Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-02-08
UNION AND AMERICAN.
FARM AND GARDEN.
HEDGE PLANTS.

For more than thirty years experiments
have been made in our State with the Usage
Orange as a hedge plant. We do not ex-
aggerate when we say that not five in fifty
of the hedges set out have answered the
purposes for which they were intended. 1t
may be because sufficient attention has not
been paid to them after setting out, or that
our climate does not suit it, or something
else, but up to this time, with few rare
exceptions, the labor bestowed in planting
out hedges has been lost, and the only evil
denee of planting is few scattered speci-
mems along fence rows, numbering the
ground, and serving no useful purpose.
During the past summer we travelled ex-
tensively through Middle Tennessee and
can call TO mind but two good hedges made
of the Usage Orange. 1t is with some
pleasure, therefore, that we observe re-
port made by Mr.. William Lundy to tie
Committee of the State Agricultural Society
Of Georgia, on hedge plants, that promises
something more effective and useful than
the Usage Orange. He states as the result of
his experience that the Microphylla, when
planted on good land, is of quicker growth,
and makes a more substantial hedge than
any other plant. The only objection to it
is that it will last but for one generation.
The Hawthorn is more durable and is not
injured by the browsing of cattle, but is
rather benefited as the density of the hedge
is increased, and it becomes better fitted for
the use intended. The Microphylla planted
in February upon bed, made with three
or five burrows, takes root with as much
certainty as a potato slip. When planted
by the side of straight fence it is more
easily trained into compact or ornamental
line, and long before a common rail fence
decays it will afford an effectual barrier to
bipeds as well as quadrupeds.
The Microphyna is planted from eighteen
to twenty-four inches apart in line, and the
Hawthorn three feet apart. When the
Hawthorn is an inch in diameter it should
be cut off early in the year, near the surface
of the ground. Sprouts will come up and
soon lock.
There is still another plant, not much
known, but highly recommended by those
who have tried it. We allude to the Char
mile or yoke elm. This is said to be a
tree of medium size, hardy, and of great
longevity, and when planted closely, trimmed
and kept low, it stays permanently dwarfed.
P. A. Bondinier says of it in the New York
Tribune:
''It makes strong, beautiful hedge, more
advantageous than yeur thOrny Usage, and
less vexatious, for you can handle it with
out gloves, and make faggots with the trim
mings, pea bushes, and bean poles. have
seen such hedges in France, so thick and
strong, that a rabbit or buffalo could not
pass through, and as old as old Parkway
be more. / have no doubt that If a nur-
sery of yoke elms should be planted
and transplanted in hedges like it is done
with the Usage orange, nobody would have
to regret it. Furthermore, it hOurishes
where the Usage orange cannot; it bears the
assaults of Boreas as well as those of Nep-
tune, for it resists the cold of Northern
Europe, and grows everywhere, even in
swampy places. For the extreme south of
the United States, the cactus, or prickly
pear, of that variety which grows tall
enough, formidable hedge can be made
that could resist charge Of cavalry. have
seen the like in Africa, in about the Both
degree Of latitude north. The abOrgines do
not trim those hedges, so it acquires such
colossal proportions that it is impentrable
to the wind, and may defy an elephant in
fury"
Prof John Torrey, of New York, in a
communication to the Commissioner of
Patents at Washington, in 1857, mentions
twenty-six spinescinct shrubs, which, he
thinks, deserve a trial as substitutes for the
hedge-plants commonly used. A thorny
species of Celtis, which grows along the
Rio Grande and other places in Western
Texas and Eastern Mexico, is mentioned
most favorably. Its usual height is from
six to ten feet, very branchy, and armed
with short but strong spines. 1t bears a
species of berry about the size of a pea,
somewhat edible, though astringent. 1t
will grow on poor, stony soils, and was
found by our soldiers during the Mexican
war the most annoying Of all
kinds Of chaperel. Its suitableness to poor
soil is certainly very high recommended
tion to it; for the quality of land usually
required to grow hedges is such as will
produce exuberant crops of corn,
We should be glad to know with what
success our readers have met in their
efforts to grow hedges. The question of
fences is one of growing and commanding
importance to our farmers; and, in the alb
sence of stock law, one that will force it
self upon them at an early day. Let us
have more light upon the subject of cheap
and durable fences; or some means be de-
vised so as to diminish the quantity of fenc-
ing.