CHAPTER XXXVIII.
ON THE MANAGEMENT OF HEDGE-ROW FENCES.
We shall, in the first place, treat the subject of management in reference to fences composed of hawthorn. In the newly-planted hedge we shall find that the better the soil in which it is planted, the quicker and stronger the young quicks will grow. If, then, the soil be not good, or if it be thin, it will be worth while to prepare it as well as circumstances will permit. This may be done by deep digging, by bringing good soil from a distance, or some aid may be given by means of any kind of manure. It should ever be borne in mind that to start with luxuriant growth is all-important, as neglect in this matter at first can only be partially remedied afterwards.
Good quicks, selected and removed with care, carefully planted in well-prepared ground, not elevated several feet on a dry sand-bank, or carelessly grouted in a gutter of clay, will soon send out vigorous shoots. These should be well weeded and dug at least for three or four years, during which time an occasional trimming of a wild shoot here and there with the knife will rightly direct a more even growth.
In weeding, the first advent of briars and brambles should be looked to; so all seedling ash, elder, maple, and defenceless trees in general, should be taken out by the roots, not cut off, as this only makes a thicket of a twig.
After three or four years, if the growth be sufficiently strong, the young hedge may be trimmed to a desired shape with the shears or the hook; but if weak and straggling, we would strongly recommend that the whole be boldly cut off within a few inches of the base, the ground to be well dug and even manured about the roots, and the protecting railings to be put in order, and a new growth be waited for, which, generally speaking, will not be long—for by this means we believe that a good fence will be sooner arrived at than by allowing weak wood to go on growing still weaker.
Hawthorn fences are sometimes allowed to get several feet high before being brought into reasonable dimensions, in which case they get smooth, unarmed, and unbranched stems at the base. This state of things is too often attempted to be cured by cutting out a quantity of the wood and laying the rest, by partially dividing them near the ground—a plan which is called “plashing.” This we think highly objectionable: it would be far better to cut off the whole to within a few inches of the ground, and so trim the shoots as they grow again.
The truth is, that plashing gets out of order, the layered sticks get out of place, and the whole is aided by stakes of dead wood, which soon decay, or, if not, are almost certain to be removed by the constant country claimants to dead sticks in general.
We prefer that no dead materials should be put to a living fence; for if there are gaps, it will be best to dig the ground well and put in some young quicks, fencing with posts and rails, to guard the plants as well as impound the cattle. Mending gaps with thorns only aggravates the evil, as the living part of the fence is so interfered with by the dead matter that it grows but imperfectly, and the dead materials soon rot away, leaving a greater gap to be re-mended.
We have seen gaps tried to be repaired by old quicks, but this seldom succeeds—for if they grow, they are never bushy enough to be repellant; but they often die altogether, and at best with old plants, young quicks will repair the mischief in less time.
Seeing the difficulty there is sometimes in getting quicks to grow well in hedge gaps, it is not uncommon to fill up with various kinds of hedge-row plants, such as hazel, whitebeam, spindle-tree, dogwood, maple, &c.; but the objection to these is, that they are often not repellant in any way, and they help to make weaker places broader than they found them, and, indeed, ultimately get possession of the greater part of the hedge-row. There is, then, nothing better to mend a whitethorn hedge than quicks, and they will grow if attended to for the first two or three years; but why they usually fail is, that if planted in gaps they are usually closely hemmed in by old thorns, or allowed to become smothered by weeds.
With respect to very old hedges, made up of all sorts of materials, we prefer cutting them down about three feet from the ground, leaving all the stubs to branch out, than to attempt to layer as shrubs, and then the whitethorn succeeds even less with plashing. Where, however, we have rough, but, after all, not repellant fences, we should like to see them re-planted, by which they could mostly be curtailed, and at the same time opportunity may be taken to get rid of some of them altogether, or to make them in a more convenient direction.
We are now in possession of a hedge composed of everything but hawthorn, and somewhere about twelve feet high. It is without gaps, but still pregnable at any point, by reason of the want of armature in the shrubs of which it is composed. Still, as it stands on the top of a bank five feet high, the mound and hedge together is not so bad a fence as its materials might warrant.
We here give a list of the plants of which this fence is composed, in order to the more clear explanation of what is to follow:—
| PLANTS IN A HEDGE AT BRADFORD ABBAS, ON THE INFERIOR OOLITE. | ||||
| Parts. | ||||
| Ash | 4 | - | The whole intermixed with long climbing brambles and straggling briars, and the bank covered with the usual hedge-row weeds. | |
| Hazel | 20 | |||
| Cornel | 10 | |||
| Spindle-tree | 12 | |||
| Blackthorn | 6 | |||
| Maple | 20 | |||
| Mealy Guelder Rose | 5 | |||
| Clematis | 2 | |||
| Elder | 3 | |||
| Elm | 3 | |||
| Whitethorn | 2 | |||
Now, here is a tall hedge on the north side of our field, and so capable of affording no slight amount of shelter to stock; but how much southern sun does it keep off our neighbour’s field! And yet we have just succeeded to a lease which contains a clause compelling this hedge to be annually trimmed—a process which has not been performed for many years, but which we shall hereafter show should be done, especially where hedges have been properly cared for, for the due keeping of the fence itself; but further, we feel convinced that a proprietor should be able to call upon the owner of a neighbouring estate to keep his portion of the fences within such bounds as may not be injurious.
In the case before us, what is best to be done? Custom says, “Lay it; plash it.” Still, the materials are not suitable for this process. “Cut it down and it will shoot up again,” says the hedger, who would be ready to do the work for the wood; but mark, that in order to get as much as possible, it would be cut close to the ground. Our plan will be to cut it at about a yard from the top of the mound, and afterwards to watch the young shoots, so as carefully to trim them, in order to induce them to throw out laterals, and thus make, at least, a thick growth, though of unpromising materials.
With regard to trimming by the piece: if it be really a well-grown quick-set hedge, the keeping it to a certain standard may be easily accomplished; but if it be a weakly growth of all kinds of shrubs, the labourer slashes as close to the ground as he can with the hook, in order to “have something to cut against”—a process which only makes the hedges weaker the oftener it is performed.