you do not
live an independent life. You are dependent on the
air, the earth, the sunlight, the flowers, the plants,
the animals, and created things, directly or indi-
rectly. Nor is the moral dependence less than the
physical. We cannot isolate ourselves if we would."
Perhaps you think these passages from Mr.
Lewes out of place in a book on hedges, trees and
windbreaks. But I assure you that you will never
be a good horticulturist until you get at the spirit
as well as the form of things — until you have put
yourself into relation to the All Life, that expresses
itself in infinite, varied forms. No, you cannot even
plant a hedge wisely without a sort of natural rev-
erence, and an honest sympathy with all of nature
about you.

I care not how men trace their ancestry,
To ape or Adam; let them please their whim;
But I in June am midway to believe
A tree among my far progenitors;

124 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS., SHELTERS,, ETC.

Such sympathy is mine with all the race,
Such mutual recognition, vaguely sweet,
There is between us. Surely there are times
When they consent to own me of their kin,
And condescend to me, and call me cousin,
Murmuring faint lullabys of eldest time
Forgotten, and yet dumbly felt with thrills
Moving the lips, though fruitless of the words.

FIG. 19. VILLAGE PLOT WITH HEMLOCK HEDGES.

CHAPTER VIII.

RENOVATING THE DESERTED HOMESTEAD.

This chapter is for that growing number of
people who have taken up an old farm or deserted
homestead, to renovate it. Such a place has some
invaluable properties now. Beware how you try to
modernize it by stripping it of its antiquity, its old
associations, and its historic verity. Go slowly and
carefully with every stroke. Do not cut an old tree
until you must, or are sure that you ought. You
may find that you can enjoy the solid-built, old-
fashioned house without tearing it down. I am
sure that I can find for you a tree that is run over
with grapevines, a pile of stones covered with clema-
tis, a group of old evergreens with bittersweet fes-
tooned through it, or at least a stone fence clothed
with Virginia creeper. These may need the touch
of man, but without modernizing it.

First of all, in handling such a place as this, find
out what its spirit is, and do not break in upon or dis-
turb that. Association goes far to multiply charms.
History is not a mere story, it is a life ; and this old
place of yours has a history, and, therefore, it has a
life of its own that must not be mutilated. For this
reason I urge, by preference, the purchase of the old
family homestead or ancestral home — even if other
spots have more natural beauty. A man's individual
life is longer and wider for being lived as part of the

125

RENOVATING THE DESERTED HOMESTEAD.

family history. Here in this arbor sat our sainted
mother; here worked in this garden corner our
father. This tree was planted by a grandfather.
So everything gets to have a language, if not a
poetry. My own homestead was bought by my
father direct from the family to whom the Indians
donated the land. On a high knoll stands the group
of hemlocks of which the Oneida chief, Sconondoah,
said : "I am an aged hemlock ! The winds of a hun-
dred winters have whistled through my boughs."
These orchard trees were planted conjointly by this
same chieftain and his missionary friend, Dominie
Kirkland. The soil, the brooks, the rocks, the trees,
the glen, have associations that unite them together,
and give them an individuality. Every man should,
if possible, know the history of his own home whether
he knows the history of the United States or of the
Anglo-Saxon nations or not. It then falls to him
to add a chapter to this history, which is inherently
beautiful, and useful, and worthy of being carved
into trees, hedges, stone walls and buildings.

Still you will have room for exercising the full
spirit and zeal of improvement. You will doubtless
find there are no driveways and hedges and shelters ;
or if any, that others are still needed. Wind-
breaks are likely to be found in abundance. Do not
let an ax touch an old clump of basswood, or a
thicket, or a tangled mass of hemlock and wild grape
— not until you are sure they are not what you want,
after they have been cleaned and ordered. A few
additions, a few dead limbs cut out, and you are
likely to find what nature asks for. Beware of the
professional landscape artist who comes to lay out

128 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

his patented pictures on your land. He will destroy
in a day what you cannot recover in a century.
Above all, look out for the professional trimmer.
He will, if allowed, cut your evergreens into mon-
strosities. He thinks it beautiful to cut out the
middle branches of your spruces, or to cut up from
the bottom your pines. He likes green hens on top
of hedges, and if let loose he will absolutely ruin
the idea which nature has endeavored to work out.
I advise everyone, who is going out of the city to take
up a country home, to be very patient. Take time
to think for yourself. Get acquainted with your
land. Grow into it. If you were a boy here at one
time, renew your association with the past. Plant
nothing and cut nothing until you have got the whole
place well gathered into your mind. Indeed, I rec-
ommend that you do very little for the first year,
except to look out for sanitation and the simplest
comforts. You will then be prepared to work in
shelters where they are needed ; you will know where
the wind strikes, and you will be ,able to get at a
shrubbery, and gardens with hedges and appropriate
drives. I am sure that by the second year you will
have lost the saw and ax passion.

