300 THE PRACTICAL PLANTER. 



SECTION IV. 



Mud and Turf Walls, &c. 



IN places where stones are not to be found 

 for fencing, and where it might be improper 

 to plant quick hedges, recourse must be had 

 to forming walls of mud or turf. In many 

 cases, mock fences of a ditch and loose ran- 

 dom bank, formed of the excavated earth, 

 are thrown up ; which crumbling down in a 

 year or two, are both ineffectual and occa- 

 sion much trouble. In other cases aquatics, 

 as Willows, Alders, &c. are planted as hedge- 

 wood, sometimes on a bank thrown up as 

 above, and at other times, by the side of a 

 ditch on the plain surface ; but not being 

 properly cared for, and by their inoffensive- 

 ness they become an easy prey to cattle, get 

 full of gaps, and are of no effect. 



Instead of the above, and in order to have 

 both an immediate and succeeding fence, I 

 would advise making a ditch, and forming 

 a top-dyke, in all respects as directed in Sec- 



