THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 145 



SECTON V. STONE FENCE. 



" Let me but place one stone within the wall, 

 While the stout masons, with great plumb and line, 

 Are laying the foundations broad and deep." T. B. BEAD. 



186. Stone fence or stone wall is about the best and most 

 durable and efficient fence that can be erected, when it is properly 

 built ; but some farmers, who have an abundance of stone, have 

 no confidence in stone fence, because it tumbles down so fre 

 quently in places, making gaps for the ingress or egress of hogs 

 or sheep. But the difficulty is almost always attributable to im 

 perfect workmanship in building. Stone walls are usually built 

 by jobbers, who itinerate through the country in search of labor ; 

 and who sometimes understand the business well, and will lay up 

 a good wall if their employer understands what constitutes a good 

 wall, and insists on having his work done to order. Jobbers often 

 will slight their jobs all they possibly can; and if they discover that 

 their employer does not know when the work is well done, they 

 will toss the stones together any how, and pocket their wages 

 and be off. But if they have their orders how to lay up a wall, 

 and these are insisted on at the time of negotiating, and the over 

 seer watches the builders, there will be little danger of stone 

 walls tumbling down in consequence of having been laid up in 

 an unworkmanlike manner. Jobbers will often insist that it is 

 just as well to lay the foundation stones on the surface of the 

 ground, as it is to lay them eight or ten inches below the surface. 

 If the foundation stones were always flat on the bottom, and large 

 enough to extend entirely across the bottom of the wall, it would 

 be just as well to lay them directly on the surface of the ground, 

 because the entire wall would settle bodily and evenly, and, if the 

 frost gets under it, it will be raised evenly. But when the founda 

 tion consists of small stones, either flat ones or bowlders, they 

 will not settle perpendicularly. Large bowlders, when laid on 

 the surface of the ground, will seldom settle straight down ; be 

 cause, when more rain runs off of one side than the other, the 

 soil in one place will become softer than it is in others, and if 