It will generally turn out that, by careful study,
you can use a large part of what is at hand, even
including some defects. A little management, and
a neglected corner, with half-decayed trees and
thickets of underwood, can be gently trained and
taught to speak of the beautiful and the useful. If
you begin with the determination of cutting away
everything that, looked at in and of itself is defec-
tive, you will end by cutting down everything on the

RENOVATING THE DESERTED HOMESTEAD. 129

place. Remember, that that which is defective in
itself may not be defective in relation to and combina-
tion with other things. Often the defective parts
have so grown together as to create a unity of another
sort ; and while your hedges are severely overgrown
by Other things, you had better not interfere too
sharply in your effort to restore absolute precision.
"Do not mistake me when I advise you to rely
largely upon yourself; because you may be the very
person above all others who is in need of a wise
friend. I do not know you, so it may be as
well to add, if you are confident that there
is someone to be found who is judicious, who
knows how to sympathize with nature, get him
to walk with you and counsel you in forming
your first impressions. Gardiner, in his "Homes
and All About Them," says he would rather dig
ditches for a philosopher than build palaces for a
fool. There are these two classes also who wish
advice about their lawns and their drives. The
philosopher thinks, studies, and above all, grows.
The fool knows everything at a glance. He cuts
trees and he plants trees with a commodore's self-
importance. It happens often that in doing this he
injures his neighbors as well as himself. No man
absolutely owns his acres and trees. He is under
moral and sometimes legal obligation to the neigh-
borhood. When he cuts down a grove or a wind-
break he is opening the currents that drive against
other people's homes. This an honest man will con-
sider. Let me say to anyone who is going into the
country for a home, Not only find the relation of the
parts of your own land, but try to comprehend the
9

I3O HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

relation which your property bears to that of other
people about you. Consult even the prejudices of
those who live adjacent. They have formed their
associations, their tastes, even their characters,
largely from the trees and the collocation of the nat-
ural scenery that surrounds them. Disturb them
just as little as possible. Indeed, there is a certain
sort of property that another man has in what you
claim as your own. Emerson sings :

"One harvest from your field,
Homeward brought your^oxen strong,

Another crop your acres yield,
Which I gather in a song."

My plea is that you be careful of the feelings,
the tastes and old associations that make up the
neighborhood, of which you should be a component
part. Press forward even your improvements con-
siderately. It is possible to consult those whose
judgment you do not value. In the long run, if you
are right, you will improve not only your own prop-
erty, but all the neighborhood ; if you are wrong, and
the chances are you will be, you will get time to
correct yourself.

CHAPTER IX.

HOMES.

The final word is Home. Everything should
have this in view — not a mere residence from which
children can take flight, but a family home made up
of the best that nature gives us, and from which no
one cares to go. To create such a home, everything
should be made to contribute. If you purpose to
grow hedges, or to plant corn fields, or to raise Hoi-
steins or Cotswolds as an end, you will prove a flat
failure. If all of these things and many more are
made constituent parts of home-building, you will
succeed.

When a man feels that the time has come for
him to establish himself on the earth ; in other words,
to create a home, the first thing he should decide to
do is to develop himself into his surroundings, much
as a mollusk grows a shell. Yet most people have
not given a thought of what they would look like,
if all their selfhood or character could be seen, as
you can see their faces. It has been the business of
this book to help you to understand yourself and
your work; or at least set you to discussing what
they are. When you have found yourself out, all
you have to do is to grow. Grow out first into a
house. Don't be fooled by trying to fit your soul
into John Jones's shell or into David Williams's.
Grow yourself into an easy-fitting, comfortable,

132 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

warm, cozy jacket of a house. Have a parlor if you
need it, but not for somebody else. Of course you
and your wife are one, and can grow together. Any-
how you will have to do this, and so you must let
her feel easy also. But when the house is planned,
or while it is growing, go on growing all over your
place. Make it such that anyone coming along will
say, "By George! that's Henry Owen's place! I'd
know it by the cut of it!" Go slow — I mean grow
slow — and find out where you want a tree, or hedge,
or windbreak, or even a rosebush, before you plant it.
Every bush, every tree, every fence, every wind-
break or hedge should be a part of yourself; and
when you get through with your first season's
growth it will be apparent that your place means
you as much as your body means you.

