350 Transactions of the 



HEDGE OR LIVE FENCES. 



BY I. N. HOAG. 



In any country where wood is scarce (and it seems to be getting scarce 

 the world over), in these days of railroading, wharf building, etc., it 

 becomes a question of no small moment to the agricultural interests to 

 find some substitute for rail, or post and board fences. In this State the 

 expense of fencing land is getting to be one of serious consideration to 

 the farmers. It is operating as a serious drawback to- the agricultural 

 interests, and indirectly to all others. 



There are but few of our good agricultural districts furnished with a 

 sufficiency of good fencing timber near at hand. Most of the lumber for 

 boards and fences has to be transported from high up on the Sierra 

 Nevada mountains, or from the timber districts of Oregon, and the coast 

 still farther north. All, or very nearly all, the timber for posts comes 

 from a few of the coast counties. 



Thus our agriculturists, in all the great central portions of the State, 

 are not only compelled to buy most of their fencing material, but have to 

 pay high rates for transporting the same, by rail or otherwise, from 

 points hundreds of miles away from where they want to use it. These 

 considerations are used with great force in favor of adopting the European 

 plan of fencing — or rather, of not fencing. 



In the agricultural districts of Europe it is a rare thing to see a fence, 

 even on the division lines between estates, or along the road sides. Very 

 few farmers are able to bear the expense of dividing their farms up into 

 fields, as is the custom in all agricultural countries in America. In many 

 portions of Europe, and more especially in England, a system of growing 

 live or hedge fences has been practiced for many years or generations 

 back. But in most of those localities the land has become so valuable 

 that even these fences are, to a great extent, being dispensed with, the 

 convenience of fences being considered of less moment than the value or 

 use of the land on which they stand. 



The American farmers on the contrary have a plenty of land, and 

 have become strongly wedded to the system of dividing off their farms 

 into fields of convenient size for different varieties of crops and for 

 stock. So strongly have they become attached to this system that many 

 of the best and most wealthy farmers, especially in the early history of 

 agriculture in this State, have made themselves bankrupt by an endeavor 

 to keep their lands well fenced. It is certainly a great convenience to 

 the general farmer who wishes to devote some of his land to grain, some 

 to meadow, some to orchard and vineyard, and some to stock; in short, 

 who purposes to follow the only safe and rational system of farming — a 

 diversity of crops and a rotation of these — to have his land fenced off 

 into fields; but we doubt its practicability in this country, unless some 

 substitute can be found for redwood posts and pine boughs. 



