230 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



phone, which passed into extended use immediately after the 

 invention. It was not so in the case of barbed wire. It lay 

 along, year after year, before it passed into extensive use. 

 Of course the figures read this afternoon show that it was 

 remarkably rapid ; but the first patent on barbed wire was 

 pretty old before it began to bear fruit, so that it has not the 

 length of time to run that the telephone patent has, and some 

 inventions that are now before the public. But it will not be 

 a great many years before some of the patents will expire. 

 I cannot answer the question definitely, and I do not know 

 any one who can, because the patents are dependent upon 

 one another for their success. 



Mr. Haskell. I have about two hundred rods of wire 

 fence ; it is mostly the ribbon wire. I have also nearly a 

 hundred rods of wire tacked upon an old post-and-rail fence. 

 The first that I put up of barbed wire was on chestnut posts ; 

 afterwards I put up some on posts of the white willow, so as 

 to have them grow. This year I bought fifty of the angle- 

 iron posts, and put up some twenty-five or thirty rods of 

 wire fence with those angle-iron posts. They have stood 

 well, as far as the barbed wire is concerned. I enclosed a 

 small piece near my cider-mill, to keep the stock from get- 

 ting to the apples. I had a lot of plain telegraph wire, and 

 I put two circles of the barbed wire, about ten feet apart, 

 on those angle-iron posts, and interwove it thoroughly 

 with this plain telegraph wire. Within three days, those 

 angle-iron posts were turned in every direction ; and I would 

 say, that as far as I am concerned, I would not give twenty- 

 five cents a cord for them for posts. 



Mr. . All that has been said about the cheapness 



of this fence refers to the original outlay. I would like to 

 ask how much it costs to keep that fence in repair. How 

 often do you have to string those wires over? 



Mr. Hersey. I believe my neighbor has never done any- 

 thing with his since it was put up. The first of it, I think, 

 was put up four or five years ago. 



Mr. HuBBELL. Mine that I put up three years ago is in 

 perfect condition. 



Mr. Smith. Under ordinary conditions, it should stand 

 from ten to fifteen years, without any occasion for repairs. 



