becomes very much reduced. Thus, say about 250 acres are planted in a square for four years in succession, the first 250 acres would cost, at 6d. a running yard, 8s. 9d. per acre, the 500 acres probably about 6s. 9d. to 7s. per acre, the 750 about 6s. 3d., and the 1000 acres, when completed, about 5s. 9d. per acre as the total cost of the whole four years' fencing, only part of the fence being moved and the original enclosure increased by 250 acres each year.

If wire-netting is required as a special protection against rabbits (as is unfortunately only too often the case), this of course necessitates considerable further expense (see p. 21). A 50-yard roll of strong galvanised wire-netting with 1 in. mesh and 4 ft. broad now costs about 22s. 6d., while the same length of mixed mesh, 1 in. for 2 ft. and 14 in. for the top 2 ft., costs. 228. 3d., so that there is only an extremely small saving by using the mixed mesh. It is therefore best to use only the 1-inch mesh where rabbits are dangerous. The additional cost of providing and fixing strong small-mesh rabbit-proof wire-netting of 4 ft. breadth, bending it outwards underground for 6 in. at lower side to prevent burrowing, and making it also bend over somewhat at the top to prevent rabbits climbing over, comes to about 7d. a running yard. This brings up the total cost to about 1s. 6d. a-yard for cattle-andrabbit fencing, and 1s. 1d. to 1s. 3d. a-yard for sheep-and-rabbit fencing.

Where rabbits are not abundant, or where they have not yet become accustomed to contend against wire - netting, fencing against ground game alone can often be done at a very much cheaper rate than the above. A 48 in. wirenet fixed to a No. 6 wire or a barbed wire, with stakes 9-12 ft. apart, usually costs altogether about 8d. a-yard.

The following fence, which I have successfully erected on a very large scale, worked out at 6d. to 7d. a lineal yard. . . . The fence was for the exclusion of ground game only, and consisted of wooden uprights (Larch) 2 in. by 2 in. by 4 ft. 6 in. (creosoted), set 12 ft. apart, one top wire-netting, 1 in. mesh, No. 17 gauge, 42 in. wide. This allowed of a 3-ft. fence with 6 in. turned and covered by a sod. The netting at top was tied by a thin wire. It was found best to open the trench for receiving the netting by spade, as the furrow ploughed was too erratic (Curtis, in Jour. Roy. Agric. Socy. Engl., vol. 64, 1903).

Iron Straining - Pillars last longer than wooden posts, are more easily erected, and look neater; and the wires can be very easily tightened or slackened with a key or other winding apparatus.

But they are more expensive, wrought-iron terminals of 4 ft. high and 13 in. square (with stay and self-fixing bases) for 6 wires costing about 22s. 6d. to 25s. each, and the double-winder uprights (with self-fixing bases) about 188. or 188. 6d. each, while strong angle posts with double bases cost about 35s. each. It is not necessary to give any detailed description of them here, as the illustrations in any manufacturer's catalogue are self-intelligible.

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For batting Iron Standards into Stone, lead is still largely used; but the standards loosen if the hole be not well filled. Good cement is cheaper, and it does not injure the iron as the sulphur in lead sometimes does. Cement sets quickly, is hard, and is just about as good a material as can be had for this purpose. Straining - pillars should generally be sunk 5 in., stays or struts 4 in., and standards 3 in. into the stones; but such details depend greatly upon the kind of stone and the size of the posts.

Barb-wire, introduced from America, is (especially the four-barb kind, thickly set at 3 in. apart) unequalled for efficacy as a fence. Although costing about 50 per cent more than smooth galvanised wire, it is not necessarily dearer, as three strands are usually sufficient to keep out farm-stock. It is dangerous in a hunting

country (unless a wooden rail or bar be put all along the top), and is a cruel fence till horses, cattle, and sheep, whose skin is lacerated in a painful manner by the barbs, find out that it is best to give it a wide berth. It can be fixed to wooden or iron straining-posts, with wooden or iron intermediates, the strainingposts being the same as those already described.

