220 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



these may be fifteen per cent., and the inference is clear that 

 one set of land-owners must pay about $4,000,000 to let 

 another set make $3,000,000. 



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 Bernardino, and San Diego Counties. There are 

 a few hedges of osage-orange and gorse, for ornament, in the 

 counties about San Francisco Bay, but none for use. The 

 osage-orange grows thriftily about San Jose", where it can 

 be irrigated, but hedges are liable to much damage from 

 gophers, which are fond of the roots ; and if a hole is made, it 

 is difficult to get young plants to grow, the older ones choking 

 them down. After the third year, irrigation is not liecessary. 

 In dry land, where water is not abundant for irrigation, the 

 hedges do not grow up regularly. In the general opinion ot 

 farmers, osage-orange hedges will not pay, even in the land 

 best suited for them : the labor of planting the seed, trans- 

 planting the sprouts, irrigating, replanting, and trimming for 

 three years, costs more than a board-fence, which is useful 

 from the first day, and is in no danger from gophers, whereas 

 the hedge is useless for three years, and is in constant danger. 



The willow-hedge is the most common fence in Los Angeles 



