Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/344

 woods and fields, the grape, the morning-glory, the honeysuckle and the Virginia creeper, which, with their vernal or autumnal leaves and blossoms, decorated its ugliness with their beauty.

Not all of the fences to be found in Virginia in the seventeenth century were erected in a zigzag shape. Fitzhugh mentions in one of his letters, that his orchard was protected by an enclosure of locust wood; this was doubtless a straight fence constructed of panels, the ends of which were inserted in posts standing at regular intervals. The durability of locust was already recognized. Fitzhugh declared that a fence of this material would last almost for the same length of time as a brick wall. There were also brush fences, which were chiefly used for the protection of the maize and wheat fields, but which very frequently failed to accomplish that purpose.

The year 1684 was a memorable one in the history of Virginia, as that in which a separate province was formed of its northern parts.