A top strand of barb-wire, or a top strand and also a second line in the middle of the fence, can be used with effect in an ordinary wire fence. The wire is

supplied in reels of or 1 cwt. (488 yds. per cwt. for four barbs 3 in. apart), and can be fixed with ordinary staples.

In fixing barb-wire on wooden straining-posts and uprights, the end of a reel should be secured to the first (terminal) post at the mark for the highest strand, and then the wire should be unrolled along the entire length of the proposed fence, and should be raised to its proper place and stapled lightly on each upright as far as the next corner-post. Then the strainer is applied to pull the wire taut, the lever strainer being used for short lengths and the winding strainer for longer

lengths (Figs. 115, 116, and 117), and the wire is stapled firmly to the two main posts and to each intermediate post. When wire has to be joined between posts, it is spliced as shown in Fig. 118.

The cheapest and best iron-fencing of this class is that known as the Corrimony fence, which was introduced in 1873 from New Zealand by Mr Ogilvy of Corrimony, Inverness

a. The Splicer. b. Pincers and Splicer in action. c. The Joint when completed.

shire (Fig. 119). The main difference between Corrimony and ordinary strained wire fencing consists in the wrought-iron winding straining-pillars and solid resisting pillars, placed alternately about 200 or 220 yards apart (or eight to nine to the mile), and either batted on stones or else fixed by means of patent earth-plates. Iron standards with stays

Fig. 119.

a. Corrimony Fencing batted on stone.

b. Corrimony Fencing fixed with iron earth-plates.

attached are placed about 18 yards apart, with droppers or intermediate uprights placed 6 ft. apart. The wires are threaded through the standards, while the droppers hang on the wires without touching the ground. They are made very light, and are fixed to the wires with iron staples, holdfast clips, or wedge-pins (Fig 120). In this kind of fence both straining-pillars and standards must be securely fixed in the ground, as they are so far

apart. The droppers give no stability, but merely keep the wires at proper distances apart, and they are not fixed until after the wires have been strained.

The Corrimony fence answers well both for parks and for hilly outlying districts where cattle and sheep are grazed. At present a fence of this sort, 3 ft. high and 1 ft. 9 in. below ground, with five to eight wires and a top line of barb-wire, costs about 1s. ayard; while a fence 4 ft. high and 2 ft. below ground, with six strands No. 8 wire and one of barb-wire, costs about 1s. 3d. a-yard or more, according to local circumstances.

The Maintenance of Fences consists in coating the ironwork (except galvanised iron wires) once every two years with black varnish (costing about 1s. 8d. a gallon), in tightening the wires when they expand in summer and in slackening them when they are likely to contract in winter. If this be left undone, the wire may break during hard frosty weather or may become too loose in summer. But a good fence made with good wire should not give much trouble, either with regard to straining or breakage.

Dry-Stone Dykes were formerly extensively erected in most of the high inland districts throughout Great Britain and Ireland, where stones are plentiful and cheap. They shelter young plantations for the first year or two, and also cattle in the adjoining field; but they are now much more expensive than post

a

Fig. 120.

a. Part of dropper. b. Wire.

and-wire fencing. They are therefore seldom used as fences for new plantations nowadays, because even if the land is stony, and Oak and Larch wood is scarce or dear, creosoted wood is cheaper, or iron posts can still be used at a less cost than erecting a stone wall.

The dry-stone wall used to be built from 3 ft. 9 in. to 5 and even 5 ft. high, without lime or mortar, and was always apt to break down under pressure from cattle. But if the top- or cope-stones are bedded in lime, this keeps the wall more firm and compact.

In supervising the building of dry-stone dykes, the main thing is to see that the body of the wall is firmly packed with the smaller stones, and that no open spaces are left. When anything seems suspicious, pressure applied with the foot about half way up on one side should cause the wall to bulge out a little on the opposite side; but if this does not happen, then the wall cannot be well packed.

c. Wedge-pin.

