SECRETARY'S REPORT. 197 



It splits easily and forms excellent rails. Altliough a light wood 

 when seasoned, being easily handled, it is a durable and smart 

 timber. The white poplar has a bark somewhat rough, and the 

 wood is hard and close, spliting with considerable difficulty. It is 

 ■usually a week later in leaving out than the other variety. 



Stone forms an excellent material for fence, and is without doubt 

 the most efficient and durable that can be built. Upon land of a 

 clayey loam, it is liable to tumble down by the action of frost, but 

 if properly constructed, this liability may be overcome. There is 

 in the county much stone wall laid in a cobbling way, with perhaps 

 a top-rider of ash or maple, but this proves to be a poor and unsub- 

 stantial fence. Stone wall should be so laid that it will be perfectly 

 compact and solid, with no spaces or holes between the stones, and 

 also so constructed that each one will bind from face to face. It is 

 surprising that some farmers will clear their fields of stone and pnt 

 them into heaps, or piles, which are constantly an interference in 

 cultivation ; or even haul them into some remote corner, to become 

 a hedge of briars and foul weeds, when, with but little extra expense, 

 they can be made into a fence which will last during many gene- 

 rations. 



I cannot say what particular kind of fence is most common upon 

 farms in the county. We have the cedar post and rail fence, fence 

 constructed of poplar rails set in stakes and bunks of cedar, and 

 also considerable board fence, and stone wall. I have said that wire 

 fence is being somewhat extensively used at present, and in sections 

 where other durable materials are scarce^ it forms a permanent and 

 cheap fence, if the posts are made of iron or cedar. No. 9 wire 

 seems to be the preferable size for making fence intended as a 

 division of fields or pastures. Many farmers who have built wire 

 fence and been unsuccessful in so doing, have generally been igno- 

 rant of the proper way of making it, and of the fact that wire ex- 

 pands or contracts as the weather is warm or cold. It is true that 

 in a hot day wire will expand, while in a cold one it will contract ; 

 and those who have made considerable wire fence, estimate this 

 expansion and contraction in a continuous strand of fence twenty 

 rods long, to be from four to six inches. Posts for this fence should 

 be placed eight feet apart, the strands of wire six inches apart, five 

 strands high. If the anchor posts, or those at each end of a strand, 

 are set very firm, the wires will break in a cold day, unless a spring 

 or strainer is used to regulate the wire. This spring should be of 

 sufficient power to sustain a pressure of 800 pounds, more or less, 



