ON FENCES FOR PLANTATIONS. 43 
the ground, they have a tendency to dry it; they intercept 
the slighter showers of rain and the humidity of the atmo- 
sphere, and expose a large surface to evaporation. On a 
large scale, however, forests have a tendency to increase the 
humidity of the atmosphere and strengthen the springs of 
water in their vicinity. In soil surcharged with water, where 
it cannot be properly drained, the mode of ridging it is some- 
times resorted to, and successfully adopted, for the purpose of 
forming a cover of plantation, which improves the appearance 
of the place, and under coppice is frequently attended with 
profit. Ridging is performed by excavating every alternate 
space of five or six feet in breadth; the space which forms 
the ridge is thus raised in proportion to the depth of the 
excavation. The work should be performed in summer; and 
the operation of planting in this description of ground should 
be in spring. 
Fences.—It is hardly necessary that anything should be 
said on the necessity of fences around plantations, or of the 
best mode of forming them. The materials to be employed in 
their formation will of course depend on the resources of the 
district where they are required. In some situations the 
expense of fencing a plantation is equal to the cost of plants 
and the operation of planting; on a small extent it is some- 
times much more. Perhaps the least expensive mode gene- 
rally applicable for waste land, and to protect from the inroads 
of cattle and sheep, is to form a turf-dike on the brink of a 
ditch. The sward from the surface is built to form the out- 
side of the dike, and the earth from the ditch forms what is 
called a backing, being a bank or slope of earth falling from 
the top of the dike to the surface of the enclosed ground. 
This of itself is generally a sufficient fence against cattle ; but 
a formation of this sort, to prevent the inroads of sheep, is 
usually surmounted with a single line of wire, fixed with 
wooden supports, and placed a foot above the top of the turf. 
In districts where thinnings of young plantations abound, 
these are used, instead of wire, to form the top bar. The 
expense of construction must no doubt depend on the adapta- 
