about 14 in. at top. As they subside a few inches after being put up, they should be made about 6 in. higher than ultimately required; but the largest allowance for shrinkage is required for soft mossy turf.

Where the surface-soil is covered with rank grass or weeds, these should be cut close with a scythe before lifting the turf; and if the sods are damp and spongy, about onequarter of the height must be allowed for shrinkage. Unless the dyke be made high, a paling or wire-fence should be put along the top, but not until after the mound has settled fairly. If the mound skirts the edge of a wood, and is meant to protect it only, the paling or wire-fence may slope outwards, as at d; but if the mound is only a fieldfence, then the paling should be upright, as at c. For this purpose it is sufficient to run one or two strands of barb-wire along standards placed 10 to 15 yards apart, or 8 to 10 yards on curves. The old custom of erecting a stout paling (as shown here in Fig. 121. after Brown), and putting stobs 6 ft. apart, was quite unnecessary.

Turf-mounds require more supervision, and cost more to maintain, than other fences. Wire-fencing is more durable and convenient, and does not usually cost much more.

Wooden Palings have now, for plantation fencing, been almost entirely superseded by wire-fencing. Post-and-Rails are the most generally useful of all wooden palings, consisting of strong posts or uprights, about 3 to 4 in. square, driven into the ground at 6 to 12 ft. apart, upon which posts and bars are nailed horizontally at regular distances from, and parallel to, each other.

Fig. 124.

a

For a 4-ft. paling, posts of 5 to 6 ft. will be required, according to the nature of the ground. The posts should be pointed at lower end for ramming in easily, and the horizontal rails are usually 18 ft. long and 4 in. broad by 1 in. Fig. 125. thick (Larch or creosoted wood). The posts and the horizontal rails (three or four bars, as the case may be) are laid all along the line at the required distances upon one side of the line of fence. The tools required are a garden-line, a No. 3 paling hammer with claws (Fig. 123), a bag of nails of two sizes (held in separate compartments), and an iron 12 lb. post- mallet (Fig. 124). For hard difficult ground, a borer (Fig. 125) may also be necessary, consisting of a heavy shod or pointed piece of iron (a), about 12 in. long and 3 in. top diameter, hollowed to receive the handle (b), about 4 ft. long.

Fig. 123.

T

Where the soil is comparatively light, wellpointed posts may be driven home with a heavy iron-bound wooden mallet or an iron sledge-hammer; but to avoid splintering of the head, it should be protected with an iron-bound cap of tough wood like Hornbeam. Two men are of course requisite for driving home the fence-posts in this manner. The garden-line should be stretched along the run of the fence, and pinned down about 2 in. to one side, so that the posts may be put in a straight line. The post is then driven in by the mallet to the required depth. If the rails are of unequal lengths, it is best to lay a single bar along the ground beside the line, and allowing an overlap of 4 to 5 in. for each joint, and to put in a post at the joining of the rails, without regard to exact distances. One post having been erected at each joining of the rails, the others must be erected between these at as nearly equal distances as practicable. The posts having been driven in as far as the line stretches, they should be examined to see that they are both level on the top and regular on the side view. A post here and there may require beating down if too high, or beating to the side if a little out of the line. When the posts are all properly adjusted, two men place a rail along the top to form the upper bar. The rail should be nailed on, projecting about 2 in. beyond the second post, to provide for a splice there. The second bar in continuation of this first should be nailed on about 2 in. behind

the post to provide the other part of the splice, and so on all along the line of posts put in. When the whole line of top-bar is in position, the overlapping parts are sawn across, properly spliced thus and firmly nailed to the post. And in the same way

the second, third, and fourth bars are fixed at distances about 9 or 10, 7, and 6 in. below that immediately above it. In putting on the second, third, and fourth bars, it is not so necessary to have their joints made upon the posts as in the case of the upper bar. They may be joined in the middle, or wherever the ends happen to meet, as the under bars are not so heavily pressed on by cattle.

In like manner the whole fence is put up, one line-length after another. workmen will, in moderately soft soil, put up from 25 to 30 roods a-day.

Two good

Upright or Spar Fences are more of an ornamental character (Fig. 126), and are now too expensive for enclosing plantations. There is nothing in their erection that calls for special explanation. The height of paling required mainly determines the size of the posts, horizontal bars, and upright spars; and the latter should always be nailed to the bars on the side which is most in view.

Fig. 126.

The "Peignon" Fencing, consisting of split Chestnut bound together with galvanised smooth or barb-wire in rolls of 5 yards, and now largely imported from the South of France, is convenient for merely temporary purposes. But it is also considerably dearer than ordinary wire-fencing, and is therefore of no use for enclosing large plantations.

