A Locust fence, I allow, will last for ever; but, then, what will a fence all of Locust, cost? Besides the difference in the look of the thing; besides the vast difference in the nature and effect of the shelter and the shade; and besides, that, after all, you have, in the wooden fence, no effectual protection against invaders.



However, there is one thing, which must not be omitted; and that is, that the hedge will not be a fence, or, at least, I would not look upon it as such, until it had been planted six years.

During these six years, there must be a fence all round on the outside of it, to keep off pigs, sheep and cattle: for, as to the two legged assailants nothing will keep them off except a quick set hedge. If I had to make this temporary fence, it should be a dead hedge, made of split hickory rods, like those that hoops are made of, and with stakes of the stoutest parts of the same rods, or of oak saplings, or some such things.

The workmanship of this, if I had a Hampshire or Sussex hedger, would not cost me more than six cents a rod: perhaps, the stuff would not cost more than a quarter of a dollar a rod; and this fence would last, with a little mending, as long as I should want it. But, as few good hedgers come from England, and as those who do come appear to think, that they have done enough of hedging in their own country, or, if they be set to hedging here, seem to look upon themselves as a sort of conjurors, and to expect to be paid and treated accordingly, the best may, probably, is, to put up a temporary post and rail fence, sufficient to keep out a sucking pig: and to keep this fence standing until the hedge has arrived at the age of six years, as before mentioned.

There yet remains one advantage, and that not a small one, that a quick set hedge possesses over every other sort of fence; and that is, that it effectually keeps out poultry, the depredations of which, in a nice garden, are so intolerable, that it frequently becomes a question, whether the garden shall be abandoned, or the poultry destroyed.

Fowls seldom, or never, fly over a fence. They, from motives of prudence, first alight upon it, and then drop down on the other side; or, if they perceive danger, turn short about, and drop back again, making a noise expressive of their disappointment.

Now, Fowls will alight on wooden, brick, or stone fences; but never on a quick set hedge, which affords no steady lodgment for their feet, and which wounds their legs and thighs and bodies with its thorns.

What has been said here of forming a hedge applies to meadows and fields as well as to gardens; observing, however, that, in all cases, the ground ought to be well prepared, and cattle, sheep and pigs kept effectually off; until the hedge arrive at its sixth year.

If I am asked how the white thorn plants are to be had in America, I answer, that I saw a Tree of Hawthorn at McAllister's Tavern, near Harrisburg, in Pennsylvania, loaded with red berries. In short, one large tree, or bush, would soon stock the whole country; and they may be brought from England, either in plant or in berry.

But, there are many here already. If more are wanted, they can be had any month of December, being shipped from England, in barrels, half sand and half berries in November. The berries, which are called haws are ripe in November. They are beaten down from the tree, and cleared from leaves and bits of wood. Then they are mixed with sand, or earth, four bushels of sand, or of earth, to a bushel of haws.

They are thus put into a cellar or other cool place; and here they remain, always about as moist as common earth, until sixteen months after they are put in; that is to say, through a winter, a summer, and another winter; and then they are sown (in America) as soon as the frost is clean out of the ground.

They ought to be sown in little drills; the drills a foot a part, and the haws about as thick as peas in the drills. Here they come up; and, when they have stood till the next year. These haws may be had from Liverpool, from London, or from almost any port in Great Britain or Ireland.

But, they can be had only in the months of November and December. Seldom in the latter; for, the birds eat them at a very early period. They are ripe early in November; and, half haws half sand, may be had, I dare say, for two

dollars a barrel, at any place. Three barrels would fence a farm! And, as America owes to Europe her Wheat, why be ashamed to add fences to the debt? But (and with this I conclude,) if there be a resolution formed to throw all lands to common, rather than take the trifling trouble to make live fences, I do hope that my good neighbors will not ascribe these remarks to any disposition in mine to call in question the wisdom of that resolution.