108 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



rabbits by wire-netting, and from cattle by wooden palings, 

 which is another objection to their use. Of all live fences for 

 woods the beech hedge is the best, because it is more easily 

 and quickly got up than a thorn or mixed hedge, endures shade 

 well, is dense and close in winter as well as in summer, as the 

 leaves, though dead, remain on the branches, and it can be 

 grown to a height of twenty or thirty feet without losing its 

 density at the bottom. In some parts of Perth and Forfar 

 the sturdy beech hedges, growing under the almost continuous 

 shade of the hedge-row trees that line the roads there for miles, 

 are a feature. Some of these hedges are very old, but still 

 stout and strong. 



The general management of hedges consists in trenching 

 a strip about three feet wide and eighteen inches deep, where 

 the hedge is to be, planting the quicks or beech closely 

 together in the centre of the strip, as forest trees are planted in 

 the nursery (chapter xi.), and afterwards keeping the hedge 

 trimmed by the hedge-bill till it has grown to the desired 

 height. There is no need for a ditch alongside a hedge where 

 the ground is dry or has already been drained, and digging 

 along the bottom of the hedge on the plea of killing 

 weeds should never be allowed. Many of our railway hedges 

 present a sad spectacle from having had their roots mutilated 

 by the spade by annual digging in that way ; but some railway 

 hedges are examples of good management, and all are usually 

 planted on the flat on all soils. 



The difference in the cost between hedges and wood or 

 iron fences is great A wire, iron, or wood fence may cost 

 from eightpence to two shillings and sixpence per yard run, 

 and a hedge will cost two shillings and sixpence, including the 

 protecting fence on each side and constant attention, while 

 iron and wood needs, little attention except painting with gas 

 tar or pitch at long intervals. 



Furze and turf fences are serviceable. A bank of turf, 

 skinned from the land on each side, is thrown up to a height 

 of three or four feet — the base being about three feet wide 

 and the top about one foot. The furze is sown on the top and 

 sides, in furrows or holes, and if protected from cattle and sheep, 

 which eat the furze, a formidable fence is formed in two years' 

 after which browsing does little or no harm but rather helps- 

 to keep the furze close and dense. Turf and furze fences 

 look picturesque, and if the sods be thick and well piled ur> 

 they last long and need little attention. 



