THE NEW FORESTRY. IO9 



Dead fences are constructed of iron, galvanized wire-rope, 

 annealed wire, wood, and stone, and sometimes of iron and 

 wood combined. They may be ornamental or plain, but plain 

 fences only, for the protection of woods, will be referred .to 

 here. Of iron fences the continuous bar fence is very service- 

 able and strong, and costs about two shillings and sixpence 

 per yard set up. Strained wire fences are cheaper, while the 

 barbed wire fence is the cheapest of any because it is rarely 

 disturbed by cattle, while bar iron and galvanized wire 

 rope are often bent or slackened by cattle rubbing against 

 them. For iron fences the posts should be of angle iron with 

 strong straining terminals, but oak or larch posts are best for 

 wire fences, and the wire can be nailed to the posts by staples 

 very securely. The iron fencing business is in ( the hands of 

 the manufacturers, who supply estimates and usually execute 

 such work. Wire-rope and annealed wire is supplied cheap, 

 by the hundredweight, and if the wooden posts are provided 

 by the estate, a handy labourer may soon erect a wire fence, 

 which should be about four feet high, tightly strained and 

 stayed, with the strands put on close enough to stop sheep and 

 lambs. Barbed wire fences should be erected in the same 

 manner. The objections to barbed wire disappear to 

 a great extent where it is only applied to fences against 

 plantations, and there can be no doubt about it being the most 

 effective barrier against cattle ever yet invented. Cattle and 

 horses soon get acquainted with it, and one or two strands put 

 along the top of a weak fence will often make it as strong as 

 the strongest at the cost of about one. penny per yard. In the 

 writer's experience of barbed wire on an extensive scale against 

 woods, very few accidents, and these slight, have occurred to 

 cattle from it; while accidents are frequent with smooth wire 

 fences, owing to cattle getting their legs over the wires and 

 their heads through between the strands. Such accidents 

 rarely happen with barbed wire, because the first prick drives 

 the animal off. . Both barbed and annealed wire fences of a 

 cheap but effectual description are now very common in Scot- 

 land everywhere. In fact, the extent to which barbed wire is 

 now used by farmers and others is sufficient evidence of its 

 utility and harmlessness. The various kinds of wire fences 

 look light, and if the posts, when of wood, are. painted a dull 

 green, they are practically invisible against a wood, a little 

 way off, and allow the natural margin of the wood to be seen. 

 On some estates, within recent times, many miles of hedges in 

 parks have been removed and invisible wire fences substituted 

 with excellent effect. 



