Science and Practice in Farm Cultivation Part 25

CHAPTER x.x.xII.

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 circ.u.mstances; 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 gra.s.s (_Tritic.u.m 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.

CHAPTER x.x.xIII.

ON THE PLANTS FOR "LIVE" FENCES.

The native plants which have been employed for living fences include most of our indigenous trees and shrubs, with some few which, if not native, have yet been for a long time naturalised throughout Great Britain. The most important of these will be found in the following list:-

{ Oak } { Beech } Forest trees usually forming Group 1. { Hornbeam } fences by means of undergrowth { Ash } from lopping and { Elm } cutting.

{ Maple }

{ Whitethorn } { Blackthorn } Trees and shrubs forming fences Group 2. { Crab } by reason of a thick-growth { Buckthorn } and repellant thorns and spines.

{ Holly }

{ Nut } { Privet } Shrubs which for the most part Group 3. { Dogwood } fill up badly-grown fences.

{ Spearwood } These are really weeds in { Guelder Rose } good hedges.

{ Elder }

In the first group, it may be remarked, that oak, ash, and elm are seldom, if ever, planted for hedges; for in the first place these plants are usually too expensive, and in the next they are not esteemed as hedge plants. They mostly find their way in the fence by seeds being sown by the wind, as is often the case with ash-keys, or they may start up a bush of underwood after being cut down as hedge-row timber; in either case they are very unsightly in appearance, and far from good in hedges. Trees should not be grown in hedge-rows where the fence is to be perfect, as these overshadow the best hedge-plants, and the sides of the boles always offer weak places.

Beech and hornbeam are frequently used for garden and smaller fences, and, when well grown, are really useful as a protection, as their withered leaves are persistent, that is, they do not fall off until new ones are formed. They are grown comparatively quickly, and will flourish in poor light soils, and if strong plants be made to cross each other in planting, they may be trained to form a strong fence.

In the second group, the whitethorn (_Crataegus oxyacantha_) stands deservedly at the top of the list; in fact, it is the very best hedge-row plant we possess. It is not slow of growth in congenial soil, especially if well attended to. Its thorns render it thoroughly repellant to cattle. It bears cutting, clipping, and tr.i.m.m.i.n.g better than any other; and though variable in its behaviour in different soils, it is, after all, capable of bearing a greater diversity in this respect than any other of our list. The whitethorn, then, is deservedly held in the highest repute for the growth of the most perfect live fence for all ordinary farm purposes; the blackthorn, crab, and buckthorn being tolerated only because they possess some of the same characteristics as the whitethorn. As regards the latter, it is exceedingly long-lived, and, if left to itself, forms trees of considerable size, which are occasionally very beautiful as forming part of park scenery; still in hedges it can be kept to any size, and cutting it in causes a new wood to spring up, which has all the characteristics of a young, quick plant.

These are merits of the greatest importance in favour of the whitethorn, which will ever make this the best hedge-row plant, as if we succeed to a whitethorn fence, which has been trimmed and kept within due bounds, there is no difficulty in continuing the process; and so if the hedge be left to grow tall and wild it may be cut out either wholly or partially, some stems cut half through-as in the process of _plas.h.i.+ng_-laid down, and so a secure though not so tall a fence be formed, that will only grow thicker year by year.

Blackthorn-sloe (_Prunus spinosa_) is formidable enough as regards thorns, but it cannot stand the same amount of cutting as the whitethorn, and, when cut, its young shoots being almost thornless, makes a hedge of the sloe the less repellant the more vigorous are its shoots.

The crab-apple (_Pyrus malus_) and the buckthorn (_Rhamnus catharticus_) may be considered as accidental in fences; and as, to a great extent, they will grow with the quicks and suffer the same treatment without growing as upstarts on the one hand, or refusing to start again after crippling on the other, they are both tolerated in fences without quite getting a character for being hedgerow weeds.

The holly (_Ilex aquifolium_) possesses a wonderful repellant armour in its spinous, evergreen leaves, on which, account it is esteemed as a plant for fences:-

A hedge of holly, thieves that would invade, Repulses like a growing palisade; Whose numerous leaves such orient greens invest, As in deep winter do the spring arrest.

This is one of our native trees, frequently attaining to a great size on even wild, stony places, with only a thin layer of soil. We have seen some fine examples, large enough to secure the holly a place among our native forest trees on the "stony Cotteswolds," as Shakespeare calls the high Gloucesters.h.i.+re range; it is, however, of slow growth, or it would, doubtless, be more used for fences: still in poor soils it will, after all, grow as fast as the whitethorn, Evelyn is eloquent in praise of holly. He says:-

Is there under heaven a more glorious and refres.h.i.+ng object of the kind than an impregnable hedge of about four hundred feet in length, nine feet high, and five in diameter, which I can show in my now ruined gardens at Saye Court (thanks to the Czar of Muscovy[23]), at any time of the year, glittering with its armed and varnished leaves? The taller standards, at orderly distances, blus.h.i.+ng with their natural coral; it mocks the rudest a.s.saults of the weather, beasts, or hedge-breakers,-

Et illum nemo impune lacessit.

