BARB WIRE FENCES. 225 



fence is built, the people will very soon burn it up in their 

 cabins, but a wire fence they cannot Inirn up. And Ave find 

 it very convenient to catch the thieves that we have there 

 who "grabble" potatoes, and steal our corn and strawberries. 

 But a wire fence is the only fence that can be used in Georgia 

 to stop the cattle that run on the commons ; they will jump 

 over or tear away everything else. 



Mr. HiLLMAN. I have used willow stakes with great sat- 

 isfaction. Those will grow and give you living posts. If 

 there is any danger of making a tree, all you have got to do 

 is to saw off the top. In case of tire, it will not burn, 

 because it is green, and when you have got your wires upon 

 these stakes, you have got a perfectly safe fence. It is es- 

 pecially desirable, if you are building against a wood-lot. 



There is more trouble with neighbors about building fences 

 against wood-lots than almost anything else, because the 

 person on the other side thinks he ought not to build half of 

 the fence. If you have a wire fence, you can take up your 

 fence along with the trees. It is the cheapest fence that can 

 be put up. 



Mr. Waterman. I have had no experience in this mat- 

 ter, but I can state how they make wire fences in Williams- 

 town, where I live. They put two rows together, with a 

 five-inch spruce board at the top. No horse could get over 

 that. 



Mr. Russell. I do not regard ribbon wire as of any 

 value ; in my experience it breaks very frequently. I used 

 it to keep my sheep in, but they crawled through it as if 

 there had been nothing there. I don't think it is of value 

 for the purpose of keeping stock in a field ; it is too brittle. 

 It breaks with me very often. I am ready to take mine off, 

 and put a strand of wire, without barbs, on the lower part 

 of the fence. 



Mr. HiLLMAN. If Mr. Smith is able to do so, T wish he 

 would inform us whether it is advisable to use iron posts, 

 how much it would cost, and so on. 



Mr. Smith. Sometimes, when a clergyman (I am the son 

 of a clergyman) loses his pulpit, he goes into some other 

 business ; and the other day a clergyman came to me at 

 Worcester, and said that he had invented a new fence post ; 



