152 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 



This mode of building refers more particularly to walls about 

 thirty inches wide on the bottom, and a foot wide at the top, and 

 from three to four feet high. This kind of wall is sometimes cov 

 ered with a row of square stones, sometimes one foot square; and 

 sometimes stones from two to six feet long, and from four to ten 

 inches thick, and as wide, or even a few inches wider, than the 

 top of the wall, are placed carefully on the top. Sometimes a 

 stick of timber is placed on the top of the wall, and the top of it 

 dressed in the shape of a roof of a building, and cased and painted. 

 Sometimes, again, when such a wall is from three to four feet 

 high, the top is levelled off, and a board of some durable timber 

 is placed on the top, and stones of a given size, which were 

 reserved when the workmen were carrying up the wall, are placed 

 on the top close together, and chocked up well on both sides. It 

 will require the exercise of a little skill to place these cope stones 

 in the most firm and permanent manner. A large stone should 

 be placed at the end to keep them from moving readily, and the 

 others should be placed in the best possible manner for laying 

 firmly and wedging the entire length of the wall. Sometimes 

 such walls are finished with two or three rails in height, or, what 

 is much better, long poles staked and ridered. 



192. Throwing a bank of earth against each side of a wall 

 about two feet high, and sowing grass seed on it, is highly recom 

 mended by some, and equally denounced by others. "When a 

 wall is resting on a good foundation, below the influence of frost, 

 there can be no advantage in banking up the sides of a wall, ex 

 cepting this : it prevents stock from approaching as closely to it 

 as they could do if it were not banked up, and consequently they 

 are thus deprived of the advantage they would otherwise have, to 

 rub, and hook, and displace any of the stones. Many farmers 

 contend, and with very plausible reasoning, too, that when a wall 

 is banked up the dirt finds its way between the stones, filling all 

 the spaces so completely that a frost affects a wall just as much, 

 and sometimes even more, than it would if it were built on the 

 surface of the soil. If a wall is properly laid up, a bank of earth 

 on each side will not make it stand any longer than if it were not 



