THE MANSE GARDEN. 35 



three or four feet. As economy is a great beauty, 

 when the end is sufficiently accomplished, the minute- 

 ness of the following description of paling will readily 

 be excused. At the distance of nine feet from each 

 other, let stuckings (stakes) of peeled larch, three to 

 four inches diameter, charred at the lower end, be 

 driven at the bottom of the wall, and held against its 

 front by ranees from behind; the stuckings must 

 overtop the wall by two feet ; let two bars run along 

 the outsides, giving thus more room to the hedge, 

 the one a little lower than the summit of the wall, 

 and the other an inch or two from the top of the 

 stuckings ; and let these bars be crossed by pieces of 

 lath placed upright, and not more than two inches 

 apart. Let the whole be anointed, when very dry, 

 with coal tar, and the fabric will last for ten years. 

 It may be asserted, that no other sort of paling, if 

 hare-tightness be effected, as by the above, will so 

 much combine cheapness with durability. For greater 

 security, it is proper to observe, that though the laths 

 may surmount the top bar, where they are out of the 

 reach of cattle, they must not descend lower than the 

 under one, where their frailty would be more exposed; 

 and as the under bar is placed a little beneath the 

 summit of the wall, the poking sort of invaders will 

 not discover a way of access, although there may be 

 room enough to admit their bodies. 



Should it be found, on the decay of your wooden 

 erection, that the hedge, with all due care, is not 

 sufficiently close, let a small peg be set upright into 

 any vacancy that may occur ; but by no means draw 

 in a bushy thorn, as is frequently done, and which, as 

 it hinders the growth of lateral shoots, soon makes, 



