Editors Box. 655 



the estate of Cappanuiacke, distant five Irisli miles (nearly eight British) 

 from a railway station. I have just sold from off 22 Irish acres (over 

 34 acres imperial) 2,241 tons weight of larch, 31 yeirs old at 15s. per ton. 

 The highest rent for arable land in the neighbourhood is only 7s. 6d. per Irish 

 acre. Taking these figures into consideration, the question will suggest itself, 

 "Will the same area of ground produce the same quantity of either silver fir or 

 Douglasii, and will they in the same time realize the same price ? In this 

 country larch should never occupy the ground longer than from 30 to 4 

 years, unless under very favourable circumstances. By a regular course of 

 rotation in cropping, no tree will compare with larch, nor realize within a 

 moiety of its value. I strongly recommend that in all new plantations the 

 great preponderance be larch, and in a majority of cases exclusively larch. 

 Being deciduous, the ground in winter receives its due quota of moisture, 

 which in a measure restores fertility and admits of a greater number of 

 trees being accommodated on the acre. To show my appreciation of larch^ 

 I may state that I am planting upward of 400 acres this season, and four- 

 fifths of the plants are larch. 



BaUinacourte, Tii)i)er(mj. D. Sym Scott. 



lEOX PRONGS FOR FENCING. 



Sir, — From an extensive experience in the erection and keeping in 

 repair of various kinds of wooden, wire, and continuous bar fencing, I must 

 say Mr. Baxter's iron prong is the most temporary support (intended to 

 serve for ten years) I have ever seen adopted, seeing, as must be apparent 

 to all, that the prong is only of a weak construction, being a single prong, 

 and if used as shown in Messrs. Main and Co.'s sketch, has no staying 

 power whatever. 



The expense of this fence is greater than a good iron and wire one, if the 

 stobs are worth sevenpence each, placed at three feet apart, and the price of 

 five paling rails, and cost of erection are added, together with the prongs, 

 even although the latter are reckoned to last for 100 years. For we must 

 also, when reckoning the value of the iron and wire fence, expect the 

 standards to last as long as the prongs would do. Even though a penny 

 per yard is saved by adopting wood for fences instead of the iron and wire, 

 in the course of fifteen years after erection the iron and wire would be the 

 cheaper fence of the two by far. 



However, had the double prong been adopted, we should have an article 

 of some service. 



Wooden fences are a thing of the past, and inferior beech and spruce could 

 be sold to greater advantage than used for fencing purposes, while iron and 

 wire, or continuous bar fencing, would be by far the cheapest in the end — 

 either of which every proprietor of land should erect when the fence is to 

 be a permanent one. I have seen an excellent iron and wire fence erected 

 for Is. 7d. per yard, where the cartage was performed by the proprietor ; 

 and a very substantial continuous bar fence for 2s. lid. per yard, and from 



