[ Correspoiide/ils sending letters signed icith initials or fictitious 7iames are 

 requested to e?iclose their name and address, as otherwise their communications 

 cannot he inserted. ] 



PRESEPtVING WOOD POSTS. 



SiR^ — I am glad to see that the correspondence on the above subject is 

 continued in a friendly and profitable manner. We must all thank Mr. 

 Baxter for his further explanations of his system of renovating old 

 fences. His turf and soil must be a great deal firmer than the most of 

 Roxburghshire, as we find paling fences require frequent stays, or 

 " ranees " to keep them in their proper position for any length of time, 

 especially where cattle have a tendency to rub or reach over in trying to 

 get at corn or any herbage on the other side of the fence. 



While alluding to Mr. Baxter's letter I cannot pass over his remark, 

 " We can't afford larch here." It is my opinion that there is no cheaper 

 wood for fence posts than larch, and rails should also be of larch where 

 the fence is required to stand permanently. Last spring we replaced a 

 larch pahng, the bars of which had lasted forty-eight years ; many of 

 them were fresh, and used for repairing in hedges. Stobs had been 

 added year by year, till parts of the fence looked like an upright one. 

 These bars had been sawn from trees from three to five inches diameter. 

 I have not yet been able to determine what is the best way of preparing 

 wood for posts. We have men of great experience telling us that felling iu 

 winter, charring, tarring, creosoting, and drying, is the only way to preserve 

 timber. In a wire fence here part of the posts were peeled in summer, 

 sawn, dried in the open air, and charred ; others were peeled in winter, 

 sawn, and placed in the fence alternately, and the whole painted with 

 coal tar above the ground level. The fence is at one end on a clay, and 

 at the other a gravelly soil. I find some of each decayed, and some 

 quite strong. 



I should like to know the size of Mr. Baxter's iron pi'ongs ; the saving 

 in the price of material is a very small one, and as a useful experiment 

 I would recommend him to try a larch stob against an oak one prepared 

 in the same way, keeping in mind that the oak used shall be of the same 

 value per cubic foot as the larch. M. R. 



