08 THE FARMER'S AND 



the success of such a plan, the United States are deeply 

 interested ; for it must add millions of dollars to the 

 treasury, besides enhancing the value of land now likely 

 to remain a long time without improvement, and saving 

 from destruction the vast quantities of timber which the 

 inclosure of the prairie in the ordinary mode of fencing 

 would require. This plan, having been made the sub- 

 ject of great attention, and found to answer the purpose, 

 can be safely recommended. The machinery to accom- 

 plish all this as described will not exceed 810, and may 

 be constructed by ordinary workmen. Drawings of the 

 plough and scraper, and the machinery of its construction, 

 with a description in full of the manner of making the 

 fence, will be found in Document No. 13. A model, also, 

 of full size, of both the fence as standing and the various 

 machinery, may be seen at the patent-office. A letter 

 from a gentleman at the West, (see Document No. 14,) 

 fully sustains the above opinion of its practicability. 



RAIL FENCE. 



In many parts of the country, where rocks are not 

 plenty, farmers are obliged to make wooden fences, and 

 the time of cutting them is important. Posts, in particu- 

 lar, in some kinds of soil, are very expensive, as they 

 require to be renewed once in four or five years. In 

 clayey ground, they will stand a dozen years, and in wet 

 meadows fifty. When posts are used, they should never 

 be put in the ground in a green state, notwithstanding 

 they will last longest in wet ground. Constant wet from 

 water will not hurt them, but the fermentation of the 

 natural sap in the wood is injurious. When posts with 

 three rails are wanted, it is good economy to purchase or 

 make them a foot longer than the common length, so as 



