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ON 1NCI.0S1NO LAND

downwards and backwards. On this banklet, the youngthorn plants are laid in a regular row, at regular distances offour or five inches between the plants, their pruned or shor-tened stems just peeping out from the face of the begundike. The rest of the manured surface earth of the ditchis then dug out, and built into the dike, over the youngplants, and behind their roots ; after which, the subsoil of theditch is dug out, with which the dike is completed. The or-dinary dimensions of this fence ditch are four or five feet wideat the top, by two feet and a half deep in the former case, orthree feet deep in the latter, and a foot or nine inches wideat the bottom, the sides having a regular slope or talus. Bythis mode of construction, the dike will occupy about five orsix feet in breadth at its foundation, by three or three and ahalf feet high.

In this construction, the young hedge is guarded on oneside by the ditch, and on the other by the mound or clap-dike, with the addition either of a rail, or a dead hedge ofcut thorns, on the top of the mound. Sometimes the badeof the mound is fenced by what is called a face-dike, eitherbuilt entirely of dry stone, or of alternate layers of stones andsods. Either of these forms an immediate fence on that side,which will last with proper attention, and occasional repairs,until the young thorns on the other side become fencible.On strong clay soils, the face-dike is often made entirely ofsod, without stones. When built with stone, the face dikewill be much improved as a fence, by having a raggled orGalloway coping of dry stones.

In some instances, the hedge side of the mound is facedup with dry stones, as high as the banklet on which thethorns are laid in the ordinary mode of construction, theface-dike being backed up with surface manured soil, as a bedfor the thorns. The young thorns are then laid at properdistances, of six or eight inches, the points of their stemsprojecting even with the face of the wall or face-dike. This