132 
GAUDENING AND FARMING 
grant proves to be woody, you have no choice 
but to clear a portion at once, partly for the 
wood which is required for the fencing and 
building, and partly for the sake of some 
ground to crop, and for the supply of fuel. 
In clearing some woods there is an immense 
quantity of small brushwood, underwood, or 
thicket stuff, which is all but useless. This it 
is of great advantage to burn on the ground ; 
chop it up close to the bottom, and bring it 
out cleat of the wood, set light to it, cover 
with earth, and when fairly reduced, strew the 
product about the soil. It is of the greatest con- 
sequence that you avoid encumbering yourself 
with sticks and heaps of useless wood, when you 
can have plenty for cutting ; the room it occu- 
pies, and the frequent necessity of removing 
it from place to place out of your way, is a far 
greater disadvantage than is compensated by 
its worth. Secure a good supply for all pur- 
poses, but the under stuff is rarely worth 
taking away, and charred wood and ashes will 
be found of the greatest use in preparing the 
ground for crops, while the burning of this 
brushwood has the best effect in destroying a 
great proportion of the small vermin that infest 
the land near the surface. If the land be stiff 
and clay-like, good fires may be made with 
the small wood, and portions of the earth 
burned with it ; all that this requires after- 
wards is to be spread over the ground. This 
is mentioned as bringing into use a quantity 
of the wood-stuff that would otherwise be a 
positive nuisance, because all beyond what is 
really wanted is sadly in the way if left on 
the ground, and causes a good deal of labour 
in its removal ; while its remains after it is 
burned is a fine dressing for every description 
of soil. 
Where there happens to be a very hand- 
some tree, and such trees are scarce, which is 
always the case when the wood is thick and 
the generality of trees are close together — it 
is very desirable to let it stand uninjured ; and 
lest any of the trees in the neighbourhood 
should damage it in falling, it may be desir- 
able to get up such trees and saw off the 
branches that might reach it, and even to 
shorten trees by sawing off the tops ; but 
when you are clearing for crops very few 
must be left, because for a certain distance 
around you may calculate on thus injuring 
whatever is growing underneath or very near 
them. In the case of such as are to be saved, 
it is better not to trench near them, first be- 
cause they would be damaged by cutting their 
roots, and secondly because the space would 
be good for nothing as far as covered by the 
branches ; the extent of branches is therefore 
the rule for leaving the ground undisturbed, 
except so far as grubbing up the underwood. 
It should be recollected that if a tree is sawed 
off instead of grubbed up, it would cost ten 
times as much labour to get up the roots 
afterwards as it does when the whole weight 
of tlie tree forms a lever to drag them up, for 
by chopping these roots off a few feet fi'om 
the trunk, the entire but, with all these roots, 
are got out of the ground at once ; and whe- 
ther the land is dug or ploughed afterwai'ds, 
they are all out of the way. 
In burning the waste underwood and other 
wood not worth carting away, care must be 
taken not to kindle a fire too near the un- 
cleared wood, as in dry weather, with the wind 
blowing that way, the wood itself might be 
kindled, and in such cases there is no stopping 
the fire. In some kinds of wood, or rather 
thicket, where there is no timber to preserve, 
and nothing large enough for use, firing it is 
a ready means of clearing away a good deal of 
the top ; but in such cases only half the depth 
of the trenches should be removed, the other 
half should be merely loosened and cleared, 
because the ashes should be all kept in the top 
spit of earth. It should also be taken into 
account, that ground cleared by trenching 
eighteen inches will be infinitely more valu- 
able, more easily cropped, and will yield better 
crops, than any that is partially, or carelessly, 
or less effectively cleared of the roots ; for it 
will be less destructive to ploughs and other 
tools and implements used from time to time, 
and will be ready for such crops as carrots, 
parsnips, mangold wurtzel, and such like, that 
require depth of soil in order to be grown to 
perfection. 
OF FENCES. 
Fencing, or forming some means of keeping 
cattle from straying in or out of the parts ap- 
propriated to the different purposes of a farm, 
and especially to protect those parts that are 
cropped, is one of the early tasks imposed on 
the emigrant. The most readily made fences 
are those formed with stakes ; and of these 
there are many kinds. The most permanent, 
and perhaps the best adapted to resist the 
intrusion of cattle, are those driven into tlic 
ground diagonally, and crossed thus : — 
These stakes, as thick as one's wrist, being 
driven into the ground to the depth of about 
two feet, it is only necessary to drive a spike- 
nail through the top crossing, to render the 
fence firm and lasting. The preparation of 
the stakes consists in selecting from the wood, 
as it is cut down or cleared, stakes long enough 
to go a foot and a half or two feet into the 
