Il8 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



rather helps to keep the furze close and dense. Turf and 

 furze fences look picturesque, and if the sods be thick and well 

 piled up they last long and need little attention. 



Dead fences are constructed of iron, galvanized wire-rope, 

 annealed wire, wood, and stone, and sometimes of iron and 

 wood combined. They may be ornamental or plain, but plain 

 fences only, for the protection of woods, will be referred to 

 here. Of iron fences the continuous bar fence is very service- 

 able and strong, and costs about two shillings and sixpence 

 per yard set up. Strained wire fences are cheaper, while the 

 barbed wire fence is the cheapest of any because it is rarely 

 disturbed by cattle, while bar iron and galvanized wire rope 

 are often bent or slackened by cattle rubbing against them. 

 For iron fences the posts should be of angle iron with strong 

 straining terminals, but oak or larch posts are best for wire 

 fences, and the wire can be nailed to the posts by staples very 

 securely. The iron fencing business is in the hands of the 

 manufacturers, who supply estimates and usually execute such 

 work. Wire-rope and annealed wire is supplied cheap, by the 

 hundredweight, and if the wooden posts are provided by the 

 estate, a handy labourer may soon erect a wire fence, which 

 should be about four feet high, tightly strained and stayed, 

 with the strands put on close enough to stop sheep and lambs. 

 Barbed wire fences should be erected in the same manner. 

 The objections to barbed wire disappear to a great extent 

 where ,it is only applied to fences against plantations, and 

 there can be no doubt about it being the most effective barrier 

 against cattle ever yet invented. Cattle and horses soon get 

 acquainted with it, and one or two strands put along the top of 

 a weak fence will often make it as strong as the strongest at 

 the cost of about one penny per yard. In the writer's 

 experience of barbed wire on an extensive scale against woods, 

 very few accidents, and these slight, have occurred to cattle 

 from it ; while accidents are frequent with smooth wire fences, 

 owing to cattle getting their legs over the wires and their heads 

 through between the strands. Such accidents rarely happen 

 with barbed wire, because the first prick drives the animal off. 

 Both barbed and annealed wire fences of a cheap but effectual 

 description are now very common in Scotland everywhere. 

 In fact, the extent to which barbed wire is now used by farmers 

 and others is sufficient evidence of its utility and harmlessness. 

 The various kinds of wire fences look light, and if the posts, 

 when of wood, are painted a dull green, they are practically 

 invisible against a wood, a little way off, and allow the natural 



