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.
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 under- |
| 3 |Rosa species |Wild Roses (briars), |}shrubs. |
| | |various |} |
| 4 |Rubus species |Brambles, various | }Woody climbing |
| 5 |Clematis vitalba |Traveller’s Joy | }plants. |
| 6 |Hedera helix |Ivy | } |
| 7 |Solanum dulcamara |Bitter-sweet Nightshade|}Climbing |
| 8 |Tamus communis |Black Bryony |}herbs,—mostly |
| 9 |Bryonia dioica |White Bryony |}twisting around |
|10 |Humulus lupulus |Wild Hop |}the stems of the |
|11 |Convolvulus sepium |Larger Bindweed |}stronger hedge- |
|12 |Galium species |Bedstraw, various |}plants. |
| | | |{Weeds of the lower|
|13 |Glechoma hederacea |Ground Ivy |{parts of hedges, |
|14 |Geranium Robertianum |Herb, Robert Cranesbill|{which smother out |
|15 |Carduus varieties |Various Thistles |{young quicks, and |
|16 |Umbelliferæ varieties|Hedge Parsley, &c. |{prevent the old |
|17 |Graminaceæ varieties |Grasses |{ones from being |
| | | |{thick at “bottom.”|
+---+---------------------+-----------------------+-------------------+
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.