constructed for the protection of the farm or for dividing the fields.
There are four kinds of such barriers: natural, dead wood, military
and masonry. The first is the natural fence of live hedge, consisting
of planted shrubs or thorns, and, as it has roots, runs no risk from
the flaming torch of the passing traveller who may be inclined to
mischief. The second kind is built of the wood of the country, but
is not alive. It is made either of palings placed close together and
wattled with twigs, or posts placed at some distance apart and pierced
to receive the ends of rails, which are generally built two or three
to the panel, or else of trunks of trees laid on the ground and joined
in line. The third, or military fence, consists of a ditch and a
mound: but such a ditch should be so constructed to collect all the
rain water, or it should be graded to drain the surface water off the
farm. The mound is best when constructed close adjoining the ditch, or
else it should be steep so that it will be difficult to scale. It is
customary to construct this kind of fence along the public roads or
along streams. In the district of Crustumeria one can see in many
places along the via Salaria ditches and mounds constructed as dikes
against damage by the river (Tiber).[70] Mounds are some times built
without ditches and are called walls, as in the country around Reate.
The fourth and last kind of fence is of built up masonry. There are
usually four varieties: those of cut stone, as in the country around
Tusculum; those of burned brick, as in Gaul; those of unburned brick
as in the Sabine country; those of gravel concrete,[71] as in Spain and
about Tarentum."

_b. Monuments_

XV. Lacking fences, the more discreet establish the boundaries of
their property, or of their sowings, by blazed trees, and so prevent
neighbourhood quarrels and lawing about corners. Some plant pines
around their boundaries, as my wife did on her Sabine farm, or
cypresses, as I have on my property on Vesuvius.[72] Others plant elms,
as many have done in the district of Crustumeria: indeed, for planting
in plains where it flourishes there is no tree which can be set out
with such satisfaction or with more profit than the elm, for it
supports the vine and so fills many a basket with grapes, yields
its leaves to be a most agreeable forage for flocks and herds, and
supplies rails for fences and wood for hearth and oven.

"And now," said Scrofa, "I have expounde