A Formidable Hedge.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 156, 30 May 1884, Page 3

A Formidable Hedge.

Australian tourists who may have travelled the very ancient kingdoms of Spain and Portugal must have observed m the country districts* tne effective style of separating, subdivid ing and enclosing even immense areas of land by means of high aloe hedges, which form a terrible torturedealing foe to intrusion, for even a Bengal tiger will not face its bristling sharp spike -a right opponent for larrikin marauders to gardens and orchards, and is especially adapted for the protection of vineyards ; it canuot be got over, under, or through by either man or beast. The aloe grows rapidly, and quickly spreads by means oi suckers which it throws out pleniifully. The common mode of planting is by forming an earth platform along 1 the proposed line of fence, pay about six feet, or even more, wide, by digging a ditch or dyke along each side and piling the earth along 1 the platform ; service the first year a rail along- the centre would Tbe useful. The young plants to be set out on both sides of the rail at about five feet apart alternately, forming a line of triangular set out plants ; it will soon attain a height of six or even eight feet good soil. The aloe hedge is even quicker and more easily got up than an ordinary colonial fence and cheaper of construction over a treeless country. Gaps must be left for gateways, as even a native cat would be kept out by a well-set hedge. The aloe also has a good commercial value, both m pharmacy and for fibre uses, and is plentifully grown throughout all the warmer regions of the globe, being perhaps one of the oldest known to thousands m this country, yet here are tens of thousands of the bush bred inhabitants of these colonies, who have never seen or heard of it.