126 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



barbed wire, at 4 cents, 24 cents; staples, 1 cent; one post, 

 7 cents ; labor setting posts and stringing wire, 12 cents. 

 Total, 44 cents. This, remember, is a dog-proof as well as 

 a sheep-proof fence. 



I have also received, at my request, a price-list from the 

 Washburn & Moen Manufacturing Company, Worcester, 

 which gives the cost of first-quality galvanized Glidden 

 barbed wire at 4 cents per pound, and they state that it 

 weighs one pound per rod, and their discount for cash will 

 cover the freight. So that Mr. Green's estimate of 4 cents 

 per rod is borne out by the price-list of the largest manu- 

 facturing establishment of the kind in the State. 



I have also a statement from Prof. W. P. Brooks of the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College that one man set the 

 post^ (one rod apart) and strung the wire for sixty rods 

 of five-strand wire fence on the college farm in less than two 

 days. This proves that the labor estimate in the first instance 

 is a fair one. 



These statements correspond with my own experience. 

 They are for work done where the soil is not stony or under- 

 laid with hard-pan. Allowance must of course be made for 

 such obstacles. 



From the foregoing I calculate that it will cost to fence a 

 square lot of ten acres (one hundred and sixty rods) with 

 six wires and posts $70.40, or, per acre, $7.04. I am satis- 

 fied that live wires can be so arranged as to be a dog-proof 

 fence as well as a sheep-proof fence ; and therefore I have 

 made a calculation of the cost of a live-wire fence, which 

 amounts to §62.40 for a square lot often acres, or $6.24 per 

 acre. As you all know, the larger the field the less the dis- 

 tance around it. 1 have on that account made calculations 

 for several sizes. To fence a square lot of twenty acres 

 (two hundred and twenty-six rods), six wires, with posts, 

 s'.i!>.44, or a cost per acre of $4.97 ; with five wires and 

 posts, $88.14, or a cost per acre of $4.41. 



But there is another set of conditions on many of our 

 pastures, especially upon the hills in the western part of 

 the State and upon the. pine plains of that section, where 

 the pastures have been neglected and considerable timber has 

 started, and where a line of trees will be found along the line 



