ON THE PLANTS FOR “LIVE” FENCES.
The native plants which have been employed for living fences include
most of our indigenous trees and shrubs, with some few which, if not
native, have yet been for a long time naturalised throughout Great
Britain. The most important of these will be found in the following
list:—
{ Oak }
{ Beech } Forest trees usually forming
Group 1. { Hornbeam } fences by means of undergrowth
{ Ash } from lopping and
{ Elm } cutting.
{ Maple }
{ Whitethorn }
{ Blackthorn } Trees and shrubs forming fences
Group 2. { Crab } by reason of a thick-growth
{ Buckthorn } and repellant thorns and spines.
{ Holly }
{ Nut }
{ Privet } Shrubs which for the most part
Group 3. { Dogwood } fill up badly-grown fences.
{ Spearwood } These are really weeds in
{ Guelder Rose } good hedges.
{ Elder }
In the first group, it may be remarked, that oak, ash, and elm are
seldom, if ever, planted for hedges; for in the first place these plants
are usually too expensive, and in the next they are not esteemed as
hedge plants. They mostly find their way in the fence by seeds being
sown by the wind, as is often the case with ash-keys, or they may start
up a bush of underwood after being cut down as hedge-row timber; in
either case they are very unsightly in appearance, and far from good in
hedges. Trees should not be grown in hedge-rows where the fence is to be
perfect, as these overshadow the best hedge-plants, and the sides of the
boles always offer weak places.
Beech and hornbeam are frequently used for garden and smaller fences,
and, when well grown, are really useful as a protection, as their
withered leaves are persistent, that is, they do not fall off until new
ones are formed. They are grown comparatively quickly, and will flourish
in poor light soils, and if strong plants be made to cross each other in
planting, they may be trained to form a strong fence.
In the second group, the whitethorn (_Cratægus oxyacantha_) stands
deservedly at the top of the list; in fact, it is the very best
hedge-row plant we possess. It is not slow of growth in congenial soil,
especially if well attended to. Its thorns render it thoroughly
repellant to cattle. It bears cutting, clipping, and trimming better
than any other; and though variable in its behaviour in different soils,
it is, after all, capable of bearing a greater diversity in this respect
than any other of our list. The whitethorn, then, is deservedly held in
the highest repute for the growth of the most perfect live fence for all
ordinary farm purposes; the blackthorn, crab, and buckthorn being
tolerated only because they possess some of the same characteristics as
the whitethorn. As regards the latter, it is exceedingly long-lived,
and, if left to itself, forms trees of considerable size, which are
occasionally very beautiful as forming part of park scenery; still in
hedges it can be kept to any size, and cutting it in causes a new wood
to spring up, which has all the characteristics of a young, quick plant.
These are merits of the greatest importance in favour of the whitethorn,
which will ever make this the best hedge-row plant, as if we succeed to
a whitethorn fence, which has been trimmed and kept within due bounds,
there is no difficulty in continuing the process; and so if the hedge be
left to grow tall and wild it may be cut out either wholly or partially,
some stems cut half through—as in the process of _plashing_—laid down,
and so a secure though not so tall a fence be formed, that will only
grow thicker year by year.
Blackthorn—sloe (_Prunus spinosa_) is formidable enough as regards
thorns, but it cannot stand the same amount of cutting as the
whitethorn, and, when cut, its young shoots being almost thornless,
makes a hedge of the sloe the less repellant the more vigorous are its
shoots.
The crab-apple (_Pyrus malus_) and the buckthorn (_Rhamnus catharticus_)
may be considered as accidental in fences; and as, to a great extent,
they will grow with the quicks and suffer the same treatment without
growing as upstarts on the one hand, or refusing to start again after
crippling on the other, they are both tolerated in fences without quite
getting a character for being hedgerow weeds.
The holly (_Ilex aquifolium_) possesses a wonderful repellant armour in
its spinous, evergreen leaves, on which, account it is esteemed as a
plant for fences:—
A hedge of holly, thieves that would invade,
Repulses like a growing palisade;
Whose numerous leaves such orient greens invest,
As in deep winter do the spring arrest.
This is one of our native trees, frequently attaining to a great size on
even wild, stony places, with only a thin layer of soil. We have seen
some fine examples, large enough to secure the holly a place among our
native forest trees on the “stony Cotteswolds,” as Shakespeare calls the
high Gloucestershire range; it is, however, of slow growth, or it would,
doubtless, be more used for fences: still in poor soils it will, after
all, grow as fast as the whitethorn, Evelyn is eloquent in praise of
holly. He says:—
Is there under heaven a more glorious and refreshing object of the
kind than an impregnable hedge of about four hundred feet in
length, nine feet high, and five in diameter, which I can show in
my now ruined gardens at Saye Court (thanks to the Czar of
Muscovy[23]), at any time of the year, glittering with its armed
and varnished leaves? The taller standards, at orderly distances,
blushing with their natural coral; it mocks the rudest assaults of
the weather, beasts, or hedge-breakers,—
Et illum nemo impunè lacessit.
