No. a 



Fencing against Floods — The Cut- Worm. 



271 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Fencing against Floods. 



The writer has, from the commencement 

 of the second volume of the Farmers' Cabi- 

 net, been one of its constant readers, and 

 subscribers ; and from that time to the pre- 

 sent, has always felt an anxiety for the day 

 of its coming to the post-office, which has, 

 since it passed into the hands of the present 

 worthy proprietors, been as punctual as the 

 15th of each month. Yet, notwithstanding 

 the interest which I have ever felt for its 

 appearance, I have not, heretofore, ventured 

 to contribute any thing for its pages ; but 

 now that the farmers in many places have 

 sustained heavy losses by having their fences 

 carried away by the late tremendous freshet, 

 I feel a desire for their and others' benefit, 

 who have been similarly circumstanced, to 

 send you a description of a pannel of my 

 fence, which, if placed in such exposed situa- 

 tions, will be found, after the subsiding of the 

 waters, on the place where it was erected, 

 requiring only to be lifted up and replaced — 

 the work of a few minutes only. 



Two short posts, say three feet long, set 

 into the ground, and extending above it ten 

 or twelve inches, A pole six inches in dia- 

 meter, and ten or twelve feet long, forms the 

 bottom rail of the pannel of fence, to be cut 

 flat on one side ; the ends rounded and re- 

 duced to about two inches in diameter, to the 

 length of three or four inches; these rounded 

 ends are intended to be placed into holes 

 bored of a rather larger diameter, in the 

 posts, six inches from the ground, and in 

 which they might turn. A board, or flat 

 rail, the length of the pole, forms the top 

 rail of the pannel, and to this, and to the flat- 

 tened sides of the pole, are to be nailed the 

 uprights, at the distance proper to oppose the 

 stock it is intended to pasture on the land ; 

 these to be nailed on the up-stream side. 

 The pannel is now made ; insert, therefore, 

 the rounded ends of the lower rail into the 

 two holes bored in the posts, and fix it up- 

 right by bracing it from the down-hill side 

 of the stream, with poles set slanting for that 

 purpose, and abutting against the top rail of 

 the pannel, to which they must be nailed — 

 proceeding thus until the fence is complete. 



When, at the time of a flood the water 

 presses against the fence, the top rail breaks, 

 or the nails draw, and down falls the fence — 

 the bottom rail turning in the holes of the 

 posts — and ail will pass harmlessly over; 

 and when the water has subsided, it is only 

 to go and set it up again, as I said — the 

 work of a few minutes only. I will now add, 

 for the information of those who have em- 

 banked marsh meadows, that I have had in 



use, for some time, a particular description 

 of water trunks, which answer the purpose 

 far better than the most sanguine of my 

 hopes; and should tlie E]ditor think the above 

 worthy an insertion in the pages of the Cabi- 

 net, he may again hear from 



Little Delaware. 

 1st Month, 27th, 1841. 



To tlie Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 The Cut-Worm. 



Mk. Editor, — I find in the "Agricultu- 

 rist" a new mode of destroying the black 

 grub, or cut-worm. It is nothing more or 

 less than the mode that has been recom- 

 mended and practised by myself and many 

 others, for many years, and consists merely 

 in ploughing the land in the autumn, or 

 during the winter, so as to freeze their eggs; 

 and this is called new. Now, in justice to 

 your correspondent, at p. 95 of the Cabinet 

 for October, I must point to his article on 

 that subject with much confidence, consider- 

 ing that what is there stated, and the reason 

 deducible therefrom, is perfectly rational and 

 satisfactory.. The remarks of the " Agricul- 

 turist" I shall, however, copy for your inser- 

 tion, as such testimony comes in addition to 

 what has already been said, and adds much 

 to its credibility, although there is nothing 

 new in it. 



"The destruction of crops by the cut-worm 

 is incalculable in most parts of the United 

 States, and countless remedies have been 

 ofl^ered, but not one that strikes us more for- 

 cibly than the following, taken from a num- 

 ber of the ' Genesee Farmer,' the whole secret 

 consisting in turning up the ground with the 

 plough, during the winter, so as to freeze the 

 eggs. A correspondent of Judge Tucker 

 says, ' One of my neighbours wishing to try 

 the experiment, broke up one of his fields, 

 adjoining that of another neighbour — the 

 two fields being separated only by a worm 

 fence — during a warm spell in winter, when 

 the ground ploughed in the day would freeze 

 at night ; and in the spring following he again 

 ploughed the ground, and planted his corn, 

 but not a cut-worm was seen during the 

 whole season, while his neighbour, who ridi- 

 culed the idea of ploughing up land during 

 winter, to prevent the cut-worm from destroy- 

 ing his corn, broke up his in the spring, and 

 planted it also in corn; but what was his 

 surprise, when he beheld his field filled with 

 cut-worms, and his corn almost totally de- 

 stroyed, while the adjoining field of his neigh- 

 bour remained unmolested !' " The writer 

 adds ; many other experiments have been 

 made, and with universal good success. 



JOHK StARE£T. 