Then, by and by, when you begin to cut or trim,
it will be just as when you pare your nails ; it will be
because something has overgrown in a perfectly
natural way and must be pared off. A real home,
rightly planted, never needs to be revolutionized; it
is always, however, undergoing evolution. Having
started right, you will see something to be added and
something to be improved upon each year. A com-
mon-sense planter always works with a memoran-
dum—that is, a pocket memory. Whenever he is
about his property he jots down what he sees is
needed — every little trifle and every suggested im-
provement. Every night he looks over his memo-
randa and marks what is to be done the next day.
In this way nothing is overlooked; and fully five
times as much progress will be worked in. Nor will
breakages and little leakages be overlooked. He

HOMES. 133

will know that a board is loose, that a graft is to be
waxed, that the aphis have made lodgment on one of
his trees, that a new disease is to be fought with
Bordeaux, that the time has come for battling the
currant worms, or that a brook is washing into his
garden, or that his strawberries are in need of water.
In this way the mind is everywhere, without too
much friction and without too severe a tax of the
brain. The owner knows, every minute, everything
about his place, and is never compelled to say of any-
thing that is damaged that he had not knowledge of
it in due time. I shall place as much emphasis as
possible on this point, because I am convinced that
no one will succeed with a beautiful rural home in
any other way.

Nature takes care to put us into types ; but she
takes equal care to give us all individuality in fea-
tures. She says look at your faces, and just take no-
tice how vast the number of copies I can make ; and in
all the dissimilarity I shall not destroy the similarity.
Now do you go and work after the same manner.
Do you see that you do not simply try to make what
someone else has made ; and yet I wish you to follow
the general type so as not to create monstrous things
— like stone dogs and hedge roosters. John Bur-
roughs says, "One of the greatest pleasures of life is
to build a house for one's self ;" but it is a greater
pleasure to build a home. The house of a wise
horticulturist is only one of his windbreaks and shel-
ters. It is not here that he should exhaust his cash ;
but he should expend with equal liberality outdoors
and indoors.

81

«
u

a

HOMES. 135

I object to outdoor parlors ; but I believe in out-
door and indoor sitting-rooms. About a beautiful
home there is never any occasion for putting up
"Keep off the grass." Every lawn should be free
to the children and to visitors — at least to the chil-
dren. But for all that there should be order and
system about your home. The best plan is to pre-
pare for games and sports from the very outset —
lawn tennis, or croquet, or quoits, or all together.
These will naturally draw the young gamesters away
from the shrubbery and flower gardens when they
wish to romp and play. A croquet ground should
be absolutely level, and kept level by a nice stone wall ;
which should rise high enough to stop the balls from
rolling into the grass. It should be graded-with fine
shale, and not a weed allowed to grow. Then plant
a windbreak ; or plant it behind the windbreak. Much
of the fun of such a game is spoiled if we cannot play
it on cool or windy days. Beside my own ground
is a great living arbor in which are chairs, where
those who need shade can get it. You will lose noih-
ing by thus making your whole property homeful.
You will have kept your boys and girls with you;
and no possible influence can attract them away. In
other words, they find you yourself everywhere, with
your love and your smile.

What we wish to have the common folk see is
that the end of home-getting is not to buy someone
else's house ; and that it is not even to have a house
that you have built yourself; that a man or woman
who would have a home must begin to live himself
or herself out of doors until the grounds are a part
of the habitation. Whoever proposes to build a

136 HEDGES., WINDBREAKS., SHELTERS, ETC.

house must rather say, not, what will the house cost,
but what will the homestead cost ; and estimate alto-
gether the cost of the planting of live trees as well
as the sawing and hammering together of dead ones.
If you spend less on dust-holding carpets and cur-
tains, on bric-a-brac furnishings, and more on beau-
tiful grounds you will live longer and more happily.
If a real home grows rather than happens, there will
always be present a sense of rest and repose.
Hedges, windbreaks, coverts, shelters, suggest pro-
tection and comfort; if not they should never exist.
The 'difficulty with many so-called homes is that
everything is on edge all the while. You feel the
constant presence of shears, and you hear the ever-
lasting and detestable lawn mower— the one imple-
ment that never points to rest and to peace, but to
clatter and toil. I smell sweat whenever I see one.
Some housewives use a broom also in such a manner
that it is a twin horror. You know that they watch
your departing steps with the whisk of a broom, to
send the dirt after you.

