FENCING. 275 



NOW FORM THE DITCH, AND 

 THROW UP THE SANK. The medium size 

 I would advise is, five feet wide at top, two 

 and a half feet deep, perpendicular, and one 

 foot wide at bottom ; the sides being sloped 

 by a straight edge, from the brink or lip 

 downwards to the angle at bottom, without 

 being swelled or rounded in the smallest de- 

 gree. 



There are other two sizes in ordinary prac- 

 tice ; viz. the four-foot ditch, and the six-foot 

 ditch. Their dimensions hold the same pro- 

 portion with the former, with this only dif- 

 ference ; that they are all a foot wide at bot- 

 tom. Indeed, were any ditch of this kind 

 made less, it would just be making it so much 

 the shallower; as the sides, by crumbling 

 down, would soon fill up what it wanted in 

 width. 



In throwing up the banking, the remain- 

 der of the sod, and the good surface earth is 

 to be carefully laid upon, and immediately 

 beyond the roots of the plants ; while that of 

 the under stratum is to be thrown beyond 

 the whole, and so as to form a broad mound 



