FENCES FOR SHEEP PASTURES. 301 



repair by going round it once or twice a year, and relaying 

 with care the stones that have been pushed off by the pot- 

 hunting dog-owners of the Commonwealth, who knock down 

 our walls, trespass on our fields, and worry our sheep. 



We are quite sure that farmers do not take reasonable 

 care in repairing fences. How often is it, that, in the spring, 

 an unskilled Irishman and a boy with an axe are sent out to 

 mend up the fences ! - — which they do generally by driving a 

 couple of rotten stakes crosswise, on which they lay a broken 

 rail ; or cut a sapling partly off, to lie along a length or two 

 of dilapidated wall or rotted fence ; or repairing a gap in a 

 wall by picking up a stone at random, placing it carelessly, 

 or without bedding, on the low place, regardless of those 

 thrown off which offered a convenient stile for the sheep or 

 the recrossing hunter. Where stones are plenty, and the 

 farmer can afford the necessary additional labor, a double 

 wall is, of course, the best. 



The best cheap fence we ever saw was a double wall — 

 made from round stones, bowlders, cobbles, water-worn stones 

 from six to sixteen inches in diameter — four feet high, three 

 feet on the bottom, and with a "batten" of about an inch 

 and a half to the foot on each side. When walls are so low 

 or so poor that they cannot be relaid, the best and cheapest 

 way is to pole them. In almost every neighborhood where 

 sheep and stone walls abound, staddles can usually be found 

 and cut, from three to six inches in diameter, and from six- 

 teen to thu'ty feet long, which, supported on stakes driven 

 crosswise the wall, will add a foot or more to its security at 

 a small expense. 



Sheep should not be turned to pasture in the spring till 

 the grass has well started ; and, before turning them out for 

 the summer, it is an excellent plan to let them run in a field 

 near by, if convenient, for a few days, giving them a feed 

 of hay morning and night. Before going out finally, they 

 should be carefully looked over to see that they are sound, 

 and in proper condition to go out. It is said that bells hung 

 around the necks of a few sheep will keep off dogs. Every 

 man who has a flock of sheep and takes care of them, and 

 enjoys it as he should, will know every sheep in his flock ; 

 and he ought to see them in the pasture every day. But how 

 few do that ! In many cases it is impracticable, as the sheep 



