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Osage Orange
Sean Clark Jonathan Baldwin Turner of Jacksonville, Illinois, introduced the Osage orange as a popular hedge plant in 1847. It soon became the most popular hedge, and it maintained that standing for the next thirty years. The Osage orange is a tree, grown mostly in Arkansas and Texas. It can grow to be sixty feet tall, and its thorny fruit is called the mock orange. Other names for it are the maclura tree and bois d'arc. Jonathan Baldwin Turner was not the first to experiment with Osage orange as a hedge plant. In 1842, B. F. Lodge of Edgar County, Illinois, claimed that he was experimenting with it. He promised to report his findings to the Prairie Farmer, but he never did. In 1844 Charles H. Larabee sent some bois d'arc seeds to the editors of the Prairie Farmer and told them to experiment with it as a hedge plant. In the December 1845 issue of the Prairie Farmer a letter appeared from Alexander McDonald of Euflaua, Alabama, to Professor Jonathan Baldwin Turner. It included the names of people from around the country who could supply Turner with the Osage orange seed. Turner replied, saying that he had Osage orange trees in his garden, including one that had "stood the climate well for six or more years." He also added that on good soil, three years would make a hedge through which nothing could pass. From that, one can assume that Turner was experimenting with different hedge plants at that time. Turner discovered the plant during the 1830s. He soon obtained one plant, and by 1847 he was preparing to set out several miles of Osage orange. He arranged for enough seeds to be brought from Texas for many plants. After that shipment, Turner developed a nursery business specializing in the sale of Osage orange seedlings. The Osage orange was an effective and popular hedge plant, but it had some drawbacks. Its seeds did not germinate easily. In addition. Turner reported that an Osage weevil attacked the seed in transit. The Civil War stopped the flow of seeds from Arkansas and Texas to Illinois, causing the price to rise. The prewar price was $20.00 per bushel, and the postwar price increased to $87.70 per bushel. Osage orange hedges mature into trees, and livestock can easily slip through the gaps. Advocates of English hedging encouraged farmers to "plash" the hedge by pruning branches and entwining them. This made for better fencing. However, when barbed wire was introduced, the Osage orange was abandoned as a popular type of fencing.—[From Roger D. Bridges and Rodney O. Davis, Illinois; Allan G. Bogue, From Prairie to Corn Belt.]
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