Cratægus oxyacanthoides. Glabrous White-thorn.
HOW TO GROW GOOD FENCES.
CHAPTER XXXII.
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.