The next subject for consideration is that of the planting of the quicks. To this end we should choose our plants to be of about four or five years old; and in all cases, if possible, should personally superintend their removal from the nursery. Old bundles of quicks, that have stood it may be two or three weekly markets, will be sure to cause disappointment. They should be removed so as to secure as many of the rootlets—not merely the larger roots—as possible. In planting, which should be done as quickly as may be after removal, avoid the dibble, or anything which would tend to combine the roots in a small compass. The best plan is to use the spade and to spread the roots carefully; then cover them up, and tread the plants firmly into the ground, taking care, if it be in a retentive soil, not to leave holes in which water could stagnate. When so planted, at about from six to nine inches, they should annually, or twice a year if necessary, be hoed and weeded and have the surface-soil tolerably well stirred, and, usually at the end of about the third or fourth year, be carefully cut down within six or eight inches of the ground, and the soil well stirred and manured. This would appear to be a waste of time; but a single year will restore the plants to even a greater height than before, and with all the elements for a thick impervious bottom, from which time annual careful trimming—always when the leaves have performed their functions and fall off—will be sufficient to keep the hedge in an improving state. We have here advocated planting in single lines. Some, however, prefer double rows of quicks; but the latter are more difficult to keep clean and to cultivate; and we have ever seen that it is not the quantity, but the quality and the after-treatment of the plants which result in the compact and repellant hedge. Of course, all young hedges must be protected by a dead fence; and for this purpose we prefer posts and rails of wood, or, if to keep back sheep, mixed with a line or two of hoop-iron: this, according to the situation of the fence, will be required on only one or on both sides. In planting young beech, or hornbeam, or any non-spinous plant, for hedges, it is advisable to cross the sets like a series of XXX’s, overlapping each other at about ten or twelve inches apart; by this means the branches interlace, and a compact fence, difficult to penetrate, will be formed. [Illustration: _E.B. 2504._ Cratægus monogyna. Common White-thorn.] Maple may be used in the same way; but it never makes a strong fence, and it has not the advantage of the two former, as its leaves fall off at the approach of cold weather, which is not the case with either beech or hornbeam, whose leaves are eminently persistent, especially in the earlier part of their lives.