122 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



If a site can be selected on the west or south of a sheltering hill or 

 wood, the gain will be great in those seasons when " winter lingers 

 in the lap of spring." But it may be that the land is exposed to 

 all the winds of heaven, and in that case shelter will be of the 

 utmost value. Dwarf walls and close-boarded fences are generally 

 considered valuable for the purposes of shelter, but in truth their 

 value is but slight. It is well to count the cost and probable 

 efficiency of a "cheap "wall before determining on its adoption. 

 To grow fruit satisfactorily is impossible on walls of four or five 

 feet, and a boarded fence is of less value than a dwarf brick wall for 

 fruit growing. But a cheap wall is a screen to shut out curious 

 eyes, and it constitutes a moral if not a material barrier against 

 thieves, who Avill often hesitate to get over a wall when they would 

 not hesitate to mount a rough open fence, or even, with the help of 

 sacks, over-top a hedge of holly. He who encloses his own land, 

 and has in view to grow good fruit, will be wise to build a wall ten 

 to fourteen feet high, the material stone or brick, with strengthen- 

 ing pillars, and a coping of six to eight inches. The minimum height 

 for a wall to be of any use in fruit growing is eight feet. Sucli a 

 wall should be nine inches thick, and have a coping projecting for- 

 wards. If from eight to fourteen feet, the thickness should be thir- 

 teen and a half inches, and the coping six to eight inches. If from 

 fourteen to twenty feet, the thickness must be eighteen inches, and 

 the coping should project at least a foot. Hollow walls are formed 

 by placing the bricks on edge, alternately with their faces and ends 

 outside, 80 that every second brick is a tie, and every course alter- 

 nates in tlie order of facing, so that every end comes over and under 

 a full face. By this means a nine-inch wall of great strength is 

 obtained, and a considerable saving of bricks is effected. 



When a live fence is preferred to a wall, the question will arise. 

 What shall it be ? Thorn is the quickest and cheapest, and if well 

 managed makes an effectual fence ; but it is not well adapted for a 

 garden. Common privet soon makes a dense evergreen boundary, 

 useful alike for shelter and to impose a check on thieves, especially 

 when it attains a height of six or seven feet. The beautiful large- 

 leaved privet, Ligustrum ovalifolium, is as fast-growing and hand- 

 .some a plant as can be used for a garden fence, and will cost but 

 little more than the common privet. Everybody knows that holly 

 is the finest of all boundary plants, but it should never be planted 

 by a tenant-at-will unless the landlord is willing to pay fcr it, and 

 in any case it will require the growth of years to thicken into a 

 barrier and make a fair return for the capital and labour invested 

 in it. For general purposes, common privet is the very best of 

 boundary plants for enclosing a garden, for it is not only evergreen 

 and grows as close as a mat if planted thick enough, but it soon gets 

 up to a useful height, so that no one can see through or over it. 

 One of our pieces, which abuts on a road on one side and an open 

 meadow on the other, is fenced in as follows : next the road, an" un- 

 climbable " iron fence and two rows of privet, with Lombardy poplars 

 twenty feet apart, and standard Ligustrum ovaVfoIium between the 

 poplars. On the opposite side, next the meadow, a strong five-feet 



