I] TREES AS BOUNDARIES 45 



of Crustumerium, you may see in several places 

 embankments and ditches together, to prevent the 

 river from damaging the fields. Embankments 

 without trenches are made, which some people call 

 4 walls as in the country about Reate. The^ fourth, ^ 

 the fence made by the builder, comes last — the 

 wall-fence, I mean. There are roughly four kinds: 

 they are made of stone, as in the country round 

 Tusculum, of kiln-baked bricks as in the Ager 

 Gallicus, of sun-dried bricks as in the Sabine 

 country, or of earth and pebbles set in moulds, as 

 in Spain and the parts about Tarentum.^ 



CHAPTER XV 



TREES AS BOUNDARIES 



I MAY add that the boundaries of an unfenced 

 fkrm are safer if marked by trees planted along 

 them, for otherwise your slaves brawl with their 

 neighbours and your boundary lines may have to 

 be determined by a law-suit. Some people plant 

 pines round the farm — my wife has them in the 



* Ex terra et lapidibus. Pliny, N. H., xxxv, 14, speaks of 

 farietes formacei, which in forma circumdatis utrinque duabus 

 iabulis inferciuntur. Two boards were set up parallel to each 

 other, and the space between them was filled with concrete. 

 Pliny says that these walls were very durable. This mode of 

 construction is still used in parts of England where chalk and 

 flint pebbles occur. 



