198 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



according to the size of the wire. Better than a spring fastened 

 upon the anchor posts for regulating the wires, is a straining post, 

 described by S. Edwards Todd, an intelligent agricultural writer, 

 and a practical farmer, in his excellent "Treatise on Fences."* 

 His description follows : 



" Set the straining posts three and a half or four feet deep ; they 

 should be made of good timber, not less in size than three inches 

 by six square, with two-inch auger holes in one of them, and holes 

 two inches square in the other. In order to have the holes corres- 

 pond exactly with each other, the square holes should be made 

 before the post is set, and after they are set, the auger can be run 

 through the square holes, in order to bore those in the opposite 

 post. These posts should be set at least three inches apart. The 

 strainers * * should be made of the most firm and tenacious wood, 

 about one foot in length, with four inches of one end four-square, 

 and the remainder turned round. The wires are put in a small hole 

 through these strainers and wound up with a wooden wrench, three 

 feet long, fitted to the square end of the strainers. When the wires 

 are sufFiciently tight, let the strainer be driven into the square hole 

 and the wrench taken off". When a wire is to be loosened, drive 

 the strainer a part of the way out, and let it unwind." 



It may be an object for farmers to practice steeping or soaking 

 posts for fence, especially if wood is used which is somewhat liable 

 to decay, such as maple, &c. It is contended that wood soaked in 

 a solution of sulphate of copper, becomes more firm, and will con- 

 sequently last much longer on this account. Even stakes of the 

 white birch, {Betula Alba,) subjected to this treatment, have been 

 known to last in the ground for seven or eight years. I am not 

 aware that any of our farmers have tried this plan. 



Much has been said upon the question of fence or no fence, in 

 the soiling system, but we are not yet prepared to dispense with 

 our fences altogether, yet I am not prepared to say but what it 

 would be best for farmers to work gradually into this method of 

 farming, as there arc many advantages resulting from it, not the 

 least of which is the immense saving of fencing. Hon. Josiah 

 QuiNCY f remarks that this system not only saves the material used 

 for fences, the labor of erecting tliom, the cost of keeping in repair, 

 but it also saves the land occupied by fences, together with the 



♦Transactions New York State Agricultural Society for 1858, Vol. XVIII, Page 447. 

 t Essays on the Si.iling of Cattle, Illustrated from Experience, &c., by Josiau 

 QuiNCY, Boston, 1859. 