Fence-Gates have generally to be made and erected by the forester.1 Wooden Gates are usually made of Oak, Larch, or creosoted Pine, &c. Whatever wood is used should be well seasoned to prevent twisting from heat; and creosoting or naphthalining of course increases the durability.

A type of gate formerly very much favoured is shown in Fig. 127. The posts are 5 ft. high, the back one being 4 by 24 in., and the front post 3 by 2 in. The top and bottom horizontal bars are about 9 ft. long between the posts, and tapering from 4 in. at back to 34 in. at the front, and 2 in. thick, while the three intermediate bars are the same breadth but only 1 in. thick. The diagonal bar, reaching from the heel of the gate to within 18 in. of the end of the top bar, is 3 by 24 in. like the top and bottom bars; while the upright support is 3 by 24 in. like the intermediates, and reaches from the bottom bar to the diagonal at its junction with the second bar from the top. The gate has double hinges which

1 When wire-netting is placed round fencing, hares can easily be kept out by continuing the netting on the gates; but as regards rabbits the matter is different, for the netting cannot then be put 4 or 5 in. underground.

clamp the joints of the top and bottom bars and strengthen the back part. By having the gate heavier near its centre of gravity, the hinges, the maximum of stability is given. Such a gate costs about 25s. to 30s. ; but a very similar though

Fig. 127.

lighter gate, made of Larch and fitted with self-fastening locks (as used on the Murthly estate, and shown at the Highland and Agricultural Society's Show at Perth, Forestry branch, 1904), can be made for the same price; while at Scone a 5-barred gate (about 12 ft. long) with posts made of undressed Oak costs 20s.

For general plantation purposes, however, a very much lighter and less expensive kind of gate is quite sufficient. The heavier and more expensive gates need only be used where more or less constant traffic is likely to throw a lot of strain on the hinges.

A very cheap gate, extensively used on the Raith estate (Fifeshire), and found to answer well, is made of creosoted Scots Pine rails, 3 in. broad by 14 in. thick. The gate has four 10-ft. bars firmly nailed to Scots Pine ends, with two angular pieces for supports, and two pieces of double rail to support the hinge-plates. The ends are 3 ft. 9 in. high, and, along with the angular pieces, project 3 in. above the top bar. A strand of barb

Fig. 128.

wire is firmly stretched across the ends to prevent stock rubbing or leaning against the gate. It can be made and mounted for about 12s. It is easily supported on its own hinges, and may be hung on a post of 8 in. diameter (Macdonald, in Trans. Roy. Scot. Arbor. Socy., vol. xvii. part ii., 1904, p. 453).

In hanging plantation gates, it is better to fix the pin of the hinge at the outer corner of the post, and not in the middle of the post in the centre of the run of

the fence. In the former case the gate can be opened back to the fence, whereas in the latter it can only be opened for little more than a right angle, owing to the gate-bars meeting the corner of the post (see Fig. 128).

Wooden gates require to be painted or well coated with tar at time of erec

Fig. 129.

tion, and once every three years after, to preserve them. Creosoted wood takes tar better than paint, or rubbing them over with crude petroleum is equally good.

Iron Gates, wrought or cast, look lighter, and are more durable than wooden gates; but they are more expensive (Fig. 129). Iron gates 9 ft. wide by 4 to 4 ft.

high vary at present from 21s. 6d. to £3 each, without posts. It is often preferable to hang them on wooden rather than on iron posts, as the former are cheaper and less liable to damage from cart-wheels.

Wickets are convenient on the edges of plantations; but Fence-Steps, made of wood or iron (Fig. 130), are sometimes preferred.

The angular wicket (Fig. 131) is simple and effective, both as fence and gate. The gap in the fence (a a) may be about 4 ft. wide, and the angle (c a c) about 3 ft. wide from

b to b. A small post should be put at each extremity (c), and another at b on each side, where the wicket (a d, hung on a hinge at a) hits the rail as it folds to either side in opening or shutting. Iron wickets are also obtainable, as seen in any manufacturer's catalogue.

III. The smaller Rodents or Vermin (squirrels, mice, and voles) often do a very great deal of damage in woods, and especially in young plantations and nurseries during the winter months. They not only devour large quantities of seed and eat the buds of young plants, but they also peel the bark. It is, of course, during hard winters that they do most damage by peeling, while the plants attacked often also get frost-bitten at the gnawed parts. In ordinary years the total damage done by squirrels throughout the British Isles is perhaps greater than that done by voles, and it is certainly far more than most people seem to imagine; but whenever a plague of voles occurs, owing to the balance of nature being temporarily disturbed, the local damage sometimes becomes so great that whole plantations are destroyed.

