168 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



ON THE RE-FORMATION AND RECONSTRUCTION OF FENCES 

 ON THE TILLAGE-FARM. 



ThK unthrifty CoNSEatJENCES TO TILLAGE OPERATIONS OF IRKEGULAR, OVERGROWN, AND 

 OVERCROWDED FENCES, AND THE SiZE AND FORM OF InCIOSURE BEST CALCULATED TO ECONOMIZE 



Animal Power in Tillage — pointed out. 



There probably is no brancli of practical husbandry 

 which more admits of profitable re-formation than the 

 laying-out, constructing, and subsequent maintenance 

 of fences. Much has been written on this important 

 subject, but too generally the statements have resolved 

 themselves into mere technical speculations of the 

 manner of constructing the various denominations of 

 fence, of which the varied circumstances of different 

 localities have led to the adoption. Indeed, in such 

 treatises, so rarely have general principles been relied 

 on, that in expatiating on these as the basis of the fol- 

 lowing article, we may almost presume to say that the 

 reader perusing it will find himself pursuing a com- 

 paratively fresh course of reasoning in this department 

 of rural economy. 



Of the passive office performed in farming, by the 

 hedge-row or stone wall or other divisional expedient, it 

 may be preliminarily remarked, that it differs from the 

 great majority, if not all the other permanent agricul- 

 tural adjuncts to the soil — such as buildings, roads, 

 draining, &c. — in that, while these subserve to purposes 

 of positive gain, the function of fences is in itself abso- 

 lutely an unproductive one ; while, again, no department 

 of the farm is more fraught with oft-recurring annoyance 

 to the tenant, or of disagreement between him and his 

 landlord , than the maintenance of fences. The wander- 

 ing of animals to a distance is inconvenient, and may 

 even result in serious loss. The fence prevents this. 

 Their trespasses are generally accompanied with greater 

 or less damage, and frequently with animosities amongst 

 neighbours. The well-kept quick-set, or turf bank, or 

 stone-wall avoids these unpleasantnesses. But, in all 

 this, there is no positive gain to recompense the cost of 

 original construction and of subsequent upholding. 

 True, no doubt it is, that while as yet the unthrifty ex- 

 pedient of exposing neat cattle to the inclemencies of 

 latter autumn, mid-winter, and early spring universally 

 prevailed, the shelter of frequent and lofty hedge-rows 

 was, in some sense, positively promotive to the well- 

 being of the unhoused herds ; but since a better economy 

 in this matter has come to be practised, by affording 

 them the far more effectual shelter of the homestead, 

 this office has greatly or altogether lost its importance. 

 Accordingly, in some highly-farmed localities, the for- 

 merly existing subdivisions have been altogether swept 

 away ; insomuch that thousands of acres may be seen 

 devoid of any distinction between field and field, save the 

 difference of crop borne by each on its surface. In this 

 case, the moveable hurdle, or rope-netting, or wire 

 fence is resorted to ; and from what motives ? Because 

 the conviction is more and more increasing, that the 



heavier the crop growing in the tillage-field, the greater 

 the necessity of that free circulation of air promoted by 

 tha ever-passing winds, which fences capable of yielding 

 shelter to animals would intercept ; because, moreover, 

 the destruction perpetrated by the seed- devouring birds 

 is constantly in the ratio of the number of hedge-rows 

 with which the locality is intersected ; nor is it even 

 improbable that those innumerable insect enemies to the 

 corn crops, which insidiously produce disease and in- 

 fertility in the ear, have their bii'th-place and harbour- 

 age in the coarse and unbrowsed herbage which borders 

 either side of the divisional construction, whatever be its 

 kind. The unproductive space occupied by the fence 

 itself, and the abstraction of vegetative nutriment from 

 the adjoining margin of the field where the enclosing 

 hedge-row stands, form additional, and by no means 

 frivolous, grounds for the absolute discontinuance of 

 this prescriptive mode of separating the surface into 

 parcels of land. But, although this view has been 

 advocated by very orthodox agricultural reformers- 

 such as the late Mr. Pusey — we shall here content our- 

 selves with only deprecating the enormous superfluity and 

 really barbarous laying out and construction of English 

 fences generally, and with demonstrating the pressing 

 necessity of instituting a large measure of improvement 

 in this point of husbandry, to meet the requirements 

 which the vastly-improved methods of modern cultiva- 

 tion demand at the hands of the husbandman, in order 

 to their full development in economic execution and 

 ultimate pecuniary profit. 



These preliminary remarks we shall now follow up by 

 raising, and in the sequel answering these questions : 

 In re-arranging and enlarging the existing divisions of 

 the farm, by obliterating such lines of separation as may 

 be deemed unnecessary, and therefore inexpedientj 

 what size and form of field should be aimed at ? In 

 constructing new lines of subdivision, what are the 

 operative or technical methods best calculated to pro- 

 cure the early maturity and subsequent permanent pros- 

 perity of the fence to be constructed ? In England ge- 

 nerally, is necessarily implied the use of hedge-row 

 divisions ; for, in fact, the command of stone suitable 

 for walling is very rare in that country. 



First then, assuming the owner or occupier to be un- 

 affected by any insuperable impediments in forming the 

 new divisions, of such size as may be deemed the best ; 

 what is that size? Now, we are not aware that in 

 point of universal application there is more than one 

 rule for determining this problem j and in stating that 

 rule, and giving to it a practical application, a field mo- 

 derately level as respects general surface, and of medium 



