ON THE NATURE OF FENCES.
Fences, as boundary lines to estates and as a means of dividing and
separating land into convenient parts or fields, are worthy of greater
attention than we think is paid to them either by the landlord or the
tenant.
But it is perhaps the fact that the landlord on the one hand too often
looks upon them as mere boundaries, or deems that he is only personally
concerned in them to that extent; while the tenant on the other hand—and
especially if his holding be precarious—can hardly be expected to take
that care and defray those expenses which growing good fences and
keeping them in order must necessarily entail. In treating this subject,
then, we shall endeavour to show that the study of how to grow good
fences, by putting the matter upon correct principles, will tend to the
good of all parties concerned.
Fences are of two well-known types: _Dead fences_, such as the natural
boundaries of streams, artificial ditches, raised mounds, walls,
railings, &c.; _Live fences_, grown from living trees or shrubs. These
latter, then, as forming no unimportant part of farm cultivation, will
occupy our attention in the next few chapters.
With regard to dead fences, those in more general farm use may be
briefly described under the heads of railings, mounds, and stone walls.
Railings are of various kinds, according to circumstances; the simplest
form of these consist of piles driven into the ground at about five feet
apart and secured by split larch on the top, and either larch cross
pieces below or iron hoops. In making these the landlord usually finds
the rough material, the tenant paying for the work, the usual cost for
cutting-out being a penny for each pile. This kind of fencing is mostly
employed as a protection to young live fences, or to fill up gaps in
older ones.
Mounds are simply lines of raised earthworks, and are used where stone
or fencing materials are expensive, or where live fences can only be
grown with difficulty. Sometimes these elevations are crowned with
privet or some light hedge-plant. They are occasionally employed as
field boundaries by river sides, where they subserve the purpose of
keeping out floods, but usually the mound is more used as a division of
property than as a fence.
Stone walls are the commonest fences over miles of country in the middle
of England, the Cotteswold hills being remarkable for dry stone
walls—the stone for these “Oolite freestones” being well adapted for the
purpose—of course they are dry, that is, built without mortar, as this
would render the work too costly for field boundaries. These walls have
a wild and desolate appearance, but they are commended by some as not
harbouring birds or vermin; but this is a questionable good, for as
regards birds, we contend that the stone wall districts would be better
off if they afforded shelter for a few more; but stoats, mice, snails,
beetles, and small fry of the kind of no use whatever, are absolutely
protected by the stone wall.
It is said again, that the stone wall offers little chance for weeds,
but to those who have been accustomed to observe about a yard on either
side of a wall constantly left unploughed and uncleaned, stone walls
will be considered as nurseries and protectors of weeds, and those, too,
of a highly mischievous character, as couch thistles, docks, &c.
With regard to the couch grass (_Triticum repens_), we have traced it
running from this source for a couple of yards into the ploughed field,
with the inevitable consequence that in the furrows it is cut into
convenient lengths to multiply the pest; and it has been on this account
that we have ever been careful to direct dragging and harrowing to be
done in the direction of the walls, before proceeding with these
operations over the rest of the field, and we recommend the cutting down
of weeds under these walls before a crop of corn be carried.