Bellevue gazette. [volume] (Bellevue City, N.T. [i.e. Neb.]) 1856-1858, 1858-07-29
From the Platte Valley Times.
How Can You Fence Your Prai-
RE Farmsf

RE Earmsf
This question is frequently asked, and
is supposed by many to be unanswerable.
But il is easily answered.
We can easily fence our prairie farms
with Usage orange hedge. But, it is OBJ
jected that the Usage orange will not
endure the cold winters of this latitude.
In answer to this objection l can with
pleasure inform you that the Usage orange
has endured the coolest winters ever
known in this latitude, and also that it is
successfully cultivated much farther north.
In Mills County, Iowa, about TEN miles
east of Plattsmouth, there is a good Usage
orange hedge, which has withstood the
severity of the last four winters, and is
now q good fence. The Usage orange is
successfully cultivated in this county, and
we have good reason to believe that it is
admirably calculated for fencing prairie
farms. An experienced cultlvator of the
Usage orange, in a communication pub.
lished in the Patent Reports. said, that il
any one would enumerate all of the good
qualities that were desirable in hedge
plants, it would be found that the Usage
orange possessed the whole Of them. 1t
is easily cultivated, is of rapid growth,
endures the winters admirably in this lat
itude, is the most thorny plan, ever known,
and no animal will eat or touch 1t the Sec
ond time. 1t is highly ornamental /; does
not spread by sprouting from the roots, or
in any other way. 1t is naturally q shrub,
and is not injured by being pruned into
suitable shape ; can easily be made to
thitken at the bottom, so as to fence
against pigs, chickens and rabbits, and
four feet high, is the best kind of a fence
against horses, cattle, hogs, dogs, sheep,
geese. ducks, shanghais and boys. 1t
will neither rot down, blow down, wash
down, or burn down, and what good
qualities can be asked for in a hedge that
the Usage orange does not possess? Large
quantities of Usage orange are now grow
ing in various parts of this county, which
will be sold cheap, and any one who wish
es to inclose a field with a hedge should
prepare the ground in season. If the
ground where the hedge is to stand is not
yet broke, it should be done as soon as
possible, so hat the turf may become rot
ten by spring. Then pillow the ground
again, and plant as early as April.
There are various modes of preparing
the ground, and planting. Perhaps the
most expeditions method is to draw a fur
row, leaning them against the side, and
protecting them by slightly covering them
with dirt, when the whole row is set, turn
back the furrow with the pillow, covering
the plants entirely. They will live better
by being covered. One row Is sufficient
to form a good hedge. and the plants
should not be more than eight inches
apart in the row. Before the plants are
dug from the nursery, they should be
cut close to the ground, and while grow
ing in the hedge, they should be cut two
or three times each season, so as to cause
them to branch freely at the bottom. The
great obstacle which is anticipated is win
ter killing, but it is not so much to be
feared as fall killing. A severe frost in
the fall, when the hedge is in full growth
is more likely to injure it, than any win
ter freezing. In order to prevent fal
killing. plant your hedge on high ground
and cut back at least three times q year
; in March, June and September. Thi'
will soon form a good fence, and the Sep
| TENDER pruning will check the fall growth
: so as to render it less liable to be injured
by the frosts of October and November
> The older the hedge becomes, the les:
liable it is to be killed, and when it be
comes a fence, only one cutting a year j
\ necessary, and that should be done il
February or March, when farmers hav,
i. plenty of time to do it.
w. S. WEST.