AGRICULTURE. 165 



upon the embankment of a ditch, three feet high from the bot- 

 tom of the ditch, the fence shall be two feet high ; said fence 

 to be substantial and reasonably strong, and made so strong 

 that stock cannot get their heads through it, and if made to 

 turn small stock [sheep, goats, hogs, &c.], sufficiently tight to 

 keep such stock out. A hedge-fence shall be considered a law- 

 ful fence, if five feet high and sufficiently close to turn stock." 

 In other counties the requirements are so complex and lengthy, 

 that I shall not try to describe them all. In Marin, Alameda, 

 Sacramento, San Francisco, Stanislaus, Yuba, Santa Clara, Yolo, 

 San Mateo, Santa Cruz, San Joaquin, San Bernardino, Sutter, 

 Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, Tuolumne, Te- 

 hama, Colusi, Butte, Napa, Humboldt, Merced, Trinity, Mon- 

 terey, and Solano, hogs are not permitted to run at large ; or 

 at least any person finding them trespassing upon his " prem- 

 ises" — which means land, whether enclosed or not — may take 

 them up, keep them at the expense of the owner, and treat 

 them as estrays. 



Board-fences are the best. They are usually made five feet 

 high, with redwood posts set eight feet apart, and five spruce 

 boards six inches wide and an inch thick in each panel. Such 

 a fence, well made, costs five hundred dollars a mile. Worm 

 and post-and-rail fences are common near the redwood districts 

 — for instance, in Sonoma, Mendocino, Humboldt, Marin, Napa, 

 San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties. The farmers 

 generally make their own fences of these kinds, and the cost is 

 of time, not money. When the work is done by the job, it 

 costs from three to six hundred dollars a mile, according to 

 the distance and position of the timber, and the quality of the 

 wood ; the price increasing in proportion as the trees are far 

 off, or situated in deep canons, and as the wood is tough and 

 cross-grained. Ditches are common in the tule-lands. Hedges 

 are made with willows and cactus in Los Angeles, San Ber- 

 nardino, and San Diego counties. There are a few^ hedges of 

 osage-orange and gorse, for ornament, in the counties about 

 San Francisco Bay, but few or none for use. The osage-orange 



