LIVE FENCES. 7 



laid at this point, that farmers have not been dis- 

 posed to give their hedges sufficient attention to keep 

 them in proper style of growth. If such attention 

 can be secured for the first four years, the fence will 

 need comparatively little attention thereafter. 



When the live fence is intended to serve also as 

 windbreak, and the enclosure is for horses and sheep, 

 it is possible to use evergreens. Where cattle are to 

 be enclosed, evergreens would be speedily torn and 

 their beauty destroyed, if not their utility. However, 

 I know highly valuable windbreaks of spruce and 

 others of arbor-vitae that are as stout as if built of 

 oak posts and hemlock boards. It takes twenty 

 years to get such a fence well grown. The plants 

 should be set two or two and one-half feet apart. 

 Growth will gradually close up the spaces so as to 

 present a nearly solid wall at the base. A close park 

 can be created of this sort, as a. deer enclosure, or for 

 ordinary farm stock. Meanwhile the fence is serv- 

 ing a much better purpose as windbreak. But of 

 this topic I am to speak more distinctively in another 

 chapter of this book. 



About 1870, stock laws began to be passed by 

 the states compelling every citizen to fence in his 

 own animals, and not to fence out those of his neigh- 

 bors. These laws, although at first met with bitter 

 opposition, proved to be so just and economical that 

 by 1880 they were nearly universal. A few states 

 made them optional to the vote of counties ; but while 

 this gave conservatism a chance to discuss, the result 

 was overwhelming in favor of the new system. It 

 was established that New York alone saved $150,- 

 000,000 in fencing material, and Missouri was 



