The Livable House 



be called indigenous because of their early prevalence. One is 

 the white picket fence found around every New England door- 

 vard garden, and the other is the rail fence, which is equally com- 

 mon in cou.ntrv districts. The first kind still holds all its charm 

 for the village tvpc of house, and through some of the Southern 

 States it finds a more extended use where it surrounds the house 

 garden completely, and divides it from the farm land on which 

 cattle are allowed to graze. 



There is no more practical and interesting way of marking off 

 farm acres to-dav than by means of the old rail fence. These 

 fences, together with the rough stone walls of early farms, should 

 be regarded as traditions given us by our pioneer forefathers, 

 worth continuing. On the prairies of the Middle West, hedges 

 of buckthorn and osage orange naturally supplant to a great ex- 

 tent the customary boundaries of stony New England — the use of 

 all these natural materials is much to be commended, and the 

 unpicturesque and no more practical fencing of concrete posts 

 with wire between discouraged. 



Fences of wrought iron, and more especially gates of iron, may 

 be verv beautiful and interesting. They are likely to be formal 

 in character, ho\\ever, and their use in country work is limited 

 by this factor as well as by that of their expense. 



(jatewavs, such as one fretiuently sees at the entrance to a place, 

 which are free standing, and not part of any wall, should be tied 

 into the landscape by heavy planting. They have very often a 

 lost, unconnected air which is only to be overcome by weighting 

 down, so to speak, their extremities with strong planting. This is 



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