Book IV. 



COMPOUND HEDGE FENCES. 



487 



473 



60 that no wind can shake the plant to injure its roots ; and the growth of the numerous twigs from the 

 branches is so encouraged, that weeds ever afterwards can do little injury to the plants themselves. 



When thorns are planted on a scarcement, no water-tabling is 

 required, because it prevents the mouldering away of the earth ; 

 but such scarcements are nurseries for weeds, and it is impossible 

 to clean a hedge thoroughly where they exist, to " deracinate 

 such savagery." Earth, to be sure, from the bottom of the ditch, 

 can be thrown upon the scarcement, to smother the weeds upon 

 them; but the accumulation of earth there must be limited to 

 the height of the thorn roots, and upon this earth weeds can, of 

 course, grow as luxuriantly as upon the scarcement itself. In 

 short, in such a situation, weeds cannot be eradicated. They can 

 be cut over like mown grass, but their roots will ever be ready to 

 spring up afresh in favourable weather. A figure of a thorn 

 hedge, planted on a scarcement, will at once show the incon- 

 veniency of such a construction for the eradicating of weeds {fig. 473.). 



3015. Protecting fence. Lord Kames says, " The hedge is fenced from cattle on the one side by the 

 ditch ; but it is necessary that it be fenced on both sides. The ordinary method of a paling is no sufticient 

 fence against cattle ; the most gentle make it a rubbing-post, and the vicious break it down wantonly 

 with their horns. The only effectual remedy is expensive; but better no fence than one that is imper- 

 fect. The remedy is two ditches and two hedges, with a high mound of earth between them." We are 

 left to infer from this, that a paling is no protection to a hedge ; two ditches and a mound of earth are. 

 Other writers nearly hold the same opinion. It is astonishing to see persons who pretend to know the 

 practice of husbandry, assert that hedge-ditches, or a mound, or a ditch of almost any dimensions, will 

 protect a young hedge from the depredation of cattle and sheep. If such notions at all prevail among 

 proprietors and farmers, it is no wonder that those hedges are so often seen in a ruinous state. If a 

 good paling is not a sufficient fence against cattle and sheep, it is not a ditch or two, nor a mound, that 

 will prevent them committing depredations. If " two ditches" are to be fenced, they will require as 

 much paling as a single hedge before and behind, besides the additional quantity of ground occupied by 

 fencing. If gaps cannot be prevented in hedges but by double rows of thorns, their owners must be 

 negligent hedgers indeed. As to making a rubbing-post of a paling, rubbing-posts ought to be erected 

 in every pasture field, and then neither the " gentle " nor the " vicious " cattle will ever have occasion 

 to use a paling, which is at least a very inconvenient *' rubbing-post." The truth is, a fence, of whatever 

 nature it may be, is absolutely necessary on both sides of a young thorn hedge, if that hedge separates 

 fields that are to be pastured; and what that fence may be made of depends, of course, on the nature 

 of the materials which are most easily obtained for the purpose. 



3016. Protecting by a paling. If tall-grown Scots pine of eight inches diameter, or weedings of larch 

 plantations, can be procured at no great distance, or grow upon the property that is to be inclosed, better 

 materials for temporary fencings need not be wished. The Scots pine of the above size will cut up into six 

 deals, besides the outside slabs, and divide again up the middle for rails of perhaps twenty-four feet long ; 

 or twice up the middle, at right angles, for stakes, which should be sawn across, and pointed, four and a 

 half feet in length. These stakes should be driven at least one foot from the edge of the ditch, by a 

 mallet, into holes formed by the foot-pick, at a distance from one another not exceeding five or six feet, 

 fifteen inches into the ground, and which will make the fence stand three feet three inches high. Two 

 of the rails are sufficient for fencing cattle, but three are necessary to keep in sheep. To give additional 

 strength to the fence, the rails should be placed on the face of the stakes next the field, and made to pass 



474 each other's ends, so that all the ends of the three rails 



r) f. s B should not be nailed on the same stake ; nor should the 



;;i ;ii \\\ n\ root or thick end of the rails be nailed together, even after 



jli \\\ .'.' \ ;;' '; being thinned by the adze, but top and bottom ends Bailed 



together alternately; as this plan equalises the weiglit of 

 the rails upon the stakes. The upper rail should be at the 

 height of the stakes : the upper edge of the lowest one 

 ine inches, and that of the middle one twenty-two inches, 

 from the ground, as the best arrangement as a fence for 

 sheep {fig. 474.). The best nails for such a purpose are called 

 " stout paling-nails," three to three and a half inches long, 

 . made in Scotland ; for it seems the nails manufactured in 



the sister kingr'om are not in good repute here. A similar fence may be erected on the sides of the bank 

 behmd the hedge ; but it is necessary to keep in remembrance, that it should be placed clear of the hedge- 

 mound altogether. There is a temptation to place it upon the hedge-mound, as more space is given to the 

 plough, and shorter stakes will there make an equally high fence; but when a fence is placed so near a 

 young hedge as on any part of the mound, cattle, and particularly horses, after they have eaten their fill 

 of grass, and on Sunday, when they are idle, will reach over, and bite off the tops of it, as if delighting in 

 mischief, to the serious injury of the young hedge. 



3017. Protecting by stake and rice {fig. 475.). When trees are felled, or bought by a proprietor for the 

 47^ _ construction of paling to fence young 



'^^ '"* ' ' hedges, the top stems and branches may 



be made available to the same purpose, 

 in "stake and rice." The branches 

 should all be cut off the tops of the 

 trees, and their stems, if large enough, 

 converted into stakes of the above di- 

 mensions ; but as these will not suffice 

 altogether, other stakes must be sawn 

 from the bole of the tree. These stakes 

 should be driven into the ground in the 

 same manner, and at the same distance, as recommended for paling. Take then the branches, and place 

 their butt-end on the ground, and warp the upper parts backwards and forwards round the alternate stakes, 

 and give them an inclining position upwards, towards the tops of the stakes. This inclination must lie 

 away in the direction in which the heaviest winds will blow; for instance, if the fence runs north and 

 south, the inclination must be to the south, as the north winds are the most severe; and for the same 

 reason, an inclination to the east will avoid the heavy south-west winds. A strong wind acting against 

 the tops, is apt to ruffle and bend them back. A single rail nailed at the top of the stakes, completes this 

 mode of fencing. I may remark, that any brushwood, provided it is so long as to reach from stake to 

 stake, will serve this purpose as well as the tops of trees ; at least a mixture of them is excellent. Such a 

 fence requires fewer nails, and less good wood, than a regular paling, and is therefore cheaper, and it will 

 stand an equal length of time; and, indeed, the stakes have less strain upon them, in this mode, than the 

 other, as they have not the weight of the materials to bear, and the warping of the branches around them 

 protects them from many accidents to which paling is liable; such as people trespassing over them, 

 swingle-trees of ploughs rubbing upon them and catching hold of them, and the like. This is an excellent 

 fence for sheep, affording them shelter from the sweepitjg blast behind its matted texture ; and, for this 

 purpose, it is generally placed on the north and west sides of fields the quarters from which the greatest 

 winds prevail. There is one, and only one, greater objection to it than paling that being close in its con- 



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