INDIANA FARMER.
Devoted to Agriculture, Horticulture, mechanics and the  Useful Arts.
D- ^"tIS-T^."11'3'!      RICHMOND, MAY 15,1854.      j^SEtf.??:'. &\"#:"
Table of Contents.
Page 211, 242—Conclusion of "Thoughts on Hedges"—Soap
Making.
"   243—Illinois Farms—Sotting Cabbage, Tomato  and
other Plants—Stowell Sweet Corn.
"   241,215—ltipe Fruitin April—Cutting Bushes—Clover
Chatf vs. Cleaned Seed—Butter and cheese—Blinds
in Horses—Green   Manuring—Remedy  for Lice on
colts and cattle.
*'   2 45,2 49 —Piggery and Suffolk Hogs—Tramping System.
"   2 43,2 49—Patent Office Seeds—Peach—Boy on Farm-
Sweet Apple—Sale of Sheep in Ohio.
"   259—Raspberries—Why Epidemics rage  at   night—•
Remedy for Choking—Summering.
"   251—Swine among Fruit Trees—Black Spanish Fowl
Curculio, &g.
"   252, 253—Pie Plant—Clover in Orchards, "Ponny-wiso
and Pound Foolish"—To mako Yeast.
"   254, 255—Litter from 11. T. Brown, No. 3—Change of
climate—Wool—Grease for carriage wheels.
"   253—Asparagus—New Invention, Gas for country use.
THOUGHTS  ON  HEDGES,
BV J03. P. BRADY. [Concluded.]
Wet ground through which hedges are made
should be properly drained, so that stagnant water may not at any time stand along any part of
it. Where the wa'er stands at certain seasons of
the year the earth becomes hard and sterile-
Nothing will more quickly and certainly injure a
hedge, if not destoy it. Moisture is necessary to
its thrifty growth, but not so much water as to
run the soil together, and destroy its looseness
"and porosity. All good farmers understand the
importance of this in raising grain.
Hedges should be so constructed that there
will be no gaps at drains or ravines. This may
be easily done. An arch should be sprung for
the passage of the water, of extent enough to receive a covering of earth sufficient for the growth
of the hedge. If the ravine is deep, it should be
at least partially leveled up, above what would
merely be necessary to sustain the hedge. This
will add greatly to its beauty as well as value.—
The most beautiful fence that we ever saw consisted of two lines of hedge, each one-half mile in
length, parallel with each other, on ground that
was almost level, except a slight gradual rise at
the farther portion.
After planting, the hedge will need no farther
clipping during the £rst season, but will require
much strict attention with the plough and hoe in
cultivating it. The second season it should be
cut early in the spring, within 2 or 3 inches of
the ground. This is better than the method of
cutting near the ground at the time of setting,
and then leaving a portion of the last year's growth
at the second cutting. The roots become fixed
in the earth, and acquire strength to send out
stronger lateral branches than they could possibly do the first season. The great object of making it thick at the bottom, is thus greatly facili-
tafed. It should then be permitted to grow until
the middle or last of June, when, if the season is
favorable and the growth good, it should again
be cut, within about 4 inches of the spring cutting.
If it has not grown well, the summer cutting had
better be omitted, lest the late sprouts should not
obtain enough maturity to enable them to endure
the winter. The next season, which will be the
third from the time of setting, it should be cut
down both spring and summer, within about 4
inches of the former cutting; the fourth spring also. The base will then be formed as thick and
wide as is desirable, if it has had proper cultivation. Let it grow during this season without
farther clipping, and it will be ready in the fall or
spring to dress to the height and form of the finished hedge, and fit to answer all the, purposes of
a fence. With poor soil and bad cultivation a
longer time may be required to perfect the hedge,
but 4 years will generally be sufficient. Not
more than one dressing a year will be necessary
afterward, and that will be but a light labor. Indeed, after a series of years, even that may be
ofttimes omitted for a season.
Hedges are sometimes dressed into fantastic
forms, but no other form looks so well, or is so
serviceable, as one about 5 or 6 feet high, from 2
to 2£ feet'wide at the base, and tapering regularly to a top one foot in width.
Several instruments are used for trimming,
such as a long knife, a hook, a Dutch sickle on a
common hoe handle, a short strong scythe, large
shears, &c. Shears have been made so large as
to be worked by horse power. The scythe is
perhaps best for a plain job, and the knife or hook
for very neat work. . A hedge requires less labor in prunning than most of us would anticipate. Mr. Turner, of Illinois, before referred to,
says: "Our Englishmen here in the west, with a
good heavy plasher, will trim half a mile to a mile
per day of any hedge that ever grew, as well as I
care to have it trimmed around my farms." "A
good stout Pennsylvanian, with his horse-power
shears, will do much better than that." A. H.
Ernst, says, "An active man will, with a quick
motion, clip the young;shoots almost as fast as a
slow walk." We lately saw about 60 rods of a
four year old hedge, which had just been dressed,
in beautiful style, in a half day, by a youth 15
years of age, with no other instrument than a
common scythe.
We have estimated four years as being sufficient, under ordinary circumstances, to make an
Osage Orange fence strong enough to turn any of
our domestic animals. In some cases they have
been "turned out" in less time, but be not in too
much haste. Impatience and negligence may
produce failure in hedge growing, as they do in
other things. Better be even two years longer in
growing your hedge, than have it partially tail of
its object.
The more frequently the hedge is dressed tho
less labor will it require, from the  well known ^.
fact, that when the top branches are clipped, the
side branches become more strong, and tbe general upward growth is checked, and thatthe plant