2236. Rails or fences, for parks and garden-scenery, are, as to lines, similarly characterised as gates; and, like gates, fences are of many species, from the rudest barriers without nails or iron-work (fig. 670.), to the numerous sorts of iron and wire barriers. Hurdles, whether of wood or iron, are the most convenient description of temporary fences. They are manufactured of various forms and dimensions, so as to prove, as to height, and openings between the rails, rods, or wires, barriers to hares, sheep, cattle, or deer. Where iron fences are considered as permanent fixtures, those parts which are inserted in the ground should be of cast iron, as resisting oxidation much better than the wrought material. They ought, at the same time, to be covered with tar, pitch, or pyroligneous acid, or, whilst hot, painted over with oil. For interior fences, poles or laths may be formed into trellis-work of different kinds; preserving the bark of the former, and pitching or charring the ends inserted in the earth. A neat low garden fence, or border, and one which will last a long time, may be made of the stems of young larch trees (fig. 671.).
