FENCING, WALLING, HEDGING. 61 



and those furrows the only means of lessening the evil of non- 

 drainage. If shallow drains, with proper drain-tiJes, or pipes, 

 are less ejBfective than drains at a proper depth, how much less 

 effectiye must be the furrows which are not even so deep ! The 

 water may be so high, or rather the ground may be so low, as 

 to baffle all ordinary attempts to drain effectually ; but there 

 can always be something done ; and be it remembered, that if 

 a furrow only wastes a surface of a foot, and these are a rod 

 apart, it is a sixteenth, or ten rods in every acre, — a quantity 

 of land that would soon pay for draining most efficiently. 

 Our business, however, is not so much with fields as gardens, 

 orchards, and pleasure-grounds ; and where the gardener sees 

 trees unhealthy, shrubs of particular kinds d"\\indling, his 

 choice flowers dying off, and things in general worse than his 

 neighbours', let him seriously think of the panacea for nine evils 

 out of ten that we suffer in a garden, — sound, effective, and 

 efiicient drainage. Then let him trench as low down as the 

 soil is workable, replanting all the unhealthy shrubs and trees 

 that are young enough to bear it, in the fresh-turned ground, 

 and he will be rewarded the first season. 



FENCmG, WALLING, HEDGING. 



The fencing of a piece of ground for the purposes of a 

 garden, is a matter of some consideration, because — the 

 difference in the cost of the various modes is one point ; the 

 intention as to shutting out the pubhc, or allowing them to 

 see over it, is another ; the uses to which a fence may be put, 

 is a third ; and, fourthly, the general character of the neigh- 

 bourhood, as to the disposition to trespass and thieve, is im- 

 portant. Fences of all kinds are costly. The post and rail is 

 cheapest, but in this there is nothing to prevent animals, two- 

 footed as well as four-footed of some kinds, from straying into 

 the place. A boarded fence will not only keep out intruders, 

 but it will be found useful for fruit-trees, although inferior to 

 a wall. Pear-trees, morello cherries, currants and gooseberries, 

 some kinds of plums, and, indeed, every fruit that will grow 

 on a standard, Avill grow a little better, if not a great deal 

 better, on a wood fence. 



Wood Fences. — Of boarded fences, there are two : the 

 park-paling, as it is called, made with ripped oak, of the 

 height required, which is very good, but trees always suffer a 



