HO THE NEW FORESTRY. 



The dry stone-wall fence makes a good durable fence for a 

 plantation, and if the first cost is considerable it is perhaps the 

 cheapest in the end where stone is readily procurable. From 

 a landscape point of view, however, they are even more objec- 

 tionable than hedges. In all cases the regular " dry-waller " 

 should be employed by contract in the erection of such fences, 

 as an unskilled hand cannot do such work properly. The cost 

 of such fences depends on the suitability of the stone employed, 

 the distance it has to be brought, and the rate of wages paid in 

 the locality. 



Wooden fences or palings are of various kinds, but 

 for the protection of plantations only, the fence may be 

 plain, and made out of the most suitable timber on the estate, 

 or such as can be got at the nearest timber yard or saw mill, 

 where fencing materials are usually in stock, the railway 

 company using great quantities of such materials. Larch or 

 oak make the best fence, and the one or the other should be 

 used for the posts at least. Scotch fir or spruce will do for the 

 rails, which should be about four-and-a-half inches wide and 

 one-and-a-half inches thick. The top rail should be about four 

 feet from the ground, and the others should be close enough 

 to each other to prevent lambs getting through. This is the 

 common Scotch: paling, consisting of stout riven or sawn stakes 

 driven firmly into the ground and a continuous bar nailed to 

 them. Whatever kind of fence is employed to protect plan- 

 tations, they should be set up at a sufficient distance from the 

 trees to prevent cattle and horses from reaching them. 



SECTION IV. — ROADS. 



Good roads increase the value of plantations because of 

 the facilities they afford for the removal of timber, always the 

 heaviest item of expense in disposing of timber, and generally 

 borne by the vendor, because it must come off the price in the 

 wood. " Easy to get away " is always a recommendation to a 

 sale of timber and one the vendor rarely omits in a notice of sale. 

 Forest roads should be laid out not more than two hundred or 

 three hundred yards apart in extensive woods, and in a direc- 

 tion to afford the easiest and quickest means of exit to road or 

 rail. Access should also be provided, as far as practicable to 

 interesting spots and pleasant prospects ; but in a hilly or 

 undulating country the main roads should, as far as possible, 

 be laid out in easy gradients with a continuous ascent to the 



