66 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Question. What would they be used for? 



Mr. Slade. For bean-poles. 



The Chairman. All the small white birches in my neigh- 

 borhood are bought up by men who send them to Boston, 

 where they are used for hoops to bind boxes. There are 

 three or four places in my vicinity where birches are raised, 

 which are sold for some six or eight dollars a cord, and the 

 bark is taken off to make powder of. 



Mr. Clark. It is well known that Concord has a 

 monopoly of the powder-manufacture. 



The Chairman. Another question has been handed in : 

 What is the most convenient and economical method of 

 hurdling, or confining, sheep upon cultivated land? It is 

 said that Mr. Bowditch can answer that question. 



Mr. E. F. Bowditch (of Framingham). I am sorry to 

 say that I cannot answer it as accurately as I would like to, 

 because I have only tried hurdling sheep one year. I had 

 some old worn-out land that I wanted to renovate without 

 ploughing, and I hurdled my sheep on it, beginning on the 

 1st of July. For a portable fence I merely took fence- 

 pickets four feet long, and nailed them on to two-by-three 

 spruce joist sixteen feet long. In the end of each joist I 

 bored a little hole, and fastened it to another. For this 

 purpose you can use a bolt, or a five-inch spike, or any thing 

 of that sort. I extended my fence in a zigzag shape. This 

 gives strength to the fence, so the sheep Avill not knock it 

 over, nor the wind blow it down. That cost me, both the 

 material and making, just a dollar a rod. I hurdled my 

 sheep on about a sixteenth of an acre a da}^ and fed them a 

 little corn daily by way of top-dressing the land. I moved 

 the hurdle two or thi-ee times a day, and, when I went over 

 the land with them the second time, I had a great deal 

 more feed than when I went over it the first time. 



Question. How many sheep did you have? 



Mr. Bowditch. I had fifty. 



Question. How much land did you go over? 



Mr. Bowditch. I should say about one-sixteenth of an 

 acre a day ; possibly a little more. After I had been over it 

 the second time, I could see a great improvement in the 

 land ; and my belief is, I have renovated that land very 

 cheaply. The result is to be ascertained next year. If this 



