198 PERMANENT PLANTATIONS. 



inclosure for gardens, in this country, is the tight board 

 fence, and the picket or paling fence. The former should 

 be made of stout cedar posts, set at six feet apart and 

 three or four feet in the ground, the ends being previously 

 charred, or covered with hot gas-tar, to increase their 

 durability, connected in the middle and on the top with 

 cross-bars, or rails, which may be two by four inches. 

 The boards should be well seasoned, matched, and se- 

 curely nailed to the cross-bars. Where the fence is 

 required to be higher than the posts, the boards can ex- 

 tend above the top rail two, three, or even four feet, if 

 necessary. The picket or paling fence is made in the 

 same way, as far as the framework, posts, and cross-bars 

 go ; but, instead of matched boards, pickets, from three 

 to six inches wide, and pointed on the top, are used, and 

 a space of two inches left between each. Where the pro- 

 prietor can afford the expense of a brick or stone wall, it 

 will prove the most permanent, and, in the end, the cheap- 

 est inclosure. The hight of the fence or wall depends 

 somewhat on the extent of the garden. In ordinary cases, 

 eight or ten feet are the proper hight, but when the gar- 

 den is very small, five or six feet are enough ; and the open 

 paling will be preferable, except on the north side, to the 

 tight board fence, as it offers less obstruction to the air 

 and light. A high fence around a very small garden, be- 

 sides being injurious to vegetation in it, looks quite out 

 of character, giving to it the appearance of a huge box. 

 Live hedges, as recommended for orchards, might be 

 employed around country gardens of considerable extent, 

 say an acre or upwards, but they require to be kept in the 

 neatest possible condition. 



Trellises. In England, and other parts of Europe, 

 where the summer temperature is not so high as it is here, 

 espalier trees are trained directly on the garden walls or 

 fence ; but our hot sun renders this unsafe, except in the 

 case of the grape, or on the north sides of the walls. The 



