Science and Practice in Farm Cultivation

by James Buckman

CHAPTER XXXV.

WEEDS OF HEDGE-ROW FENCES.

As the hawthorn is usually recognized as the best plant for living fences for farm purposes, it will be expected that this has been almost exclusively employed; but, seeing that this is so, and has been so for many years past, it is not a little interesting to trace in all hedges a predilection to grow anything else rather than that originally planted. Of course, with anything else we wished to grow, such interlopers would be eradicated as weeds; but with hedges it would seem that all kinds of rubbish are left to accumulate, until a hedge originally all hawthorn has become made up of extraneous matters, with occasional “gaps,” which are sure to occur where other plants are allowed, to the prejudice of the quicks. As examples, we append the following:—

Ex. 1. ANALYSIS OF A HEDGE-ROW ON THE GREAT OOLITE COLLEGE FARM, CIRENCESTER.
	ft.	in.
Whitethorn	2	6
Maple	4	0
Elder	2	0
Maple and whitethorn confused	4	6
Elder	3	0
Maple, whitethorn, and elder, confused	12	0
Elder	5	0
Maple, whitethorn, and elder, confused	21	0
Ash twigs	3	0
Maple	2	0
Ash	3	6
Quicks	12	0
Elm twigs	3	0
Elder	3	6
Maple	3	0
Elder	3	0
Whitethorn and maple	24	0
Gap	4	0
Total	115	0
Ex. 2. ANALYSIS OF A HEDGE ON THE FOREST MARBLE, NEAR CIRENCESTER.[235]
	ft.	in.
Whitethorn	3	0
Blackthorn	4	0
Brambles and briars (Rubus and Rosa)	4	6
Ash and gap	4	0
Crab	4	0
Gap and brambles	3	0
Whitethorn	2	6
Crab	2	0
Blackthorn	2	0
Whitethorn	4	0
Blackthorn	7	0
Gap and briars (Rosa canina)	4	0
Blackthorn	4	0
Whitethorn	3	0
Rose (briars) and brambles	4	6
Whitethorn	3	0
Gap and brambles	2	6
Whitethorn	2	0
Rose (briars)	3	0
Whitethorn	2	0
Rose	2	6
Blackthorn	2	6
Total	73	0
Ex. 3. ANALYSIS OF A HEDGE ON THE INFERIOR OOLITE, BRADFORD ABBAS.
	ft.	in.
Traveller’s Joy (clematis)	3	0
Gap	12	0
Whitethorn	4	0
Ash	3	6
Whitethorn, brambles, &c.	10	0
Clematis	18	0
Sycamore stump	4	0
Brambles, &c.	8	0
Maple brambles, with occasional whitethorn bush	33	0
Nut and gaps	11	0
Blackthorn and brambles	6	6
Guelder rose	3	0
Blackthorn, &c.	5	0
Elder	3	0
Blackthorn, maple, and others, with occasional whitethorn	20	0
The same, smothered with clematis	28	0
Total	172	0

These three examples will be sufficient to show the fact that, in the lapse of years, a hedge originally planted either all or nearly all quicks, ultimately contains almost everything besides. How this comes about may be easily observed. Birds and other creatures are constantly taking fruits of various plants to the hedge-rows, the seeds of which being dropped there, soon vegetate; and if shrubs with heavier twigs and broader leaves once ascend into the hedge, they overshadow the smaller leaves of the quicks, and ultimately so discourage them that they all but die out, and it is not at all difficult to see that the success of the interlopers is only augmented by the injuries to the quicks.

A more minute inquiry into the natural history and mode of operation of hedge-row weeds will be best preceded by a list of such plants as may be considered to act as weeds in a properly planted whitethorn hedge.

In doing this we may premise that, if our object has been to plant quicks, interlopers of all kinds, whether trees or shrubs—in fact, all but the plant which we have purchased and planted—can scarcely be considered other than as weeds. To these interlopers, then, we may add the following list, as containing a series of plants that will be, perhaps, more generally recognized as weeds:—

LIST OF HEDGE-ROW WEEDS.
No.	Botanical Name.	Trivial Name.	Remarks.
1	Salix species	Willows, various
2	Berberis vulgaris	Barberry			-	Spinous undershrubs.
3	Rosa species	Wild Roses (briars), various
4	Rubus species	Brambles, various			-	Woody climbing plants.
5	Clematis vitalba	Traveller’s Joy
6	Hedera helix	Ivy
7	Solanum dulcamara	Bitter-sweet Nightshade			-	Climbing herbs,—mostly twisting around the stems of the stronger hedge-plants.
8	Tamus communis	Black Bryony
9	Bryonia dioica	White Bryony
10	Humulus lupulus	Wild Hop
11	Convolvulus sepium	Larger Bindweed
12	Galium species	Bedstraw, various
13	Glechoma hederacea	Ground Ivy		-		Weeds of the lower parts of hedges, which smother out young quicks, and prevent the old ones from being thick at “bottom.”
14	Geranium Robertianum	Herb, Robert Cranesbill
15	Carduus varieties	Various Thistles
16	Umbelliferæ varieties	Hedge Parsley, &c.
17	Graminaceæ varieties	Grasses

As regards the plants of this list, it will only be necessary to refer to a few of them, in order the more fully to impress the principles we have laid down.

The roses (briars) and brambles, though spinous, are yet short-lived; so that their old wood is continually dying out, thus causing gaps, inasmuch as such heavily-foliaged plants necessarily prevent the growth of the whitethorn or any other tolerable hedge-plant. But, besides this, the bramble has the propensity to root at the ends of its long flexile branches, and so spreads the pest in every direction, not escaping the ditch when it forms part of the fence, that the whole becomes smothered up in a tangled, inextricable mass, always out of order and unsightly, making but a poor fence, though affording shelter to hares, rabbits, and other farm pests.

The clematis and ivy are large-foliaged plants, and their pliant stems interlace on the hedge in such a manner as most surely to kill out the quicks, and so to become the usurping tenants; but, no sooner have they attained the mastery than they begin to decay, whole branches die, and the result is a gap, which must either be patched up with thorns or be newly planted, and then fenced with post and rails. As regards mending gaps with thorns, we ought to state that we view it as decidedly injurious,—as dead matter in proximity with the living only prevents the growth of the latter: at best it is only a makeshift, which soon gets rotten, and tempts the petty wood-pilferer to pull the hedge further to pieces for the sake of a few dry sticks.

With regard to those plants of which we may take the bryony and the hop as the types, it is true that their bine is annual; but each year the quantity and strength of this augments—each year the mass of foliage becomes larger and thicker. The twining arms twist around any branch strong enough to support them, and then, once at the top of the fence, they spread over its surface, making so thick a mass that the legitimate hedge-plants are no longer visible; thus sun and air are excluded from them, and they soon pine away. These are difficult to eradicate, as they have stout rhizomata (underground stems) interlaced with the very roots of the hedge-plants: still, if pains be taken to pluck away the bine as soon as it makes its appearance, it must in time be destroyed; for, like even the hawthorn tree, hardy as it is, if the leaves be kept from perfecting themselves, they soon pine away, and ultimately die altogether.

The other plants are more properly weeds of the hedge-bank than of the hedge, and as such need only be mentioned with weeds in general as pests to be periodically removed by hoeing, digging, and otherwise clearing the ground between and about the hedge-row work, more particularly necessary in the first few years of planting.

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