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themfelves became ftrong in the Items, and have large fide branches, which, by-interweaving with one another, render the hedge thick and impenetrable. Thofethat are cut at proper intervals, as about every feven or eight years, have gene-rally a confiderable fuperiority over thofe which have been clipped from the timethey were firft planted. Befides, there is a confiderable faving of labour, and thehedges are far more profitable.
When pruning is neceffary, it may be performed in a neat and expeditiousmanner, by means of a pair of pruning {hears ; the beft fort of which are thofeconftru&ed with a ftrong fharp blade, about fix or eight inches in length, movingbetween two pieces of iron, with fquare edges as cheeks. The handles fliouldbe a good length, in order to give the operator fufficient command in cuttingthe upper parts of the hedge, and the higher one three or four inches longer thanthe lower*. Some workmen, however, prefer for this purpofe an inftrumentmade fomewhat in the form of a reaping-hook, and extremely fharp, to whichis fixed a handle of about two feet, or two feet and an half long. In the handsof an expert workman this, too, is a very good implement.
The time at which hedges are ufually cut is the fummer, which, from the ftateof vegetation, is evidently the moft improper that can be chofen, as the plants bybeing cut, while full of fap or juice, cannot but be greatly injured. The moltfuitable period for this bufinefs would feem to be that of the latter part of au-tumn, when the growth of the plants is in a declining, or the leaft vigorous ftate.
In refpeft to the manner of cutting them, various methods are adopted andpra&ifed, but that which feems to give them the moft ufeful form, is by lettingthem have a kind of floping or narrowing direftion on both fides from the bot-tom to the top, as by fuch a mode the thickeft part will be in the bottom whereit is the moft wanted. The reverfe of this is, however, frequently the cafe in cutor clipped hedges.
The bufinefs of clipping or pruning hedges fliould not, as has been juft ob-ferved, be performed too frequently, as by fuch means they are liable to becomethin in the bottoms, a defect which can only be effectually removed by cuttingthe plants down clofe to the ground. For feveral years after a hedge has beenplanted it fhould, therefore, probably undergo little cutting, except in the lateralbranches that may fpread out; in the taking off of which, attention fliouldalwavs be had to draw it to a ridge-like form, or make it the narroweft at the top,as has been fuggefted above.
On thefe points it has been remarked, by a very able and experienced writer,
* General View of the Agriculture of Northumberland,