180 



Setting Post and Rail Fence. — Large Pear Tree. Vol. VII. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Setting Post and Rail Fence. 



Messrs. Editors. — The present low pri- 

 ces of grain and farm-produce generally, with 

 a scarcity of money unparalleled, should in- 

 duce us to be careful in the expenditure of 

 our means. In this spirit, I propose to show 

 the readers of the " Cabinet" how they may 

 save a considerable sum annually, by adopt- 

 ing my plan of making post and rail fence. 

 It is the custom in this part of the country, 

 to hire a person expressly for this purpose at 

 12 to 15 cents per panel, with board — an ex 

 travagant price, at which he can earn about 

 a couple of dollars a day; but I have for the 

 last 15 years, done this business by means of 

 my farm hands, on rainy days, under a shed, 

 all hands being employed at the same time. 

 I have sometimes as many as a thousand 

 posts before hand, ready to set at leisure 

 times, when the farm hands can best be spared ; 

 and have made and set 2000 panels of post- 

 fence within the year, at a cost of five cents 

 a panel only; thus saving 150 dollars per 

 annum; having the work better done, and 

 at the most suitable times. I have ever ibund 

 it an easy task to teach my men to make 

 post-fence; with careful handy men and pro 

 per tools, there is neither art nor difficulty. 

 The price for farm labourers in this county 

 is not more than from eight to ten dollars 

 per month ; I therefore calculate that by my 

 plan I save 50 per cent, in expenses, besides 

 the advantage which I obtain by having an 

 extra hand at harvest or busy times at low 

 wages ; and I am sending over the country, 

 when my men leave me, good post-and-rail 

 men accustomed to the business. 



I purpose soon to show, from my own ex- 

 perience, how a man can lime his land, and 

 double his crops; by which, the original cost 

 of the lime with its interest, shall be returned 

 within three years from the time of putting 

 the lime on the land; and in the mean time 

 remain, respectfully, 



Henry Cazier. 



Summit. Bridge, Del., 15 Nov., 1842. 



Small Productive Lot. 



David Wedgwood, of Greenland, has gath- 

 ered this fall from If acres of land, the fol- 

 lowing crops: — 284 bushels of potatoes; 86^ 

 bushels of Corn; 19 bushels of apples ; 6J 

 bushels of beans ; 6 bushels of green peas ; 

 5 bushels of currants; 4 bushels of red cher- 

 ries, and 4 bushels of rare-ripes! (poaches]) 

 If our farmers had only half the land they now 

 occupy and would spend the same amount of 

 labour and manure they now do upon the 

 whole, we should hear no more of "going to 

 the far West." — Dost. Cultivator. 



A large Pear tree in Indiana. 



We have, in our State, a pear tree so re- 

 markable, that, if you have seen no notice of 

 it, the following may be of some value. We 

 heard of it from various gentlemen, and saw 

 some notices in country papers, which inter- 

 ested us in gaining better information. One 

 of our nurserymen being in that part of the 

 State, we requested him to visit and gain 

 exact information. He is an accurate man, 

 and his account may be depended upon. 



This tree, one foot above the ground, mea- 

 sures ten feet in circumference, and six and 

 a half feet, at nine feet above the ground. 

 The space covered by the branches, from 

 outside to outside, is sixty-nine feet; that is, 

 the circle formed by a line described around 

 the ends of the branches, would be sixty-nine 

 feet in diameter. 



In the year 1834 it yielded one hundred 

 and thirty-four bushels of pears; in the year 

 1839 it produced eighty bushels ; and in the 

 year 1840 it produced one hundred and forty 

 bushels. In one other year, (but which year 

 the account before me does not state,) it pro- 

 duced one hundred and thirty-eight bushels. 



This tree grows about ten miles north of 

 Vincennes, Knox Co., Indiana, and is said to 

 have sprung from a seed planted some thirty- 

 five or forty years ago, by a Mrs. Ockletree. 

 The tree is a very rapid grower. 



It is perfectly hardy, a constant bearer, 

 and, I need not say, of an enormously produc- 

 tive kind. The fruit is about the size of a 

 turkey's egg; rating as to quality, with about 

 the third grade of dessert pears. It is a fall; 

 early fall pear. The accounts of the time 

 between the planting of the seed and the 

 bearing of this tree, vary from nine to fifteen 

 years. The original owners are dead. We 

 have the fruit growing in our nurseries, near 

 town, and grafts may be sent, should any 

 gentleman in your neighbourhood desire it. 

 I regret that the young man did not ascer- 

 tain the height of the tree. I am, respect- 

 fully, yours, H. W. Beecher. 



Indianapolis, September 29, 1842. 



Magazine of Horticulture. 



"The Exhibitions and rewards of Agri- 

 cultural Societies, have given an impetus to 

 the spirit of experimental research in the 

 bosom of the mechanic, and the result is, an 

 advance in knowledge, equal to that made 

 in any other branch of the practice of flori- 

 culture, by the adoption and agency of the 

 same spirit. A practical commentary on this, 

 is offered by the fact, that one maker of 

 Ploughsin England (Ransome of Ipswich,) 

 exhibited no less than thirty-six varieties of 

 ploughs at the last meeting of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society of England." 



