Il6 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



deep, cut with a slope of forty-five degrees, was first made, 

 and into this sub-mains eight feet wide, five feet deep, and 

 two feet wide at the bottom were led, and into these again 

 the smaller surface drains. Draining on this scale, as found 

 in the Fens, takes time, and the work can only be proceeded 

 with as the water is gradually drawn off. In the case men- 

 tioned, Mr. Webster, author of the paper, states that after 

 draining, the bog sank two feet, becoming dry arid firm and 

 fit for planting. Timber and other crops grow freely in pure 

 peat soils, thoroughly drained as described, but as such soils 

 consist to a large extent of vegetable matter, they are much 

 benefited by heavy dressings of lime laid on the surface. All 

 drains should have an incline to a deeper main drain of suffi- 

 cient capacity to carry the water readily off to the nearest 

 outlet This work should of course be completed before 

 planting is begun, and as drains in woods soon get choked by 

 fallen leaves and branches, and become overgrown at the edges 

 by coarse vegetation, they should be cleaned out at intervals. 

 The general preparation of the land for the raising of planta- 

 tions from seed is the same generally as for planting, but other 

 operations connected therewith will be more properly dealt 

 with in a future chapter on the subject. 



SECTION III. FENCING. 



Fences for plantations are of various descriptions. On 

 most estates all fences abutting on w r oods are kept up by the 

 proprietor, and as on many estates the fences extend to many 

 miles, their maintenance is one of the most expensive items 

 connected with the woods. In German forests there are few 

 or no fences along either wood-roads or highways, or indeed 

 anywhere where they can be dispensed with, and where they 

 do exist they are made chiefly of materials from the forests 

 close by. The quick thorn hedge is the most popular live 

 fence in this country, sometimes mixed with privet, beech, 

 holly, or elm, but the beech makes the best live fence round 

 woods. Hedges are, however, going out of favour owing to 

 their cost The state in which live fences are generally 

 found after a few years, especially in England, shows great 

 neglect, due mostly to want of time to attend to them. Such 

 fences get thin and scraggy, owing to the shade cast by the 

 trees, and being left uncut, perhaps for years, they get too high 

 and consequently thin at the bottom, and in many places die 



