92 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. 



enough to repel all animals likely to injure the crops, while 

 it must be durable, for fence repairs are costly, and must 

 not be too expensive, and present as little resistance to wind 

 and snow as is compatible with strength. The stone wall 

 meets these conditions but imperfectly, and the wooden field 

 fence perhaps even less so. If sufficiently staunch to defy 

 assaults, it is exposed to harm from high winds ; it decays 

 early ; it is always in peril from fire ; and it is not entirely 

 repellent, for cattle make friends with it at all points and 

 know its weak places. 



The barb wire seems free from all these objections, and is 

 apparently much cheaper, costing, with posts and two wires, 

 which will turn cattle, less than fifty cents a rod ; and with 

 posts and four wires, which will turn sheep and dogs, less 

 than seventy-five cents per rod. A very great advantage is, 

 that it can be easily secured to trees, and in that Avay be 

 made to enclose a wood lot or an orchard, or temporarily to 

 fence off* part of an orchard, as is often desirable. If posts 

 are used, they can be set much further apart than ordinary 

 fence posts, and the wire up from the ground allows a 

 scythe to be swung under the whole length, .so that no weeds 

 need be left at mowins;. 



As petroleum came to us when the vast products of the 

 whale fishery failed to give us light, and as the coal beds 

 yielded up their treasures for fuel when our woodlands were 

 being stripped, so comes this new product for our fencing 

 when advanced agricultural economy finds wood and stone 

 inefficient. The only objection to the use of barb-wire 

 fencing is the danger of injury from animals running against 

 it, or jumping on it, and this does not seem to exist to any 

 great extent. Horned cattle almost instinctively avoid it. 

 Sheep are never hurt, and dogs must have great temptation 

 to induce them to pass a four-strand barb fence. Instances 

 have occurred where horses, and especially colts, have been 

 cut, but in most cases it was the fault or thoughtlessness of 

 the owner in turning his animals loose without acquainting 

 them with the character of the obstruction. If a horse is 

 led up to a barb fence and made to feel that a close approach 

 to it will be met with a prick, he will give it a clear berth ; 

 the sight of animals is much more acute than that of man, 



