Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 2, 1802).djvu/484

452&#93; 45 2 1 HED possible of the same size. The sets should be about one-third of an inch in diameter, freshly taken up, straight, smooth, and well rooted. The best season for planting them out, is late id the autumn ; and the young hedge ought particularly to be attended to during the first two years ; be- cause, if it be then neglected, no future care can recover it. The top- shoots must not be shortened, but the sides regularly pruned for some years, while the inclqsure is young; for, o.dy by adhering to this practice, the hedge will attain a proper degree of closeness and strength. The late Mr. Bake well was remarkably curious in his fences : he used to plant one row at the distance of a foot from set to set ; and, after making the ditch, to lay the earth dug out of it, so as to form a bank on the side opposite to the quick. In other parts of England, die bank is made on the side of the quick above it. The advantage of Mr. B.'s method is, that the plants grow only in the surface- earth, not secluded from the atmosphere ; whereas, in the common practice, the best earth is generally loaded by a thick cover- ing of mud taken from the ditch, and placed obliquely on the bank. There is, however, a considerable waste of land in the former me- thod : for, alter the whole was thus formed, he usually added a double post and rail ; one on the outside of such bank, and the other on the outside of the quick. " Hedges designed for ornament in gardens, are sometimes planted with evergreens, among which the holly is preferable to any other ; next in rank is the yew, but the dead colour of its leaves renders HED such hedges less agreeable. The laurel is another plant that may be employed as a fence for garden s; as it is one of the mo.^t beautiful evergreens ; but it shoots forth with such luxuriance, that it is very difficult to confine it to any shape : its leaves, too, are very large, and,, if cut through with the sheers, present a very dis- agreeable appearance : hence they ought to be pruned with a knife, and the shoots cxaftly cut down to each leaf. In the 3d vol. of the Transac- tions of the Society for tlte Bncou- rttgetoient <f Arts, tkc. Mr. Lf.a- •j i am, of Barton, gives an account of his method of planting quick- set hedges on dry, gravelly, or thin soils. He considers the causes which rentier such hedges very indifferent, to be — 1. That they are set too low or flat on the sur- face, to allow the roots to strike deeply into the soil. 2. That, when planted higher, thry are ge- nerally too near the slope of the bank, and thus cannot receive the benefit of the rain. To remedy these inconveniencios, two lines are marked out, 12 feet apart: the upper part of the soil is taken from three feet within each line, and thrown into the centre of the space, so as to form a fiat bed, three feet in breadth, in the midst of which the quicks are planted; the remaining spr.ee of 18 inches on each side is filled up with the earth, gravel, or sand taken out of the ditches on both sides, by which means the bed is extended to live feet, alloy ing six inches for the slope of the bank. Quicks, thus planted, will find sufficient nourishment in the soil, before the tap-root reaches the barren gravel- ly bottom ; and the earth thus placed,