S20

ON INCLOSING LAND

flat betl, the new hedge plants inserted before winter, andcarefully protected by a rail fence from trespass. They willafterwards require to be carefully trained, and the originalhedge plants on each side must be so pruned as to preventthem from overgrowing the younger plants. For this pur-pose, besides thorns of five or six years old, crabs or beechmay be used.

In the construction of thorn-hedges, some have recom-mended or practised the planting of two or even three rowsof young thorns, at different heights, in the mound or clap-dike ; but this plan does not seem at all advisable. In fa-vourable soils, a single row of thorns will soon acquire suffi-cient strength to become a fence, with proper care in train-ing ; and even in such soils, a double hedge will certainlytake longer time to arrive at perfection, besides being greatlymore difficult to clean and train; much more so a triple row.It seems hardly necessary to observe, that a double or triplerow can never be expected to thrive in an unfavourable soil.

On some occasions, especially for boundary fences betweenseparate properties, or between farms on the same property,a double hedge and ditch is resorted to. In this case, twoditches are drawn at nine feet asunder from their inner sides.The soil from both ditches is thrown inwards, forming a largemound or double clap-dike, and a thorn-hedge is planted onboth faces of this intervening mound, exactly as already de-scribed for the single hedge and ditch. In this case, themiddle of the mound is the mutual boundary or line of march;and when by single hedge and ditch, the line of thorns is themarch, the ditch being dug from the property on one side ofthe line, and the mound laid on the other.

Some persons are in use to insert plants of sweet briar oreglantine among the thorns, in the formation of young hed-ges, placing a briar at every two or three yards. This, how-ever, is a very objectionable practice, wherever sheep of anykind are expected to pasture within the proposed inclosurcs,as the hooked prickles of the briars will catch hold of their