On Fences.
Without firm and close fences, the hus bandman might as well cultivate open fields as inclosures, which in these cir cumstances, indeed, are only nominally slid'. He is under perpetual well. founded apprehensions, lest cattle of his own or his neighbours should break into his corn or hay-fields. To prevent these painful apprehensions and. irreparable niisehiefs, every attention must be be stowed on the fences of a farm. Large and rich pastures may most easily be di vided into fields of ten acres each, by which the land is less liable to be injured through the restlessness, and wild and perpetual movements of cattle, which oc cur in extensive grounds, where they are collected in considerable numbers. Di viding banks being raised, they, may be connected with the system of draining by a ditch on each side,abouttliree feet wide at top and four deep. The bank or border should be about the width of six feet at the bottom, lessening gradually to three at the top, at which the heightfrom the ground should be five orsix feet. On each side of the bank should be planteda single row of quick thorn. If the thorn be of the bullace or daunson lcind, it will be productive-and profitable. Onthe top °fele border filbert nuts may be planted at the distance of three feet ; and, in the middle, apple trees at the distance of five feet This. fence would ocenpyaboitt 15 feet, and in the neighbourhood of Lon don', particularly, would be foundnot only effectual for its main purpose, but a source of income, as well as the means of defence. The hawthorn, the black thorn, and the holly, the willow, the black alder, and the birch, haVe allbeen recommended by-ob servant and experienced men, as admira bly calculated to secure fields from the irruptions of cattle, and will be employed for the purpose, according- as particular circumstances of dryness or moisture, or other considerations recommend their ap plication. Where there is an abundance of flat-stones,fences arc frequently com posed of them; and, though not so agree able to the eye as the others, and requ iri ng frequent repair from the stones being dis placed by cattle, when kept in orderthey are the inost effectual defence that can be procured. With respect to hedges, (whiCh in this country are more usual as well as more pleasing than walls, and which, perhaps, cannot in general be formed of any thing preferable to the thorn, considering the quickness of its growth in congenial soil, in whicli it shoots six orseven feet in a single season, and that it is more disposed to lateral shoots than all other trees, and by its prickles is especially calciffitted for the object in view, in the construction of liedges,) the proper method of repairing them is unquestionably by- plashing. This has
been defined a wattling made of living wood, The old wootlmust, in the first instance, be all cleared from the hedge, together with brambles and irregularly g-rowing stuff, and along the toP of the bank should be left standing the straight est and best grown stems of thorn, hazel, elm, oak, or ash, about the number of six in a yard, . The next step is to repair the ditch, which, in the driest soils, should never be less than three feet wide at top, by two and a half deep, and six inches wide at ,bottom and in an vrrt• unni,1 ones should be at least four feet by three, and one at bottom. The earth removed from the ditch should be t hrown upon the bank, after which the repair of the hedge commences, andthose. oftlte stems above mentioned, left in cutting the old hedge, which grow in the direction in which the new hedge is to run, are cut off, to serve as hedge stakes for it, which bei ng chosen as much as possible of sallow' and willow readily grow, and effectually preserve the new "part from falling or leaning. i The remainder of the wood leftstanding is then plashed down. One stroke is given to the stick near the ground, andanother about ten or twelve inches higher, just deep enough to slit out a partoftlie wood between the two, leaving the stem sup ported by about a quarter of its original size ; it is then laid along the top of the bank, and weaved among the hedge stakes. Dead thorns are sometimea woven among them, where there happens to be a scarcity of living wood. After this operation the hedge is cddered in the usual manner. The greatest part of the hedge thus consists of living materials, and the importance ofthis circumstance cannot be too strongly insisted upon, as a compact and lasting fence is thus formed, while those hedges which are constructed of dead materials speedily decay, and crumble into the ditch: It would be end less to detail all the varieties offence which peculiar circumstances may have render ed expedient, or human ingenuity- may have invented. The mostusual and most genemlly applicable are those which have been mentioned.