34 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



FOR DIYISIOX FENCES 



I -would use only the small posts, and for cow pastures only two wires without 

 the strip as soon as the cattle become accustomed to it, makinsj a fence all 

 complete for not more than thirty cents per rod. To take up this fence the 

 staples are pulled out, and the wire rolled up on a reel. 



It will not hold young pigs, even if the wires are four inches apart and the 

 posts set every eight feet; neither will any ordinary hedge. 



Whether we use boards or wire, I believe either will prove cheaper and better 

 in the end than any hedge we have as yet. 



L. B. Potter, Lansing. — A trip across Illinois about the latitude of Gales- 

 burg, will reveal to any man one side of the hedge question, and if he has any 

 appreciation of elements which detract from the beauty of a country, he will 

 take exceptions to the patched hedges. I enjoy a view of a nice farm hedge as 

 well as any one, but when it comea to practically securing such an one in our 

 latitude, there are many things in the way, to such an extent that a farmer 

 will not succeed in getting anything of value. 



Mr. Sturgis. — I can but agree with the gentleman, from the experience of a 

 trip taken last season through the west, as far as osage orange is concerned. All 

 the hedges that I saw through northern Illinois, were simply eye-sores on the face 

 of the country ; but not so through southern Illinois, where this hedge plant 

 was more at home. There I saw as beautiful lines of hedge as I ever expect to 

 behold, and still, with the most perfect of them I found fault, as a visitor of 

 the country, for their height obstructed the view and shut off portions of the 

 country. I think there is no doubt but with proper plants, and the required 

 attention, hedges may be made even in this country, which if plashed will 

 make tight fences; but for all this I very much question if it is advisable for 

 us to grow them. 



Mr. Selover, Coldwater. — Perhaps a bit of my experience may have as much 

 influence in the way of argument as an opinion. Nine years ago I started an 

 osage fence. I took the seed in the spring of the year, scalded and planted 

 it, mulched the plants and gave them the best care I could without knowing 

 anything of the business. I have a hedge now of considerable length, that 

 will satisfy the most critical of these gentlemen I think, and perhaps the sec- 

 retary will certif}^ as he has already, that my hedge is a success. This expe- 

 rience has been valuable to me. I could do better now in making a hedge 

 than before. I have 250 rods of this fence. It is not all pig tight, but per- 

 fectly answers my purpose. From the record of various thermometers given 

 here, I must admit that it has been a good deal colder in Branch county than 

 they say it has been away up north several hundred miles toward the pole — and 

 these statements somehow do not seem to tally with the ideas of some of the 

 gentlemen about the hardiness of the osage plant, but with all our cold 

 weather I am satisGed we can successfully grow osage orange hedges in Branch 

 countv. 



W. A. Itowe. — No matter hov; much care we may give the osage orange 

 hedge, the fact stares us in the face that at any time we may have a severe 

 winter when ])ortions of it will be frozen to the ground. 



E. LeValley. — I have had a long experience in Ionia county, and have given 

 osage orange hedge a fair trial and found it wanting. It can not be depended 

 on at all. 1 would substitute for it (and have adopted the plan myself), the 



