62 The Wild Garden 



fencing is pretty, and in many cases efficient, but 

 too expensive to be done on a large scale for field 

 work. Nor should I rank it as high as a good live 

 fence, because of its cost, repairs, and the quickness 

 with which it is often destroyed when old. 



The Fence as a Shelter. 



Apart from the ugliness of the iron fencing, its 

 giving no shelter whatever is one of its worst points, 

 as a good live fence gives excellent shelter for sheep 

 and other animals. The prim, neat little hedge is 

 not so good as a shelter, but better than an iron 

 fence. A well-grown fence, cut down and re-made 

 after a lapse of say ten years, gives good shelter. 

 There are many such shelter fences, with Holly and 

 Thorn allowed to grow at will, with an interlacing of 

 Ivy, all seated on a good bank. Such lines as these 

 in the direction of the prevaihng winds could not 

 fail to be helpful for stock in exposed fields. We 

 have plenty of materials to form such fences as hardy 

 and enduring as the bank itself. We might even 

 have them evergreen if we used the Holly largely. 

 The shelter of a good line of naturally-grown Holly 

 on the north side of a high field in an exposed district 

 would be equal to that of a shed. There would be 

 no great difficulty in establishing such Holly fences 

 in open farming districts where rabbits do not abound, 

 but it is not so easy in wooded districts. Seedling 

 plants, not large— i. e. i foot to 3 feet high — 



