210 
On Fences. 
This will leave the posts 3 feet 3 inches Fig. i. 
high. In cases where cattle only are to , . --y , . j 
be kept otf, 2 lines of rails will be sufh- -J — — ■ *' , 1 
cient (fig. I) ; but in order to guard the .J, .L . . |n- ^ ^1 
hedge from the attacks of sheep as well - Mms. nr 
as cattle, 3 horizontal rails should be used (fig. 2), the first one 
placed at 1 foot from the surface of the 
ground, the next at 2 feet from the 
ground, and the remaining one on the 
top of the posts. Various other contri- 
vances have been adopted with wood, in 
order to protect hedges, but in no form 
has this material been used to such advantage as in the shape of 
posts and rails. Common hurdles, indeed, have in some instances 
been known to protect a hedge until it has arrived at maturity, 
but in general they are deficient in strength and firmness, while 
their cost is not less than that of the other. Mere brushwood, 
loppings of trees or old hedges, and all sorts of wattled works, 
however perfect in themselves, are not suited to resist cattle unless 
placed on the top of a bank, and this bank should be only adopted 
in conjunction with a ditch, as I shall notice presently. With the 
exception, then, of the posts and rails, and the various modifica- 
tions of this kind of hedge-fencing, 1 do not hesitate to pronounce 
all other sorts of protection to a hedge, when used on the plane sur- 
face of a field, as inefficient, and a source only of continual trouble 
and expense. The other kind of protection to a newly planted 
hedge has been already adverted to (14), and consists of a ditch 
dug out on one side, and a bank formed on the other with the soil 
taken out of the ditch. This bank should be topped with any 
sort of strong underwood most convenient to be had, but the most 
effectual resistance to cattle is formed of the loppings of old haw- 
thorn hedges, blackthorn, or sloe. 
20. Expense. — This item will of course vary according to local 
circumstances, for in the neighbourhood of common pine and larch 
plantations, thinnings, or weedings, as tliey are termed in some 
counties, may be had at the rate of ?>d. or Ad. per tree. In 6ther 
districts as much as \0d. per tree is paid; and in some parts even 
a higher price is exacted. 'J he cost of a perch of hedging com- 
plete, with protection on both sides, in the north of England, and 
throughout Scotland, does not exceed 3^. 2)d , the difference, as re- 
gards England generally, arising chiefly in the items of labour, 
wood to protect the fence, and the price of the plants. In the 
annexed tables a medium price is stated, which, though varying 
from the charge made in several localities, will be found to be, in 
the average of cases, correct. 
