Damage done by Wire-fencing, 53 



lessly torn down, a piece of bark stripped from the 

 trunk with no possible object save destruction, a nail 

 driven in — perhaps to break the teeth of the saw when 

 at last the tree comes to be cut up into planks — these 

 things annoy him almost as much as if the living wood 

 were human and could feel. For this reason, he too, 

 like the members of the hunt, cordially detests the use 

 of wire for fencing, now becoming so frequent. It 

 cuts into the trees, and checks their growth and spoils 

 their symmetry, if it does not actually kill them. 



Sometimes the wire, which is stout and strong, is 

 twisted right round the stem of a young oak, say a 

 foot or more in diameter, which is thus made to play 

 the part of a post. A firmer support could not be 

 found ; but as the tree swells with the rising sap, and 

 expands year by year, the iron girdle circling about it 

 does not ' give ' or yield to this slow motion. It bites 

 into the bark, which in time curls over and so actually 

 buries the metal in the growing wood. Now this can- 

 not but be injurious to the tree itself, and it is certainly 

 unsightly. 



One wire is seldom thought enough. Two or 

 three are stretched along, and each of these causes 

 an ugly scar. If allowed to remain long enough, the 

 young wood will solidify and harden about the wire, 

 which then cannot be withdrawn ; and in consequence 



