FARM FENCES. 565 



Stone Walls. The stone wall is very common in New England, where it has been 

 used to subserve a double purpose, namely that of a fence, and as a place of deposit for the 

 stones that have been taken from the land. &quot;When well built, they form a very permanent 

 and substantial fence, but in order to be well built an immense amount of labor is required; 

 hence they are a very expensive fence. When improperly built, they are anything but sub 

 stantial, and an old, dilapidated stone wall is one of the most unsightly objects that can be 

 found on a farm, being an index of negligence and shiftlessness that is not pleasant to look 

 upon, and one that is far from being complimentary to the owner. 



When well made, a stone wall forms an impassable barrier for horses and cattle, but 

 will not confine sheep or hogs unless it is surmounted by a rail or similar obstruction. The 

 frost will often throw it down by upheaving the earth, while a loose stone, being displaced, 

 will often result in a wide gap; hence, aside from the expense of building, stone walls 

 require considerable care and repairing. 



It is a fence that also takes up a great deal of land that might otherwise be under culti 

 vation, while its removal, when desired, involves a vast amount of labor and expense. It 

 would be far better for the farmer to dispose of the surplus stones by burying them where 

 they will be useful in underdraining the land, or in filling up ravines, and construct cheaper 

 fences of a lighter material. 



The following method of building a stone wall is taken from &quot;Facts for Farmers,&quot; and 

 may be useful to such as are not skilled in this respect, and wish to obtain the knowledge of 

 what we believe is destined to become, before many generations, one of the &quot;lost arts.&quot; 



&quot; Have the surface soil removed so that the foundation stones will rest on firm earth. 

 Contiguous foundation stones should be as nearly as possible equal in size, and large enough 

 to extend the full width of the wall, and every foundation stone firmly bedded in the ground. 

 If boulders, or stones of uneven form are used, always plant the roughest side downward, or at 

 least so as to have a flat side up to lay the next course upon. If your wall is built of a 

 double line of stones, whatever their shape, it should frequently be bound across with flat 

 stones or wooden ties made of split pieces of cedar, chestnut, white oak, ash, or any durable 

 tough wood, from half an inch to one inch thick, two to four inches wide. 



Break joints! should be rung in the ears of a young wall-builder incessantly, until 

 he would do it instinctively every time he laid a stone into the wall. You can tell at a glance 

 as you ride along the road, whether the wall was built by a workman, by the way the stones 

 break joints. You may sometimes see them so placed that a joint extends from top to bot 

 tom. That wall was built by a cheat or bungler, probably both. 



Beware of a jobber who is continually chinking small stones into the joints of the face 

 of his wall and filling up the interior with stones thrown in as carelessly as you would fill 

 up a hole in the ground. If you find your jobber working this way, discharge him per 

 emptorily. He is both a cheat and bungler. 



If your wall is built double, cap it with a course of even-sized stones, so as to give it a 

 uniform appearance. If the stones are generally flat, cap your wall with flat stones of even 

 thickness and of a width greater than the wall. This not only helps the appearance, but 

 sheds off water, which is often the means of destroying badly-built walls, by running down 

 inside and freezing so as to bulge out the two lines of stones with which the sides had been 

 faced up and not bound together. 



Good walls are sometimes built of very bad stones by using cross-binders of wood in 

 the lower courses, and then near the top laying two boards, each about one fourth the width 

 of the thickness of the wall along the line, and upon those building up the remaining height. 

 These boards will last many years and serve to hold cobble-stone together quite firmly. 



It is a better plan, however, we believe, not to build the wall as high by a foot, and 

 take the strips of board designed for binders in the wall, and nail them to small posts built 

 in so as to give sufficient height for the fence. 



