WILLOW HEDGES.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1210, 11 September 1874, Page 4

WILLOW HEDGES.

The following hints seem especially applicable for adoption by agriculturists and gardeners on the \Vest Coast : The willow makes an exceedingly good fence, grows quickly, and has other merits. By substituting willow for thorn, hedges can be made profitable ; they are, it is said, more effective as a shelter, quite as strong, reared in a much shorter time, and at less than half the cost. The wiilow has been recommended for hedge by Linnaeus, Loudon, Miller, and other writers of note ; and the only way in which the neglect of such advice can be accounted for is simply that the matter h;is never been sufficiently brought under notice. A willow hedge, says the Florist and Pomologist, 200 yards long, planted in ground well dug over, cleaned, and manured—planted with cuttings 12in long and Gin apart requiring 1200 cuttings, valued at 25s—became in two years a good strong hedge, capable of resisting any pressure an ordinary hedge would be subject to. The willows being crossed diagonally, rendered it almost impossible for anything to break through. The dressings of sprays of the first two years were coarse and worthless, but in the three succeeding years the dressing has sold to basket makers for 20s each year, which has paid the entire cost of planting, labor and rent of land which the hedge occupies. Another hedge, planted upon the same principle has at the second years' dressing, paid the cost of the plants. The above hedges were planted with the Bitter Willow, which neither, cattle, game nor vermin will often materially injure.