[23] The Czar Peter the Great resided at Mr. Evelyn's house, in order that he might be near the yard at Deptford, during his stay in England; but we do not see why he should be thanked for the holly hedge.

It is with us of two eminent kinds, the p.r.i.c.kly and smoother leaved; or, as some term it, the free holly, not unwelcome, when tender, to sheep and other cattle. There is also of the white berried, and a golden and silver, variegated in six or seven differences, which proceeds from no difference in the species, but accidentally, and _naturae lusu_, as most such variegations do, since we are taught how to effect it artificially, namely by sowing the seeds, and planting in gravelly soil mixed with store of chalk, pressing it hard down: it being certain that they return to their native colour when sown in richer mould, and that all the fibres of the roots recover their natural food.

The differences in the colour of the fruit, as of the colour and shape of the leaves, is truly a matter of variety. The red-berried holly, under the name of "Christmas," is quite an article of commerce at the festive season-so much so that a friend of ours in the neighbourhood of Stroud, who this year (1864-5) had a large tree well covered with berries, a.s.sured us that he had great difficulty in preventing it going to market with some of the marauders, who scour the country in search of anything they can sell.

In the Worcester market we for many years noticed a sprinkling of white, or, rather, yellowish-berried holly, a spray or two of which was always put with the bundle of the red-berried in effecting the many Christmas sales.

As regards the difference in the leaves, although it is true that in the gardens we have a smooth and unarmed variety, however dwarf the specimen may be, yet in wild examples the smooth leaves will, for the most part, only be found on the upper parts of tall trees; the poet, then, has been as true to Nature as graceful in art in the poem of which the following lines form a part:-

Below, a circling fence, its leaves are seen Wrinkled and keen.

No grazing cattle through their p.r.i.c.kly round Can reach to wound; But as they grow where nothing is to fear, Smooth and unarmed, the pointless leaves appear.

_Southey._

In growing hedges, the clipping to keep them within bounds helps to keep the holly spinous at any age.

Evelyn further descants upon the excellency of holly for hedges; and as the following remarks are so truly practical, we quote them in this place:-

The holly is an excellent plant for hedges, and would claim the preference to the hawthorn, were it not for the slowness of its growth while young, and the difficulty of transplanting it when grown to a moderate size. It will grow best in cold, stony land, where, if once it takes well, the hedges may be rendered so close and thick as to keep out all sorts of animals. These hedges may be raised by sowing the berries in the place where they are designed to remain, or by plants of three or four years' growth; but as the berries continue in the ground near eighteen months before the plants appear, few persons care to wait so long; therefore, the usual and best method is to plant the hedges with plants of the before-mentioned age. But where this is practised, they should be transplanted either early in autumn, or deferred till toward the end of March; then the surface of the ground should be covered with mulch near their roots, after they are planted, to keep the earth moist; and if the season should prove dry, the plants should be watered, at least once a-week, until they have taken root, otherwise they will be in danger of miscarrying, for which reason the autumnal planting is generally preferred to the spring, especially in dry grounds. Columella's description of a good hedge is highly applicable to one made of holly, "Neu sit pecori, neu pervia furi." Of the rind of this tree birdlime is made.

Alas! in vain with warmth and food You cheer the songsters of the wood; The barbarous boy from you prepares, On treacherous twigs, his viscous snares; Yes, the poor bird you nursed shall find Destruction in your rifled rind.

If we except the Privet, the examples of plants in our third group are quite unfit for hedge purposes, as they are entirely without offensive armature. Privet hedges are not unfrequent in gardens, where they are useful for boundaries, blinds, and to act as shelter, but as a farm hedge-plant it is quite useless.

The nut, guelder rose, and elder have none of the qualities for hedge growth that are required by the former; on the contrary, they have large leaves, and so smother the quicks if they grow with them, and when cut they shoot rapidly, especially in the case of the elder (_Sambucus niger_), and so make a hedgerow look ragged by here and there growing a yard or so above the ordinary hedge-plants; but, besides this, the lower stems get free from leaves, and hence gaps are easily made in bushes of nut, dogwood, elder, &c.

In the above description of hedgerow plants we have omitted all mention of yew, holly, laurustinas, furze, and the like, as being more properly materials for ornamental or garden hedges. The furze, however, is sometimes used on the tops of mounds, in some sandy districts, as a fence plant, but the constant dying of the old wood and the consequent exercise by the cottager of a fancied right to pull the hedge to pieces for firing render it almost impossible to employ it to any advantage.