h them. Wattles interlaced on
stakes make first-rate protection, but they can only be used with
economy when the supply of them is close handy.

The fence most commonly seen on new farms, and that may fairly be termed
the pioneer's mainstay, is a simple one of stakes. This is the kind we
went in for, as we had the material for it in any quantity upon our own
land.

The stakes are the trunks of young trees, either whole or split. They
are about four inches diameter at the thickest end, and are set up at
three or four inches apart. The stakes are connected by one or more
battens nailed along them, or by wires. They are cut eight or nine feet
in length, so as to allow of a good six feet above ground when set up.
Red, black, and white birch are used, also red and white ti-tree, the
last variety being most esteemed, as it is more durable. A stake-fence
ought to be proof against both pigs and cattle, and is reckoned to be
good for seven years; if of white ti-tree it will last ten or twelve
years. It will cost, in labour, from eight shillings a chain and
upwards, according to the distance the cut stakes have to be moved.

Our work in fencing was as follows. The first clearing we set about
enclosing was on the side of a range, and included forty or fifty acres.
If this were a square there would be some eighty chains or a mile of
fencing required to enclose it. Practically, there were nearer a
hundred chains of boundary. Each chain required from a hundred to a
hundred and thirty stakes. This is about the number that one of us could
cut in the day, and bring out of the adjoining bush on to the line. For
we got our material in the standing bush close to the clearing, working
along the edge of the woods, and seldom having to go further than five
chains away from the edge of the clearing to find suitable trees.

Two or three men were engaged in pointing the stakes, and dumping and
malleting them into the ground. Sometimes they would put up four or five
chains in the day, sometimes only one; it depended on the nature of the
ground. When the weather was wet, and the ground soft, the work was
naturally lighter. After the stakes were set up we had to batten them
together. We bought several boatloads of battens--rough outside boards
split up, and the like--for next to nothing, at the Wairoa saw-mills,
and got them down to our place. Then we had to hump them up to the
ground; no light work, for a load had to be carried often nearly a m