AGRICULTURAL MECHANICS AND RURAL ECONOMY. 127 



amendment of the law of the New England States generally, we apprehend, is necessary. 

 Owners are not now obliged to fence against cattle in the highways, but persons driving or 

 suffering their cattle to run loose in the road are bound to see that they do no injury. All 

 that is needed is, that public opinion, which rules every thing else in our country, should be 

 set right on this subject. As to shelter from the wind and cold, we apprehend that a rail 

 fence or a stone wall round a field affords but very little. For gardens and fields, even in 

 exposed positions, shelter is often necessary, and fences may sometimes be profitably con- 

 structed with this view. Generally, however, a judicious planting of belts of pine or hem- 

 lock-trees, on the northerly and westerly sides of our lots, will be found far more effectual 

 and economical than any thing else, except for very small enclosures. 



We see many subdivisions of farms which seem to us worse than useless. Fields are often 

 divided into two, three, five or ten-acre lots, which had much better remain in one. This is 

 often done for convenience in fall feeding, so that cattle may be turned into the fields before 

 the crops are off in the fall. Our answer to this is, that this whole system of fall feeding on 

 fields is an error. We believe that it is a fair estimate that a good mowing field will, with- 

 out being fed at all, keep in grass better for ten years than it will five, if annually fed closely 

 late in autumn. Soft lands are almost ruined by the treading of cattle, and the short bul- 

 bous roots of the herds-grass are pulled up and destroyed by the feeding of neat cattle that 

 are not provided by nature with teeth enough to cut the grass evenly. It is better economy 

 to feed our cattle at the barn in the autumn, than to allow them thus to injure the crops of 

 future years. We would advise farmers, therefore, rather to remove the division fence which 

 they already have in their fields, to escape the temptation to do what they know to be wrong, 

 than to construct others for convenience in feeding their cattle in their mowing fields. If a 

 fair estimate could be made of the actual cost of maintaining our unnecessary fences, and of 

 the waste of valuable wood and timber used about them, so that each farmer should know 

 the amount of his tax annually for this object, we think a great change for the better would 

 soon occur. — Neiv England Farmer. 



Improved Wire Fences. 



John Nesmyth, of Lowell, Mass., has recently invented and patented a machine for the 

 manufacture of wire fencing, adapted for farm or ornamental purposes. 



This fence consists of a strong netting, woven by the machine, varnished with asphaltum 

 blacking, coated with coal-tar, painted or galvanized, rolled up in portable rolls, from thirty 

 to sixty rods in length, and sold to consumers at from sixty cents to $1.50 per rod — the price 

 varying according to the height of the fence, the size of the mesh, (or squares,) and the num- 

 ber of the wire. It can be readily set up by any ordinary farmer, and no nails are necessary, 

 but the netting is fastened by wire or staples to posts of wood, iron, or stone, placed from 

 eight to fifteen feet apart, and the edge of the netting is to be kept on a level from one termi- 

 nus to another. When properly set, it is strong enough to " hold" an ox, and too close to be 

 penetrated by a chicken. It offers so little resistance to wind and tide, that no gale can blow 

 it down, or flood wash it away. If fastened to posts, set upon feet instead of being set in the 

 ground, this fence may be laid flat on the land, or entirely removed on the approach of the 

 flood-season in districts subject to floods, and set up again as good as ever when the flood has 

 subsided. It excludes none of the rays of the sun ; it harbors no weeds or vei-min ; it covers 

 none of the soil, like hedges and walls, and the peculiar mode of its texture enables it to un- 

 dergo, without the slightest injury, that alternate expansion and contraction to which all me- 

 tallic substances are subjected by the changes of temperature incident to the atmosphere. 



Mr. R. S. Fay, of Massachusetts, in a communication to The New England Farmer, states 

 that he has used this fence for folding sheep at night on land that he wished to manure, shift- 

 ing once or more every week, and has found it answer the purpose perfectly. 



Mr. F. further says: "I have had some iron rods made with a double foot, which I drive 

 into the ground and attach the fence to it either by copper wire or stout twine. A man and a 

 boy will enclose a quarter of an acre in less than an hour, having these posts, which should be 

 set not more than a rod apart. When I change the fence to a new spot, I unfasten it from the 

 posts, throw it down, begin at one end, and roll it up as you would a carpet. And so in re- 