Sometimes it is difficult to determine, on first inspection, whether the damage is due to squirrels, mice, or voles, unless they have actually been seen at work. The main points for guidance then are (1) the season of the year, and (2) the position and appearance of the part gnawed. The marks left by squirrels are usually fainter than those of mice and voles.

If large trees are barked near their base, it is almost certain to be due to rabbits (or hares, if plentiful, in which case the marks of the incisors are much larger). But in young plantations, up to about fifteen or twenty years old, in which the bark on the young trees is still fairly soft, the base of stems may be gnawed either by rabbits or by mice and voles. Here, again, the difference in the size of the marks left by the incisors gives a fairly good clue as to whether the damage has been done by rabbits, or by mice or voles. Apart from the difference in the actual size of the marks, those made by the rabbits are fewer in number, and are more generally horizontal than the far closer and smaller marks left by mice and voles. But while the long-tailed field-mouse (Mus silvaticus) gnaws only at the roots and within 2 in. or 3 in. above the ground, and the damage done by rabbits is confined to within 12 in. or 15 in. above ground, the voles (the genus Arvicola, characterised by their short tail and legs, broad head, and small ears hidden in fur) gnaw both near the ground and, except the water-rat (A. amphibius), for a very considerable way up the tree, owing to their being able to climb.

Of the three species of these climbing land-voles, the true field-mouse (4. arvalis) is a poor climber, while the common field-vole (A. agrestis) climbs better, but the bank-vole (A. glareolus) is by far the best climber of the three. When voles swarm in woods during the winter, the two first-named do much damage by devouring seed and mast, and by gnawing the rind of saplings and poles near the ground and taking the bark off the foot of young trees as far up the stem as 8 in. or 10 in., while the bank-vole often climbs to a considerable height to reach the soft bark. When plantations have been gnawed at about 11 ft. to 12 ft. above the ground, the injury may, therefore, have been caused either by bank-voles or by squirrels, the voles climbing by means of the little branches. But the voles do their damage mostly during winter, whereas the peeling and ringing of trees by squirrels mainly takes place in spring and summer. Here again, however, the incisor-marks left by squirrels (though often very indefinite, even under a strong pocket-lens, until the specimens have become old and dry) are much larger and wider apart, and are more regularly perpendicular than those made by the bankvole. And the marks generally extend from about 6 in. to 8 in. or 10 in. above some horizontal branch, where the squirrel seats himself conveniently and proceeds to gnaw away the soft bark and the cambium nearly or entirely around the stem, in which latter case the top of the tree dies off above the girdled ring (see also p. 40).

1. Squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris), when numerous, can do very serious damage to pole- and young tree-woods of Scots Pine, Larch, and other Conifers. They feed on many kinds of tree-seeds, especially acorns, horse-chestnuts, hazel- and beech-nuts, and also pick cones to pieces to get the seeds of conifers. They often eat the cotyledons of young seedling Beech, and root up young Oak seedlings from the ground. They also devour the terminal and the flowering-buds of Conifers, and sometimes do very severe damage to conifer plantations by biting off the top-shoots and trying to eat the buds, and by gnawing the bark in large patches (Fig. 100 d, p. 17).

The two old parent Douglas Firs at Scone have to be specially boarded round with a close wooden paling about 6 ft. high, capped with bent zinc, to prevent squirrels climbing over and getting to the trees. Before this was done, they destroyed all the cones before these could ripen. At Scone they also devour enormous numbers of acorns, beechnuts, &c.

Squirrels are particularly fond of the flowering-buds of all Conifers, but especially of Spruce. From about the end of January till the middle of March they bite off the thin twigs on which these are situated, eat out the buds, and then let the sprays drop to the ground. Such cast sprays about 3 to 4 in. long are often found lying in large numbers under old Spruce-trees. They also devour great numbers of flowering-buds of Oak, Maple, Sycamore, and Beech. Where squirrels are numerous, seed-production is therefore poor.

Squirrels also in spring and early summer (May to July) peel the soft sappy bark from 10- or 12-, to 30- or 40-year-old Conifers, and to a much less extent also from broad-leaved trees. Besides biting off small patches of rind or gnawing a spiral screw going three to five times round the stem, they often completely girdle the crowns of older trees while sucking or licking the sap. And when stems are girdled, the crown above that of course dies and gets broken off in a gale. Sometimes Scots Pine plantations of about twelve y years old are badly ringed, 4 to 5 ft. being stripped of bark.