30 AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE. 



trees, felled and split in autumn, outlasts stuff from the 

 same timber cut at other times. 



FENCING. It is of importance to the agriculturist, 

 whether he be squatter, farmer or gardener, to have such 

 fences as enable him to protect growing crops, and to get 

 the benefit of all his grass ; to have grass eaten down even 

 and clean ; to enrich any desired piece of land ; and to 

 work his place at the lowest cost. The kind of fence 

 best for each locality depends upon the nature of the 

 timber, or other material, and the labor available. 



Wire and Netting Fences. A thoroughly colonial 

 garden fence is made of wire netting, fixed to split posts. 

 The posts are set in the ground 8 feet apart, and two feet 

 deep ; then three barbed wires are stretched and fixed to the 

 posts by staples, and wire-netting is fastened to the wire 

 and the posts. To prevent rabbits, &c., getting under the 

 netting, it is set in a trench 3 inches or so under the 

 surface. This fence then presents 5 feet of wire-netting. 

 The cost is from 7s. 6d. to 10s. per rod. 



Wire Fences. Six wires of No. 6, with the posts 

 a rod apart, make a good farm, cattle or sheep fence, spaced 

 thus : Lower wire 10 inches from the ground ; first space 

 4 inches; second, 4 inches; third, 5 inches; fourth, 10 

 inches ; and the top space 12 inches. Two wire ties, at 

 equal distances should connect all the wires in each panel, 

 by being passed round each, and then staked to the 

 ground. The above distance is better than having posts set 

 closer together. Fasten the wire to the posts with staples. 

 A good " bush " strainer is a round piece of wood, three or 



four inches in diameter 

 and three feet long. This 

 is turned by a pin, worked 

 in a hole, near each end. 

 The wire is thus made to 

 coil round the centre, and 

 the power is quite suffi- 

 cient. The posts ought 



A Simple Poat Stitfenw. to be tWO feet in the 



ground, and the straining- 

 posts four feet, a foofc in diameter and twenty rods apart 



