No. 2. 



Fences — Look to your JVeeds. 



65 



were carried by the father of Bevan Pearson, 

 Esq. of Mercer, an 1 grandfather of the Hon. 

 John Pearson, at present Senator from that 

 county, to his residence at Darby, near Phil- 

 adelphia. Thence it spread over the United 

 States. It has proved a blessing to millions 

 and has added millions to the wealth of the 

 nation. This poor solitary exile from the 

 Emerald Isle has done more to benefit man- 

 kind, than many a hero of a hundred battles. 

 Shall his name perish ! Or will the friends of 

 agricultural improvement and the lovers of 

 justice, of honest men and good potatoes, agree \ 

 to immortalize it by calling them hencetbrth' 

 GiLKiEs? — The Educator. 



There is scarcely any department of farm- 

 ing of more immediate consequence than that 

 of fencing ; and there is none that, as a 

 whole, is more neglected or badly managed. 

 If the proportion of crops that are annually 

 lost in this country, from the use of such 

 apologies for fences as are frequently seen, 

 could be correctly ascertained, and added to 

 the sum which must be deducted from the 

 value of the horses and cattle thus taught vi- 

 cious and unruly habits, and the whole pre- 

 sented at once to the eye of the farmer, or 

 landholder, it can scarcely be doubted he 

 would be surprised at the result, or that he 

 would at once awaken to the importsmce of 

 having good fences. 



In a paper in the New England Farmer a 

 few years since, Mr. Shurtleff estimated 

 the cost of several kinds of fences, (and they 

 were taken from his own experience) as fol- 

 lows : 



White cedar fence made of posts and rails, 

 five rails in height, three lengths to two rods 

 nearly, cost 91 cents a rod. 



White pine rails sawed two inches by 

 eight, and chesnut posts, four rails high, 

 three lengths to two rods nearly, cost 64 cents 

 a rod. In both these instances the cost was 

 exclusive of the setting. 



Good four and a half feet stone wall varied 

 from $1 to $2,50 the rod, accordmg to the 

 ease with which the stone could be procured, 

 and the manner in which it was laid, whe- 

 ther by trenching or otherwise. 



Hedge fence, made of Virginia thorn plants, 

 {Crataegus cordata,) set twenty-one to a rod, 

 cost at the end of the fourth year, including 

 planting, trimming, &c. 40 cents a ro 1 ; and 

 this agrees very well with the estimate made 

 by Mr. Kirk, of Brandywine, Delaware, who 

 has had more experience in the making hedge 

 fence than almost any other man in the Uni- 

 ted States. 



We have found hy experience that in mak- 

 ing fence of posts and rails, or posts for bars 



or gates, there is nothing gained by making 

 the posts too small. Perhaps there is no tim- 

 ber m which the dift'erence of durability be- 

 tween large and small posts is more striking 

 than in that of the common wliite cedar or 

 cypress of our swamps. Mr. Shurtleii' found 

 iiis cedar fence to last about fifteen years, the 

 posts rotting off in that time ; and perhaps 

 fifteen years may beset down as about the or- 

 dinary duration of a wood fence, let the method 

 of construction be what it may. This single 

 fact should cause tkrmers and land owners to 

 pause, and ask, where their fences are to 

 come from, when their present, and perhaps 

 already half decayed, worm fences are rotten 

 and gone ] We are convinced, that ere ma- 

 ny years, want of fence will be one of the 

 most serious evils the farmer will be called to 

 encounter. — Gen. Farmer. 



Look to yourWee{ls« 



There are few farms in the country, and 

 pity it is that this can be said with truth, on 

 which there are more or less weeds that do not 

 require close attention to prevent their seed- 

 ing, or otherwise spreading in the course of the 

 summer. There is the thistle, which should 

 be repeatedly mowed, if in pasture land, or 

 if among hoed crops, cut it with the hoe as 

 often as it makes its appearance. There is 

 the Johnswort, crowding out the valuable 

 grasses, poisoning .sheep, and giving horses 

 chapped noses and legs, if they are so un- 

 lucky as to be white ; be careful not to let this 

 go to seed. There is the sweet elder, that is 

 becoming far too common ; we do not re- 

 quire it for distillation or to color wuies, and 

 if we allow the seeds to ripen we are prepar- 

 ing tribulation for ourselves and neighbors. 

 There is the life everlasting, a worthless 

 intruder, that occupies the ground exclusively 

 where it spreads, and that is rapidly, when it 

 is once allowed a foothold. See that this 

 weed is effectually demolished wherever it 

 appears. Look on your spring sown grain, 

 and if it is full of yellow blossoms, you will 

 probably find that charlock is in your fields, 

 and if it is not pulled promptly and completely, 

 you may find business for years in attempting 

 vainly its extirpation. The crowfoot of your 

 meadows, or the daisy of the pastures, must 

 be looked to, else lean cattle may be expected 

 when fat beasts should be looked for. In 

 short allow nothing to be in your fields that 

 usurps the place of more valuable plants, les- 

 sens the amount of your crops, or renders your 

 fields a place in which pests are multiplied to 

 reduce your own profits, or vex the souls of 

 your neighbors. — lb. 



Numberless are the roads to ruin — avoid 

 them all. 



