218 HOW TO GROW GOOD FENCES. 



fences, grown from living trees or shrubs. These 

 latter, then, as forming no unimportant part of farm 

 cultivation, will occupy our attention in the next 

 few chapters. 



"With regard to dead fences, those in more general 

 farm use may be briefly described under the heads of 

 railings, mounds, and stone walls. 



Railings are of various kinds, according to cir- 

 cumstances ; the simplest form of these consist of 

 piles driven into the ground at about five feet apart 

 and secured by split larch on the top, and either larch 

 cross pieces below or iron hoops. In making these 

 the landlord usually finds the rough material, the 

 tenant paying for the work, the usual cost for cutting- 

 out being a penny for each pile. This kind of fencing 

 is mostly employed as a protection to young live 

 fences, or to fill up gaps in older ones. 



Mounds are simply lines of raised earthworks, and 

 are used where stone or fencing materials are expen- 

 sive, or where live fences can only be grown with 

 difficulty. Sometimes these elevations are crowned 

 with privet or some light hedge-plant. They are 

 occasionally employed as field boundaries by river 

 sides, where they subserve the purpose of keeping 

 out floods, but usually the mound is more used as a 

 division of property than as a fence. 



Stone walls are the commonest fences over miles 

 of country in the middle of England, the Cotteswold 

 hills being remarkable for dry stone walls — the stone 

 for these " Oolite freestones " being well adapted for 

 the purpose— of course they are dry, that is, built with- 

 out mortar, as this would render the work too costly 

 for field boundaries. These walls have a wild and 