A man who builds a house without a room in it
except for work and sleep has made exactly the same
blunder as he who plants his acres for nothing but
work and food. It is an old law that man cannot
live by bread alone, whatever a four-legged animal
may do. A right sort of home should, from its
inception, include as an object the beautiful as well
as the useful, expecting the two, in combination, to
create the good. It is hardly necessary to add that
with this idea of home operative, there is no room
for mere display. Home wraps one around as
clothes wrap a sensible person. They are put on

HOMES. 137

for comfort and good taste, not to exploit wealth.
Gardens, trees, hedges, orchards, buildings, say
plainly, not I am rich, but I am AT HOME.

Perhaps I have said enough in the course of my
book to make it unnecessary to say here that nothing
of this sort can be accomplished in the way of making
a true home without sympathy with nature. A per-
son who understands a bush gets in love with it, and
knows what to do with it. ; and it must be understood
that every bush has a character of its own. You
may almost say that every tree has a moral character
of its own. It is good in one place, .and it is bad in
another. Horticulture consists first of all in estab-
lishing this intimate acquaintance. If it is not
established, you can do nothing in the way of wise
planting. A city girl visiting my place enjoyed it
immensely ; but, after running about, picking flowers,
and eating fruit for some hours, she sat down on the
steps of the house, and taking a survey of the whole,
said, "Well, it's immensely pretty, but it must be
awful lonely here." "To be sure," I said, "to you.
But don't you see, you don't know anybody here.
But to us all these trees and plants have souls. We
are all acquainted, and we all understand each other
out here. The bushes, and the hedges, and the trees
make a crowd of good company. Your friends all
put on golf suits; but mine grow golf suits." The
poor girl could not have possibly enjoyed the most
beautiful country life for over one day. Her char-
acter had never grown a bush; her soul had never
developed a rosebud.

Now, dear readers, I hope there are many of
you — Good-by! I shall leave you at this point, as I

138 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC.

have another engagement. But I expect to visit
some of you another day, and see how you have
practiced on what I have written to you. I expect
some of you will have gone quite ahead of my ideas,
and will have in turn much to teach me. So at least
I hope. If my book is a total failure, I shall expect
you to tell me of it. And, hereafter, like a wise turtle,
I will keep my head under my own experiences.

HOMES.

139

S\ r c et

FIG. 22. GROUND PLAN OF SUBURBAN PLACE.

index

PAGE.

Apple, for hedges 16

over one hundred years old . .16

Arbors, living 45

Arbor -Vitae, for hedges 51

for windbreaks 81

Beautiful, the neglected .... 105-111

stone walls HI

sumac no

Bird culture 95-102

Birds, value of 95

Buckthorn, for hedges 21

Buffum pear for windbreaks .... 77
Coal Ashes, use of for mulch . . 23

general value of 23

Cockspur thorn 17

Cost of hedges 33-35

Evergreens, for hedges 49

material 51-58

treatment 58-66

ruined by Lad trimming 62

discussed by S. B. Parsons ..67-72

Fences, live , 2

material for 2-5

culture of 6

summary on 10-12

Hawthorn for hedges 17

Hedges, deciduous 13

materials for 13-23

rules for growing 24-36

dying out of 36

for small lawns 38

materials 38-45

neglected 48

misplaced 113

Hemlock for hedges 51

Homes 131

the end of all is the real

home 131-136

Homesteads, old, how to reno-
vate them 125-130

Horise, house and hedge .... 115-117
Idea, all work should express an.. 121
Kerosene emulsion and use .... 37

PAGE.

Laws, stock 7

Letters, on live fences 8-9

Locust honey 3

value for fences 4

its beauty 18

a thornless sort 17

mice-gnawed 23

Lombardy poplar, for windbreak. .77

Mahonia 51-53

Magnolias 58

Mulching, discussed 27-33

Norway spruce, for windbreaks . .81

Oaks, for hedges 19

Ornamental hedges 38

Osage orange, for fences 2

for hedges 13

gnawed by mice 23

Pears, over two hundred years old. 17
Roadways, should be gardens ... 46
Rural improvement societies .... 94

