Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 2, 1802).djvu/485

Rh placed, will retain moisture enough to nourish the plants; so that they will in a short time form an excellent fence, which, by elevating the bank of each side at pleasure, may be protected at a small expence from the ill effects of a sharp winds, or the air of the sea. Mr. observes, that the space, on such low-priced ground, is but small; and, as a good, thriving fence is obtained, it amply compensates the expences. A hedge, constructed according to the dimensions above stated, cost him fifteen-pence per rod of seven yards in length.

In the 1st vol. of the Letters and Papers of the Bath and West of England Society, we meet with a communication, in which elms are recommended for fences. When elm-timber is felled in the spring, the chips made in trimming the trees are to be sown on a piece of newly-ploughed land, and harrowed in, as is practised with corn. Every chip, that has an eye or bud, will speedily shoot like the cuttings of potatoes; and, as such plants have no tap-roots, but strike their fibres horizontally in the richest part of the soil, they will be more vigorous, and may be more easily transplanted, than if they had been raised from seeds, or in any other manner. They possess this farther advantage, that five or six stems will generally rise from the same chip; and, after being cut down to within three inches of the ground, they will multiply their side-shoots in proportion, and form a thicker hedge, without running to naked wood, than by any other method hitherto practised: Lastly, if they be kept carefully clipped for the first three or four years, they are said to become almost impenetrable.

In the second volume of the same instructive work, we find another communication on the subject of hedges; and the great advantages that might be derived from them, by planting cyder-fruit-trees. If a judicious mixture of such trees were set in hedges, the profit they afford would amply compensate the expences incurred, without any loss of ground. And, as the best kinds of this fruit are so extremely sour at the proper season of gathering, that even hogs will scarcely touch them, depredations are not to be apprehended.

Having already treated on, we shall only add, that those of our readers, who wish to acquire a more complete information on the subject, may with advantage peruse the first and second volumes of Dr. 's "Essays on Agriculture," in which it is fully discussed, and the plants best calculated for making hedges are judiciously pointed out.  HEDGE-HOG, the, or Hystrix erinaceus, L. is a quadruped, which is from nine to ten inches in length, the body is of an oblong form, entirely covered with sharp quills on its back, but with hair on the breast; the ears are broad, round, and short, and the eyes small and protuberant.

The females of these animals, after a gestation of seven weeks, produce four or five young ones, of a whitish colour, with only the points of the bristles appearing above the skin.

Hedge-hogs unnaturally devour their offspring, and all attempts hitherto made to domesticate them, have proved ineffectual. They  Rh