Editors Box 587 



LAPtCH FENCING POSTS. 



Sir, — In seeking to iucrcase the amount of information upon the 

 durability of larch posts when properly cared for, I may mention the 

 following case as having been duly witnessed by the writer :— A farmer 

 ]nirchased several thousand larch stobs, which were to be all squared to 

 three and a half inches. He got them home in autumn, and he at once 

 shipped off any bark left upon them, carefully placed them in a dry and 

 airy shed, open at one end and front. In April he lit a fire in fi'ont of the 

 shed, and then charred eighteen inches of the point of all the stobs in the 

 front row of piles, these being the nearest to hand and best seasoned. A 

 large boiler full of coal tar was boiling at one end of the fire, into which 

 he steeped the charred ends for a few minutes, afterwards carefully 

 handling them till dry, when they were immediately despatched to their 

 destination, and driven in line of fence for carrying wires. After being 

 twenty years in use not one out of twenty has been replaced, and conse- 

 quently (except the five per cent, mentioned), have, as yet, no need of Mr. 

 Baxter's novel iron-pronged supports. 



Semper pro Amico. 



