Fig. 106.—Badly Plowed Ground.
Fig. 107.—Hedge Plant On Hard Ridge.
Fig. 108.—Properly Plowed Ground.
Fig. 109.—Hedge Plant In Mellow Soil.
The first requisite for a hedge of any kind is to secure thrifty plants of uniform size. Osage Orange plants are raised from seeds by nurserymen, and when of the right size, should be taken up in autumn and “heeled in.” The ground, which it is proposed to occupy by the hedge, should be broken up in autumn and then replowed in spring, unless it is a raw prairie sod, which should be broken a year before the hedge is planted. It is a very usual, but very bad practice, to plow a ridge with a back-furrow, as shown in [figure 106]. This leaves an unplowed strip of hard soil directly under the line upon which the hedge is to stand. When harrowed, it appears very fair on the surface, but it is useless to expect young plants to thrive on such a bed of hard soil, and its result will be as seen in [figure 107]. The first growth is feeble, irregular, and many vacant spots appear. The land should be plowed as in [figure 108]. When the sod is rotted, the land should be harrowed lengthwise of the furrows, and the dead furrow left in the first plowing closed by twice turning back the ridge. There is then a deep, mellow, well-drained bed for the plants in which the roots have room to grow and gather ample nutrition. [Figure 109] shows the effect of this kind of cultivation. As a barrier against stock, or a windbreak, it is best to plant in double rows, each row being set opposite the spaces in the other, thus:
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