186 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Aug- 



Fences. 



NUMBER THREE. 



Mr. Editor : — I think I hear some of your 

 readers exclaim, " Well, here comes the old 

 pedlar again, astride the fence." Not so fast, 

 my old covey — I am not straddle of the Fence 

 any way you can fix it, either in Politics or Re- 

 ligion ; on those two subjects I know where I 

 sleep ; but if I can get astride of some of the 

 miserable excuses for good fences that I observe 

 about the country, and can ride them down, I am 

 content to be "straddle of the fence." 



Now for a new variety, and a very clever and 

 not very costly one. Procure posts of almost 

 any kind, of the most desirable wood within your 

 power — say chestnut, pine, white cedar, tamarac, 

 &c., from 10 to 12 inches in diameter ; mortice 

 into the two opposite sides, five or six holes, 2 

 by 5 inches, at the proper distances; the rails 

 should be 12 feet long and split as nigh like bars, 

 or the old post and rail fence, as possible. Dress 

 the ends to fit the mortice, and you are ready to 

 commence putting up, which is done by setting 

 one post and then fitting in the bars and standing 

 up the next one till adjusted and firmly set, and 

 so proceed till finished. 



If sawed stuff is used, make the mortice of its 

 width. The great advantage of this fence over 

 the old post and rail, which it somewhat resem- 

 bles, is the much greater sized posts that can be 

 used, (size and durability are nearly concomi- 

 tants,) and 'the cheapness with which they are 

 prepared — as they are used in a state of nature 

 as tkey come from the forest 



Another. Plant some fast growing tree, (I 

 would prefer locust, were it not that it is liable 

 to be destroyed by the borer, or Lombardy Pop- 

 lar, Chestnut, Abeel or Silver Maple, (fee.,) in 

 every other corner of a worm fence on east and 

 west roads, and on the south side of such roads 

 to avoid shades ; and when of about 6 inches in 

 diameter, mortice into the tree as in the other 

 fence, and spring in the bars. The annual 

 growth will soon fasten them, and heal over fast- 

 er than the ends of the bars will decay. When 

 the trees are becoming unnecessarily tall, top and 

 trim them to your fancy. These posts never 

 ask '* if salt petre will explode," and laugh to 

 scorn salt, lime, and ashes, and other prevent- 

 ives of rot and dissolution, and may be used with 

 great advantage in peculiar locations. 



The only strong objection that I see to this 

 *' live hoosier" fence being used is, that whoever 

 commences it must feel convinced that he will 

 be the owner of the land eight or ten years. — 

 Now, in this country, where the laws of primo- 

 geniture do not prevail, and property cannot be 

 entailed, it is rare to find a farmer who is not 

 ready and anxious to sell and start for the " big 

 west;" in fact he has all but got his axe on his 

 shoulder, ready to start for "Nova Zem.bla, or 



the Lord knows where," or some other terra in- 

 cognita. We are such an uneasy, go a head, 

 roving, unattached set of geniuses, that we know 

 nothing of the feeling of attachment to family 

 homesteads. We talk of the hardship of driving 

 the poor Indian from the graves and bones of his 

 fathers, but such kind of sentimental logic is all 

 heathen Greek to the true Universal Yankee 

 Nation. 



Do we lack sympathy and that feeling of home 

 and local attachment to the land that gave us 

 birth ; and family pride that distinguishes man 

 from the lower migratory races 1 Oh that " al- 

 mighty dollar," whose shining disc flashes on our 

 diseased imaginations, and roiling on just ahead, 

 puts quicksilver in our heels, to follow it almost 

 to the very verge of space ! 



What a homily for a fence-maker I 



Old Farmer Tim. 



"Hedges and Fencing." 



Mr. Editor : — I noticed in the May number 

 of the Farmer, an article by Mr. Manly, enti- 

 tled " Hedges and Fencing." With his opinions 

 respecting the present and prospective scarcity 

 of fencing material I fully coincide; and argu- 

 ments miglit be adduced to prove that the agri- 

 cultural products of many sections, already but 

 half fenced, might be greatly augmented if fen- 

 cing materials were sufficiently cheap, or plente* 

 ous, to enable farmers to divide their land in the 

 best manner, to derive the advantages of a sys- 

 tem of rotation. Want of fences produces want 

 of system in farming — and, as in other business, 

 where no system is practised, little success can 

 be expected. 



His remarks concerning hedges are also val- 

 uable, as being one more effort lo call the atten- 

 tion of farmers to the importance of this mode of 

 fencing, the only mode which man has ever in- 

 vented which will bear practising on through an 

 indefinite period of time. He is mistaken, how- 

 ever, in supposing that our indigenous thorns 

 have never been tested to ascertain their fitness 

 for fencing purposes. There are four species 

 of native Hawthorn, {Cratuegus,) which abound 

 principally in Western New- York. They are 

 the Cratuegus crus-galli, (known to the eastern 

 nurserymen as the New Castle, or Cockspur 

 thorn,) C.latifolia, C. coccinca, and C. punctata. 



The writer of this article has seen all the above 

 species fairly and thoroughly tried, under the 

 most favorable circumstances. The C. crus-galli 

 is the best, and indeed seems the most admirably- 

 adapted by nature to forming an utterly impassa- 

 ble barrier of any thing yet discovered in the 

 vegetable kingdom. The C. lahfolia will make 

 a fence, but it is not so good, not growing suffi-' 

 ciently thick at the bottom, and being liable to 

 spread from the root, which the crus-galli never 

 does; it also requires more priming to keep il' 



