AND FENCES. 55 



Fig. ii, is easily made and kept clean with a scythe or machine; 

 but the lower double lines can be used, where a higher fence is 

 needed, provided the level on the bottom is wide enough to allow 

 the use of a scythe or hand-mowing machine. As such ridges of 

 turf are peculiarly exposed to injury from excessive cold, it is re- 

 commended, in districts where evergreen boughs, especially hem- 

 lock, can be procured, that the top of the turf be covered late 

 in the fall. Such twigs can be neatly interlaced, with little trouble, 

 under the bar above the turf, so as to form an evergreen hedge 

 through the winter, and the snow that will lodge in them will pro- 

 tect the bank from constant heaving by freezing and thawing in 

 the winter and early spring, and give the grass additional vigor 

 when the time comes to uncover it. 



These sod enclosures are illy suited to form front fences in vil- 

 lage neighborhoods, and are suggested solely for places of large 

 extent, and with rural surroundings. 



With regard to live hedges, some cautions are needed. The 

 practice of hedging one's ground so that the passer-by cannot enjoy 

 its beauty, is one of the barbarisms of old gardening, as absurd and 

 unchristian in our day as the walled courts and barred windows of 

 a Spanish cloister, and as needlessly aggravating as the close veil 

 of Egyptian women. It is not well, generally, to plant live hedges 

 on the street fronts of a town or suburban residence. On larger 

 places they are very useful and beautiful as separating screens 

 between the decorated ground and the vegetable garden, or hiding 



FIG. 12. 



pdrtions of outbuildings, or as a protection for fruit yards against 

 injurious winds ; but as a street fence for town or suburban resi- 

 dences they should be made use of but rarely. There are other 



