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ON INCLOSING land

Tlie sloe or black-thorn lias beep proposed as a substitute;and it is said, that the peasants near Thiopville in France make a spirituous liquor from the juice of the sloe, fermentedand distilled, which they prefer to wine. The plumb, goose-berry, bramble, elder, and rasp, may all grow in hedges, andall yield useful and agreeable fruits. The willow and hazel,being first interwoven when at a proper height for constitu-ting a fence, and then pruned above that height, at properintervals of time, may answer well in some cases as a hedge,and will supply valuable materials for the basketmaker andcooper.

Cottage gardens in Scotland used formerly to be surround-ed by a fence or hedge of elder or bourtree, the Sambucusnigra of botanists. This is easily propagated by cuttings,tpid, though not armed with spines, if well trained and regu-larly pruned, soon makes a firm strong fence, in dry aridsoils, where the hawthorn is not capable of thriving. It wasformerly thought, that this species of fence was hostile to cat-terpUlars, owing to its strong smell, or to some other quality.

The holly, or Ilex aquifolium , though of slow growth, formsa close and beautiful evergreen fence, and would be morecommonly planted for that purpose, if the mode of rearing itwere better understood, and more generally known. It oughtnot to be transplanted in November and February, like thehawthorn, but in May and June.

The larch, Pirns larix, grows luxuriantly in coarser andpoorer soils than will suit the hawthorn, and is not so liableto be gnawed by the teeth of cattle and sheep. When thetop is cut over, the lateral branches multiply and extend, andmay be so interwoven as to Ibrm a strong fence. There aretwo species or varieties of larch, one having a whitish bark,which is of European origin, and was probably introducedinto Britain from Russia , which is a well-known tree, produ-cing a most valuable timber. The other has a dark brownbark, and has been introduced of late years from America , bythe nurserymen, to supply the growing demand for larch