Most hedge rows were planted to be used as a fence to keep livestock in

male and female plants

The popularity of hedge tree field barriers spawned the formation of a number of hedge nurseries in the mid-1800s and created a booming market for the seeds. In the 1860s, the price for Osage orange seeds soared to $50 a bushel. In one year, 18,000 bushels of hedge seeds — enough, according to one report, “to plant 100,000 miles of hedge rows” — was shipped to the Pacific Northwest.

Some northern native americans would trade a horse for a bow made out of osage orange wood.