Siberian pea tree 20

Street hedges, objectionable .... 46
Study, need of studying grounds 120

Sunlight catcher 93

Tartarian honeysuckles, for hedge. 38

Thorn pyracantha 15

hawthorn 16

other thorns 17

Trimming hedges, deciduous .... 29

evergreen 62

Willow for windbreaks 83

Windbreaks, their importance . . 75

material for 76-88

natural 78-80

for winter 80

evergreens for 81

for special purposes 88

for bees 88

for animals 89

for buildings 89-90

for winter 93

Woman's corner 102-104

The Management and Feeding of Cattle

By PROF. THOMAS SHAW. The place for this book will
be at once apparent when it is stated that it is the first
book that has ever been written which discusses the man
agement and feeding of cattle, from the birth of the calf
until it has fulfilled its mission in life, whether on the
block or at the pail. The book is handsomely printed on
fine paper, from large, clear type. Fully illustrated. 5^x8
inches. 496 pages. Cloth. Net, $2.00

The Farmer's Veterinarian

By CHARLFS WILLIAM BURKETT. This book abounds in
helpful suggestions and valuable information for the most
successful treatment of ills and accidents, and disease
troubles. A practical treatise on the diseases of farm
stock; containing brief and popular advice on the nature,
cause and treatment of disease, the common ailments and
the care and management of stock when sick. It is
profusely illustrated, containing a number of halftone
illustrations, and a great many drawings picturing diseases,
their symptoms and familiar attitudes assumed by farm
animals when affected with disease, and presents, for the
first time, a plain, practical and satisfactory guide for
farmers who are interested in the common diseases of the
farm. Illustrated. 5x7 inches. 288 pages. Cloth. Net, $1.50.

First Lessons in Dairying

By HUBERT E. VAN NORMAN. This splendid little book
has been written from a practical point of view, to fil!
a place in dairy literature long needed. It is designed
primarily as a practical guide to successful dairying, an
elementary text-book for colleges and for use especially
in short-course classes. It embodies underlying principle:
involved in the handling of milk, delivery to factory, ship-
ping station, and the manufacture of butter on the farm
It is written in a simple, popular way, being free from tech-
nical terms, and is easily understood by the average farm
boy. The book is just the thing for the every-day dairy-
man, and should be in the hands of every farmer in the
country. Illustrated. 5x7 inches. 100 pages. Cloth. Net, $0.50.

A Dairy Laboratory Guide

By H. E. Ross. While the book is intended primarily
for use in the laboratory, it should be of value to the
practical dairyman. The time has come when the suc-
cessful dairyman must study hin business from a purely
scientific point of view, and in this book the scientific
principles, upon which dairy industry is based, are stated
clearly and simply, and wherever it is possible, these prin-
ciples are illustrated by practical problems and examples.

90 pages. 5x7 inches Cloth Net, $0.50

(2)

Profitable Stock Raising

By CLARENCE A. SHAMEL. This book covers fully the
principles of breeding and feeding for both fat stock and
dairying type. It tells of sheep and mutton raising, hot
house lambs, the swine industry and the horse market.
Finally, he tells of the preparation of stock for the market,
and how to prepare it so that it will bring a high market
price. Live stock is the most important feature of farm
life, and statistics show a production far short of the
actual requirements. There are many problems to be
faced in the profitable production of stock, and these are
fully and comprehensively covered in Mr. Shamel's new
book. Illustrated. 5x7 inches. 288 pages. Cloth.

Net, $1.50

The Business of Dairying

By C. B. LANE. The author of this practical little book
is to be congratulated on the successful manner in which
he has treated so important a subject. It has been pre-
pared for the use of dairy students, producers and handlers
of milk, and all who make dairying a business. Its pur-
pose is to present in a clear and concise manner various
business methods and systems which will help the dairy-
man to reap greater profits. This book meets the needs
of the average dairy farmer, and if carefully followed win
lead to successful dairying. It may also be used as an
^lementary textbook for colleges, and especially in short-
ourse classes. Illustrated. 5x7 inches. 300 pages. Cloth.

Net, $1.25

Questions and Answers on Buttermaking

By CHAS A. PUBLOW. This book is entirely different
from the usual type of dairy books, and is undoubtedly in
a class by itself. The entire subject of butter-making in
all its branches has been most thoroughly treated, and
many new and important features have been added. The
tests for moisture, salt and acid have received special
attention, as have also the questions on cream separa-
tion, pasteurization, commercial starters, cream ripening,
cream overrun, marketing of butter, and creamery man-
agement. Illustrated. 5x7 inches. 100 pages. Cloth.

