Amongst the Middle Country Public Library’s many historical documents and artifacts are a few that explain just how far the area has come from its pastoral roots. The picture and story below come courtesy of a collaborative effort among the library staff.
To grow a fence — If this seems like an impossible idea, think again.
If you lived on Long Island during the late 18th century and you needed an enclosure for your livestock or wanted to create a boundary line, you’d most likely grow a fence instead of purchasing one.
Today we’d take a drive over to the local home improvement store to buy the posts and other supplies to erect a fence, or perhaps we would hire a contractor to take care of the project.
Whichever way we choose to install a fence nowadays, we have goods and services at our disposal to get the job done.
Take a look at these photos and read on to learn how our ancestors went about the same task, using materials at hand — trees or young saplings already growing in the proper locations.
As local historian Thomas Bayles wrote in his 1965 booklet, “Old Lopped Tree Fences,” live trees were partially cut with their tops bent over mounds of previously piled soil, in a technique known as “lopping.”
The bent section of the tree would begin to sprout roots and continue to grow. After several years the larger upright branches would become new trees and the “lopping” process would be repeated again. According to Thomas Bayles, these living fences could be maintained for a century or more, with the original offshoots developing into large trees, still attached to the original trunk.
One of the most fascinating facts about the lopped tree fences is that George Washington took note of them on his 1790 visit to Long Island, even writing several entries about them in his diary.
Lopped fences were very popular in our area at the time, and President Washington was quite intrigued by them.
However, he did note that they were not “hog tight,” meaning that the homesteaders’ pigs could get around or under the fences. Nonetheless, the settlers of the time favored these fences because their horses and cattle were safely contained within their borders.
Landowners learned that the fences could be reinforced by weaving in vines or adding other plants like saplings and woody shrubs along existing lopped tree fences to fill in gaps and provide a more secure barrier.
Over time, most of these trees have been removed, but some have been reported to be standing on Long Island as late as 1965.
A few may be standing yet. Next time you are driving or cycling down an old country lane or exploring a wooded area, see if you can spy a tree which looks as if it may have been coaxed into growing in this special way, and you’ll see a piece of our living local history.
If you locate a lopped tree and would like to let us know, please e-mail Middle Country Public Library’s Local History Team at [email protected].
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