[23] The Czar Peter the Great resided at Mr. Evelyn’s house, in order
that he might be near the yard at Deptford, during his stay in England;
but we do not see why he should be thanked for the holly hedge.
It is with us of two eminent kinds, the prickly and smoother
leaved; or, as some term it, the free holly, not unwelcome, when
tender, to sheep and other cattle. There is also of the white
berried, and a golden and silver, variegated in six or seven
differences, which proceeds from no difference in the species, but
accidentally, and _naturæ lusu_, as most such variegations do,
since we are taught how to effect it artificially, namely by sowing
the seeds, and planting in gravelly soil mixed with store of chalk,
pressing it hard down: it being certain that they return to their
native colour when sown in richer mould, and that all the fibres of
the roots recover their natural food.
The differences in the colour of the fruit, as of the colour and shape
of the leaves, is truly a matter of variety. The red-berried holly,
under the name of “Christmas,” is quite an article of commerce at the
festive season—so much so that a friend of ours in the neighbourhood of
Stroud, who this year (1864-5) had a large tree well covered with
berries, assured us that he had great difficulty in preventing it going
to market with some of the marauders, who scour the country in search of
anything they can sell.
In the Worcester market we for many years noticed a sprinkling of white,
or, rather, yellowish-berried holly, a spray or two of which was always
put with the bundle of the red-berried in effecting the many Christmas
sales.
As regards the difference in the leaves, although it is true that in the
gardens we have a smooth and unarmed variety, however dwarf the specimen
may be, yet in wild examples the smooth leaves will, for the most part,
only be found on the upper parts of tall trees; the poet, then, has been
as true to Nature as graceful in art in the poem of which the following
lines form a part:—
Below, a circling fence, its leaves are seen
Wrinkled and keen.
No grazing cattle through their prickly round
Can reach to wound;
But as they grow where nothing is to fear,
Smooth and unarmed, the pointless leaves appear.
_Southey._
In growing hedges, the clipping to keep them within bounds helps to keep
the holly spinous at any age.
Evelyn further descants upon the excellency of holly for hedges; and as
the following remarks are so truly practical, we quote them in this
place:—
The holly is an excellent plant for hedges, and would claim the
preference to the hawthorn, were it not for the slowness of its
growth while young, and the difficulty of transplanting it when
grown to a moderate size. It will grow best in cold, stony land,
where, if once it takes well, the hedges may be rendered so close
and thick as to keep out all sorts of animals. These hedges may be
raised by sowing the berries in the place where they are designed
to remain, or by plants of three or four years’ growth; but as the
berries continue in the ground near eighteen months before the
plants appear, few persons care to wait so long; therefore, the
usual and best method is to plant the hedges with plants of the
before-mentioned age. But where this is practised, they should be
transplanted either early in autumn, or deferred till toward the
end of March; then the surface of the ground should be covered with
mulch near their roots, after they are planted, to keep the earth
moist; and if the season should prove dry, the plants should be
watered, at least once a-week, until they have taken root,
otherwise they will be in danger of miscarrying, for which reason
the autumnal planting is generally preferred to the spring,
especially in dry grounds. Columella’s description of a good hedge
is highly applicable to one made of holly, “Neu sit pecori, neu
pervia furi.” Of the rind of this tree birdlime is made.
Alas! in vain with warmth and food
You cheer the songsters of the wood;
The barbarous boy from you prepares,
On treacherous twigs, his viscous snares;
Yes, the poor bird you nursed shall find
Destruction in your rifled rind.
If we except the Privet, the examples of plants in our third group are
quite unfit for hedge purposes, as they are entirely without offensive
armature. Privet hedges are not unfrequent in gardens, where they are
useful for boundaries, blinds, and to act as shelter, but as a farm
hedge-plant it is quite useless.
The nut, guelder rose, and elder have none of the qualities for hedge
growth that are required by the former; on the contrary, they have large
leaves, and so smother the quicks if they grow with them, and when cut
they shoot rapidly, especially in the case of the elder (_Sambucus
niger_), and so make a hedgerow look ragged by here and there growing a
yard or so above the ordinary hedge-plants; but, besides this, the lower
stems get free from leaves, and hence gaps are easily made in bushes of
nut, dogwood, elder, &c.
In the above description of hedgerow plants we have omitted all mention
of yew, holly, laurustinas, furze, and the like, as being more properly
materials for ornamental or garden hedges. The furze, however, is
sometimes used on the tops of mounds, in some sandy districts, as a
fence plant, but the constant dying of the old wood and the consequent
exercise by the cottager of a fancied right to pull the hedge to pieces
for firing render it almost impossible to employ it to any advantage.