188 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 



nation as- a candidate for president, in order to ally him 

 with the common folks, he was presented to them as a 

 rail-splitter. 



Events have moved rapidly since that day. The rail- 

 splitter is well-nigh extinct. The rail fence has become 

 expensive, and wire is taking its place. Another generation 

 will see little of the old form of wooden fence, which in our 

 day still exists side by side with modern wire and ancient stone. 

 Whatever the form of a fence, if it bound a tilled field, it is 

 bordered by a strip of ground, at least as wide as a whiffle- 

 tree is long, that is a tension zone of wild life. On one side is 

 the fence ; on the other, the furrow. Between extends a strip 

 of sod that the plowshare cannot reach, and this sod is full 

 of lusty wild things, all struggling for a place and a living. 



If the farmer mows it con- 

 stantly, grass sod develops 

 as in a meadow ; if he mows 

 it annually in winter, shrubs 

 and vines possess it; if he 

 neglects to mow it for a few 

 years, trees come in. What- 

 ever plants grow in it, it is 

 a haven of refuge for their 

 wild animal associates; if 

 only grass sod, meadow-mice 

 and shrews will make their 

 runways under its cover; if 

 briers and grass grow 



together, rabbits will make their forms or dig their bur- 

 rows in the midst of it. Every post or stake or high 

 point in the fence is a point of outlook and a resting- 

 place for the birds of the fields. Perching, they drop the 

 seeds of berry-bearing shrubs and vines. So, we see dog- 

 woods and elders and sumachs and chokecherries and bram- 



FIG. 72. Diagram of a cross-section of a 

 fence-row, a, soil thrown out from a 

 burrow; b, the runway of a meadow- 

 mouse under the grass; c, the "form " of 

 a rabbit; d, the furrow; and e, the 

 overturned soil. 



