Fences, in Agriculture, serve in general the threefold purpose of inclosing animals on pasture-grounds, of protecting land from straying animals, and of affording shelter from cold winds. In countries where wood or stones are scarce, and more especially where the land has been long settled, hedges formed of various kinds of plants are common. These, when grown upon good soil, and when well kept and managed, give a clothed and picturesque appearance to the landscape. The hawthorn or white-thorn is the favourite hedge-plant in Britain. See HEDGES.
Stone walls, when well constructed, form the best fences. The form and mode of building varies with the nature and quality of the stones. In Aberdeenshire the walls or dykes surrounding the fields are constructed of granite boulders that are found strewn over the surface of the country. The Silurian of the southern counties of Scotland supplies durable but irregularly shaped whinstone, which forms a lasting but rough fence.
In new countries, where wood is abundant, the fences are all of this material. The snake-fence, named from its zigzag form, is made by merely laying trees above each other, in such a manner that their ends overlap and cross, and require no additional fixing. As wood becomes more valuable, it is made into posts and rails. The posts are driven into the ground from two to three yards apart, and from four to five rails are nailed across, according to the purpose it is meant to serve. The stob and rafter fence is made by driving the posts in the ground at a distance of from three to four inches apart, and binding the whole by a rafter or rail nailed across the top. This is one of the strongest of wooden fences, but requires more material than the other. In America split rails, roughly sharpened at either end, and let into wide openings cut in the posts, are in common use.
Iron or wire fencing has come much into use of late. Vast stretches of waste land in Britain, as well as pastures in Australia, have been inclosed by means of wire-fencing. Strong wires are stretched on straining-posts firmly secured in the ground 200 yards apart. Intermediate or lighter posts—standards for support, or hangers in the hollows to keep down the wires, as the case may be—are put in at from two to three yards' distance. After the wires are fully stretched they are fixed to the smaller posts; when of wood, by means of staples, or threaded through, when of iron. Barbed wire is now extensively used in fencing cattle, both in Britain and elsewhere. The only danger of serious injury from the use of barbed wire is when an animal runs close to and in the line of the fence; a horse can thus saw the skin and flesh through, and lay the shoulder-joint open in a few seconds. The corrimony wire-fence is an elegant and inexpensive form, in which the standards are placed 1 rod apart, and the wires are kept in their position by being tied with cross wires at distances of 3 yards apart.
In Scotland the landlord is held bound to put the fences on the farm in due repair on the entry of the tenant, independently of any stipulation in the lease; whilst both in England and Scotland the tenant must maintain the fences and leave them, with the exception of ordinary tear and wear, in the state in which they were given over to him. A tenant who erects a temporary fence (e.g. a wire-fence), can, unless he makes a special agreement to the contrary, remove the same as a temporary fitting, provided the ground on which it stood is left in the original natural condition.