Cost. Even when labour was much cheaper and more easily obtainable than is now the case in waste-land tracts and poor mountain-pastures, the cost of dry-stone dykes 3 ft. 9 in. high used to be 1s. per running yard.

"A double-faced 3 ft. 9 in. dyke requires 1 ton of stones for 1 square yard of its face, so that 36 tons of stone are required for 1 rood of 30 yards long.

"The expense of quarrying that quantity of stones may be about 10s. the rood; the carriage of them at a reasonable distance beyond 1 mile is also 10s.; and the building commonly undertaken, when the stones are good, at 10s. also ;-so that such a dyke costs 30s. the 30 yards, or 1s. for 1 yard in length, or £6, 9s. 6d. per cubic rood, or 3s. 7d. per cubic yard. The best way to contract for the erection of stone-dykes is by the rood of 36 cubic yards, when every temptation on the part of the builder to lessen the breadth, and make the heart of the dyke hollow, is removed."-Macdonald's edition of Stephens's Book of the Farm, 1893, Div. V., p. 231.

Dykes or Mounds are still sometimes erected in high-lying parts, where stones are not easily obtainable, and where it is not advisable to plant hedges. Their place has also, however, been to a great extent taken by wire-fencing round recent plantations, owing to want of labour and its increasing cost in thinly populated tracts.

The line of a turf-dyke (Fig. 121) having been laid off by a set of pins, 18 in. are marked off from the centre (o) to one side (a), and the hemp-line is stretched tightly to its full length, fixed also at 18 in. from the centre on the same side of the fence, pinned down, and then edged off with a sharp, half-worn spade. The man stands on the run of the dyke with his face to the field, so that the edge (a) may slope outwards to correspond with the upward slope of the dyke, when formed. In the same manner the other side of the ground-level foundation is also cut and edged at 18 in, from the centre on the opposite side, so that the foundation (a to a) is 3 ft. wide. A sod 15 in. broad at top Fig. 121.

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is then measured and edged off from a to b on each side along the whole length of the first line on each side of the foundation. The operator faces the line of the dyke when cutting the inner edges (b b), so that when cut, turned upside down, and laid alongside each other on the foundation, the two sods will appear thus

Fig. 122.

and

be at once ready for use in building up the sloping dyke. A second man then follows with a turf-spade (Fig. 122) and cuts the turf right across, into convenient lengths of about 18 in. all along the line; and as he cuts it into lengths, proceeding backwards, he turns the sod, grassy side uppermost, by a twist of the spade. As each sod is turned up, a third man lays the sods on the base of the dyke, care being taken to lay the first course of turf 3 in. within the outer edge (a), on each side, which is left as a supporting margin. The men then set the sods properly to form the lower layer of the mound. As soon as the sods are placed, the joins between their edges should be well filled by packing with earth, after which the upturned sods are firmed and levelled before putting on the next layer. The work is thus continued throughout, one man edging off the turf-sods with a line to an exact measurement corresponding to the decreasing width of the dyke as it gets built up, so that each higher layer of turf gets narrower than that last laid on; while the second man cross-cuts the turf into convenient lengths, and turns up the sods for the third man to place on the dyke. The lower layers of sods are placed grassy side downwards, but it is best to place the upper turf with the grassy side upwards. The sods are taken equally from each side, to save time and to heighten the fence equally on both sides.

The thickness of the sods depends on the soil. If light and sandy, the less soil that is lifted the better, as sand soon moulders down. In light sandy soil the sods should not be thicker than 3 in.; but on heavy soil they may well be 4 or 5 in. thick. In general the turf should be just of the thickness that appears to contain plenty of the fibrous grass-roots.

In Fig. 121 the first four layers of turf consist of two sods in one breadth. This obviates too great a breadth of sod, as work would be difficult if the turf were put on whole.

Turf-dykes are generally made about 36 in. broad at base, and tapering regularly to VOL. II.

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