AGRICULTURE. 165 
upon the embankment of a ditch, three feet high from the bot- 
tom of the ditch, the fence shall be two feet high; said fence 
to be substantial and reasonably strong, and made so strong 
that stock cannot get their heads through it, and if made to 
turn small stock [sheep, goats, hogs, &c.], sufficiently tight to 
keep such stock out,” A hedge-fence shall be considered a law- 
ful fence, if five feet high and sufficiently close to turn stock.” 
In other counties the requirements are so complex and lengthy, 
that I shall not try to describe them all. In Marin, Alameda, 
Sacramento, San Francisco, Stanislaus, Y uba, Santa Clara, Y olo, 
San Mateo, Santa Cruz, San Joaquin, San Bernardino, Sutter, 
Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, Tuolumne, Te- 
hama, Colusi, Butte, Napa, Humboldt, Merced, Trinity, Mon- 
terey, and Solano, hogs are not permitted to run at large; or 
at least any person finding them trespassing upon his “ prem- 
ixes”—which means land, whether enclosed or not—may take 
them up, keep them at the expense of the owner, and treat. 
them as estrays. 
Board-fences are the best. They are usually made five fect 
high, with redwood posts set eight feet apart, and five spruce 
boards six inches wide and an inch thick in each panel. Such 
a fence, well made, costs five hundred dollars a mile. Worm 
and post-and-rail fences are common near the redwood districts 
—for instance, in Sonoma, Mendocino, Humboldt, Marin, Napa, 
San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties. The farmers 
generally make their own fences of these kinds, and the cost is 
of time, not money. When the work is done by the job, it 
costs from three to six hundred dollars a mile, according to 
the distance and position of the timber, and the quality of the 
wood; the price increasing in proportion as the trees are far 
off, or situated in deep cafions, and as the wood is tough and 
cross-grained. Ditches are common in the tule-lands. Hedges 
are made with willows and cactus in Los Angeles, San Ber- 
nardino, and San Diego counties. ‘There are a few hedges of 
osage-orange and gorse, for ornament, in the counties about 
San Francisco Bay, but few or none for use. The osage-orange 
