A drive along many of the older
roads in Suffolk County on Long Island reveals large trees whose
trunks grew upward from the ground for two or three feet, then
horizontally and finally high into the air. The explanation of the
purpose of these right angled tree trunks is that they are the
remains of living fences, which surrounded cultivated fields and
pasture lands. Today these tree trunks attract attention because of
their peculiar shape and historic associations. When they all gone
the way of the old well sweeps and water wheels they will never be
replaced. They are the remains of the early years
in the settlement of long Island.
A hedge fence on Long Island has
always been associated with a ditch and mound. When a tract of wood
was cleared, a border of trees a rod or two wide was left around the
outside of the clearing and through it was dug a ditch two or three
feet wide and deep, and the dirt was thrown up alongside in a mound.
To dig four rods of ditch was a standard day's work for a laborer,
for which he received fifty cents.
The phrase," the face of the ditch " is
often seen in old deeds in the description of property which meant
the line between the mound of dirt and the ditch itself. It is
usually possible for a surveyor to determine at what point the "face"
of the ditch ran.
After the ditch had been dug there still remained
the task of felling the trees length wise of the ditch so that the
mound would be topped with a fence of living trees. This process was called
"lopping"
and the man who did the cutting had a boy assistant who climbed the
tree and bent it over, so that the tree would fall in the right
direction and with the least amount of cutting.
The "lopped" tree which had been only
partly cut off would continue to grow and after several years its
larger upright branches would become trees which would again be
lopped. In this manner of repeated loppings a fence would be
maintained for a century or more until the tree grew to be three or
four feet in diameter and the upright sprouts developed into large
trees still attached to the original trunk.
This kind of fence was common
throughout Long island during the early years of its settlement
from around 1650 and George Washington made entries in his diary
about them on his visit to Long Island in 1790, but he wrote that in
his opinion they were not efficient because they were not hog tight."
The settlers considered them very efficient in preventing cattle
and sheep from straying.
There are still beautiful specimens of the
old lopped tree to be seen on many of the back roads in Suffolk
County and some of the best of these are located north of Pine Lake
in Middle Island, which are probably over two hundred years old.