Honey locust as a hedging plant
In my post yesterday, I wrote about Osage orange hedges planted in the mid-19th century on the American prairies. Barbed wire hadn't been invented and there weren't enough trees to make rail fences, so hedges were used to create pastures where livestock could be kept.
In east central Nebraska, J.P. Dunlap experimented with Osage orange hedges, but found honey locust to be more hardy. Cold winter temperatures, drought, and grasshoppers were some of the challenges that hedges faced on the prairies.
"In the spring of 1870 I began planting trees. Osage orange seed was planted. Plants grew well, those not needed for myself were sold to neighbors. People twenty miles away were called neighbors in those days. Fence rows of osage died in places. Honey locust for fence proved hardy, but when barb wire came into use, demand for hedge plants ceased."
J.P. Dunlap of Dwight, Nebraska, in Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days, published by the Nebr. State Historical Society. Vol. 5, No. 4 (October-December, 1922), p. 53.
Related post: Jonathan Baldwin Turner and Osage orange hedges
"The power to recognize trees at a glance without examining their leaves or flowers or fruit as they are seen, for example, from the car-window during a railroad journey, can only be acquired by studying them as they grow under all possible conditions over wide areas of territory. Such an attainment may not have much practical value, but once acquired it gives to the possessor a good deal of pleasure which is denied to less fortunate travelers."
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