Net, $0.50

Questions and Answers on Milk and Milk Testing

By CHAS. A. PUBLOW, and HUGH C. TROY. A book that
no student in the dairy industry can afford to be without.
No other treatise of its kind is available, and no book of
its size gives so much practical and useful information in
the study of milk and milk products. Illustrated. 5x7

inches. 100 pages. Cloth- - Net, $0.50

(3)

Btan Culture

By GLENN C. SEVEY, B.S. A practical treatise on the pro-
duction and marketing of beans. It includes the manner oi
growth, soils and fertilizers adapted, best varieties, seed selec-
tion and breeding, planting, harvesting, insects and fungous
pests, composition and feeding value ; with a special chapter
on markets by Albert W. Fulton. A practical book for the
grower and student alike. Illustrated. 144 pages. 5x7
inches. Cloth $0.50

Celery Culture

By W. R. BEATTIE. A practical guide for beginners and a
standard reference of great interest to persons already en-
gaged in celery growing. It contains many illustrations giving
a clear conception of the practical side of celery culture. The
work is complete in every detail, from sowing a few seeds in
a window-box in the house for early plants, to the handling
and marketing of celery in carload lots. Fully illustrated.
150 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $0.50

Tomato Culture

By WILL W. TRACY. The author has rounded up in this
book the most complete account of tomato culture in all its
phases that has ever been gotten togetucr. It is no secon<"-
hand work of reference, but a complete story of the practic.
experiences of the best-posted expert on tomatoes in the
world. No gardener or farmer can afford to be without the
book. Whether grown for home use or commercial purposes,
the reader has here suggestions and information nowhere else
available. Illustrated. 150 pages. 5 x 7 inches. Cloth. $0.50

The Potato

By SAMUEL FRASER. This book is destined to rank as a
standard work upon Potato Culture. While the practical side
has been emphasized, the scientific part has not been neglected,
and the information given is of value, both to the grower and
to the student. Taken all in all, it is the most complete, reliable
and authoritative book on the potato ever published in Amer-
ica. Illustrated. 200 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth. . . $0.75

Dwarf Fruit Trees

By F. A. WAUGH. This interesting book describes in detail
the several varieties of dwarf fruit trees, their propagation,
planting, pruning, care and general management. Where
there is a limited amount of ground to be devoted to orchard
purposes, and where quick results are desired, this book will
meet with a warm welcome. Illustrated. 112 pages. 5x7
inches. Cloth $0.50

(6)

Cabbage, Cauliflower and Allied Vegetables

By C. L. ALLEN. A practical treatise on the various
types- and varieties of cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels
sprouts, kale, collards and kohl-rabi. An explanation is given
of the requirements, conditions, cultivation aiid general man-
agement pertaining to the entire cabbage group. After this
each class is treated separately and in detail. The chapter
on seed raising is probably the most authoritative treatise on
this subject ever published. Insects and fungi attacking this
class of vegetables are given due attention. Illustrated. 126
pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $0.50

Asparagus

By F. M. HEXAMER. This is the first book published in
America which is exclusively devoted to the raising of aspara-
gus for home use as well as for market. It is a practice7
and reliable treatice on the saving of the seed, raising of the
plants, selection and preparation of the soil, planting, cultiva-
tion, manuring, cutting, bunching, packing, marketing, canning
and drying, insect enemies, fungous diseases and every re-
quirement to successful asparagus culture, special emphasis be-
ing given to the importance of asparagus as a farm and money
crop. Illustrated. 174 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth. . $0.50

The New Onion Culture

By T. GRFINER. Rewritten, greatly enlarged and brought
up to date. A new method of growing onions of largest size
and yield, on less land, than can be raised by the old plan.
Thousands of farmers and gardeners and many experiment
stations have given it practical trials which have proved a
success. A complete guide in growing onions with the great-
est profit, explaining the whys and wherefores. Illustrated
5x7 inches. 140 pages. Cloth $0.50

The New Rhubarb Culture

A complete guide to dark forcing and field culture. Part
I — By J. E. MORSE, the well-known Michigan trucker and
originator of the now famous and extremely profitable new
methods of dark forcing arid field culture. Part II — Com-
piled by G. B. FISKE. Other methods practiced by the most
experienced market gardeners, greenhouse men and experi-
menters in all parts of America. Illustrated. ^30 pages.

5x7 inches. Clot1' $0.50

(7)

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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY