The cost of buckthorn hedges, including the preparation of a strip of soil five feet wide, purchase of plants, setting, and occasional horse cultivation on each side, was about twenty-five cents a rod the first year. The yearly cultivation and cutting back, until the hedge had reached full size, was three or four cents a rod. Though the buckthorn has nearly passed out of use on account of its inefficiency, it is not impossible that it may be extensively planted when cultivators find that it may be converted into an efficient barrier by inclosing two or three barbed wires extending its length through the interior--these wires, supported on occasional posts, being successively placed in position as the hedge increases in height, the branches growing around the wires and holding them immovably in position. Galvanized wire should be always used, on account of its durability. Osage orange hedges require more care than buckthorn, in assorting plants of equal size and vigor, and the rejection of feeble plants. Like all other hedge plants, they should be set in a single line, and eight inches apart is a suitable distance. For the first few years the ground must be kept well cultivated. It is partly tender and will not endure the winters at the North, unless on a well-drained soil. Hence the importance of placing a good tile drain parallel to the hedge and within a few feet of it. Thus protected, good hedges have stood for twenty-five years where the thermometer has often shown ten or twelve degrees below zero, and sometimes lower.