NEW ENGLAND FAEMEIU 



Fkb. 



WIRE FENCES, MADE BY MACHINERY. 



It might not occur to a casual observer, that 

 the fences of the United States cost more than 

 twenty times the amount of all our specie ; never- 

 theless, such is the fact. There is no country on 

 the dial of the globe, so well furnished with wood 

 and stone — the common materials for fencing — as 

 many portions of this ; yet so great is the cost of 

 fencing here, that it has become a burden, " gre- 

 Tious to be borne," on our national industry. 

 Many of our States have little or no rock, from 

 ■which to make stone walls ; those formerly occu- 

 pied by prairies have little wood from which to 

 make rail fences ; and our soil, climate and phys- 

 ical geography are such, that hedges or live fences 

 are altogether impracticable. Solon Robinson, 

 Esq., the able agricultural editor of the New 

 York Tribune, says, that in all his travels, he has 

 never seen but one good live fence in the United 

 States ; and that, he observes, was " protected on 

 one side by a board fence, and on the other by a 

 rail fence." 



Indeed, the agricultural mind of the country 

 has long been conscious that a total revolution 



must, sooner or later, supervene in our modes of 

 fencing. Iron fencing has been suggested, and, 

 doubtless, would have come into general use, but 

 for the want of a method of making it l)y ma- 

 chinery. This great want has at length been 

 supplied. John Nksmith, Esq., a prominent man 

 in the manufacturing intei'est in Lowell, has in- 

 vented and patented a machine for the manufac- 

 ture of wire netting, for fencing, trellis-work and 

 other uses, considerable quantities of which have 

 been made and sold by the Lowell Wire Fence 

 Company. 



This fence consists of a strong and beautiful 

 netting, woven by the machine, varnished with 

 asphaltum blacking, coated with cold tar, paint- 

 ed, or galvanized, rolled up in portable rolls, from 

 thirty to sixty rods in length, and sold to consum- 

 ers at from sixty cents to $1.50 per rod — the price 

 varying according to the height of the fence, the 

 size of the mesh, (or squares,) and the number of 

 the wire. It can be readily set up by any ordi- 

 nary farmer, and no rails are necessary, but the 

 netting is fastened by wire or staples, to posts of 



Fig. 1. 



wood, iron or stone, placed from eight to fifteen 

 feet apart, and the edge of the netting is to be 

 kept on a level from one terminus to anotlier. 

 When properly set, it is strong enough to "hold" 

 an ox, and too close to be penetrated })y a chicken. 

 If varnished, painted or tarred once in five or six. 

 years, it is calculated to last a century or more. 

 It offers so little resistence to wind and tide, that 

 no gale can blow it down, or flood wash it away. 

 If favstened to posts, act upon feet instead of l)c;ing 

 set in the ground, this fence may be laid flat on 

 the land, or entirely removed on the approach of 

 the flood-season in districts subject to floods, and 

 set up again as good as ever, when the flood has 

 subsided. It excludes none of the rays of the 



sun ; it harbors no weeds, or vermin ; it covers 

 none of the soil, like hedges and walls, and the 

 peculiar mode of its texture enables it to undergo 

 without the slightest injury, that alternate ex- 

 pansion and contraction to which all metallic 

 substances are subjected by the changes of temper- 

 ature incident to the atmosphere. All who have 

 examined or tried it, attest that it possesses in the 

 highest degree, those seven cardinal qualities in a 

 perfect fence or trellis-work — strength, closeness, 

 beauty, lightness, portability, cheapness and du- 

 rability. 



Many kinds of this netting are made, adapted 

 to all-uses, from cattle-fencing to window-netting 

 All sizes of wire are used, from No. 10 -lo in 



