92 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[June, 



OUR FARMERS IN COUNCIL. 



June Meeting of the Agricultural and Horti- 

 cultural Society — Report of the Crops, 

 Essays, Discussions, Etc. 



A meeting of the L.ancaster County Affrieultural 

 and Horticultural Society was held in the Athenitum 

 room, on Monday afternoon, June 5th. Members 

 present: Calvin Coojier, (President,) C. L. Hun- 

 seeker, (Seeretarj', pro tein.,) Henry .M. Enn;le, Levi 

 W. GroH", Levi S. Reist, Levi Pownall.Pcter S. Reist, 

 Martin D. Kendig, Johnson Miller, Samuel Benedict, 

 John Hulier, Israel L. Landis, Addison Hershey, 

 Harry Wolf, S. S. Rathvon, Abraham Hostetter, 

 Hiram Brubaker, Henry B. Erh, Epliraim Hoover, 

 Henry Hostetter and Jacob Witmer. The reading of 

 the minutes of the preceding meeting was dispensed 

 with. 



Mr. .Johnson Miller made the following report of 

 the condition of the crops in Warwick township : 



With the blessing of rain for the last few days I 

 am able to report everything in a promising condi- 

 tion. The wheat fields are, as a general thing, better 

 than was expected in the early spring, and we will 

 have a fair average crop. The Fultz wheat looks 

 remarkably well, and in my opinion is the wheat that 

 must Lake the place of the old Mediterranean, so 

 long raised in this county, and which does not do so 

 well now, at least with some farjners. The oats is 

 now in a fair way of growing. Corn has also been 

 pushing along; however, it will be a little irregular, 

 from its not coming up at first planting, and the re- 

 markable rain of two weeks ago washed out the 

 fields around our neighborhood very raueh, and there 

 was a good deal of after-planting. Fields were 

 washed out where it was never known to wash. For 

 2-'> years we have not had such an amount of water 

 in a short time. Grass is making slow growth. 

 Clover is in heads, while timothy is just pushing the 

 heads, and with some fields jxiorly set, others 

 ploughed for Hungarian. I think the hay crop will 

 not be much more than half w hat was harvested two 

 years ago, when we had a full crop. Tobacco is 

 mostly planted. The cut worms were very bad and 

 numerous, and a great deal had to be replanted. Po- 

 tatoes crowing finely, but the bugs are numerous and 

 ilcsirnetive. Unless properly looked after, they will 

 do more damage than any time heretofore. Apples, 

 peaches, pears, grapes, and all kinds of fruit, never 

 looked more promising, and there are prospects of an 

 abundance of fruit of all kinds. The caterpillars, are 

 making their appearance again on fruit trees in large 

 numbers. A timely hint how to best destroy them 

 would not be out of place to be suggested by our 

 society. 



A letter was read from Milton B. Eshleman, re- 

 gretting his inaliility to be present, having removed 

 from the county. 



Mr. C. L. Hunsecker read a lengthy article on 

 "Climatology." The essay elicited a discussion 

 which was participated in by Messrs. Engle, L. S. 

 Reist. Cooper, Hostetter, Benedict, P. S. Reist, 

 Powuall and others. The opinions expressed were at 

 variance with each other, and no definite conclusion 

 was reached. 



Mr. Kendig moved that a committee be appointed 

 on the rain gauge question, and Martin Kendig and 

 Johnson Miller were apjiointed on said committee. 



Mr. Enoi.e read the Ibllowini; paper, by Donald 

 G. Mitchell, originally read before the Cincinnati 

 Board of Agrieulure : 



The Edgewood Farmer on Fences. 



Fences, as the name implies, may be considered, 

 1st, as a barrier for the restraint of cattle ; 3d, as giv- 

 ing shelter (under certain modes of construction) 

 against bleak winds ; and, :^d, as decorative features 

 aljout a homestead. In this last view I shall not dis- 

 cuss the topic. For restraining cattle, the usual 

 fences are of boards, or rails crossed in Virginia style, 

 of posts and rails, walls, and in scattered instances, 

 hedges. These last, however, have not met with 

 favor for farm purposes jiroper. The nice culture es- 

 sential for the two or three first years, the cost and 

 the time requisite to maki' them effective, and com- 

 parative cheapn(^s of lumber, have forbidden their 

 general introduction. Where determined on for de- 

 fensive puriKises, the best plants are the honey locust, 

 the Osage orange, and the buckthorn, to which, I 

 think, might be added, as best of all (if it were 

 propagated), our own native white thorn. The Vir- 

 ginia fence involves great waste of timber, and by 

 reason of its entering angles, slovenly culture. It 

 does not belong to Connecticut, and I think should 

 never be seen here except it be around outlying pas- 

 tures. The post and rail system economizes material, 

 and is durable and substanlial, and when put in 

 shape at the mill is not costly. 



In respect to posts, three important facts have, I 

 think, been made clear by experience and multiplied 

 observation. First, that the timber should be cut, for 

 best results, between September 1 and last of Novem- 

 ber. Second, that such timber, after splitting or saw- 

 ing, should have a year's seasoning before use. 

 Third, that the top end (as the tree grows) should be 

 placed in the ground. As respects durability of dif- 

 ferent Bi)ccies, I tbink we may rate locust first, red 

 cedar second, chestnut, well seasoned, third, yellow- 



bark and white oak fourth. Birch and poplar and 

 spruce and basswood and whitewood — nowhere. The 

 no.strums of applying salt, coal tar, and charring are, 

 I think, justly out of favor, as hardly paying cost. 

 Kyanizing is un(|ue9tionably preservative ; hat a 

 farmer does not want to deal with chemicals, of 

 whose good condition he cannot judge, and of which 

 he wants to keep no large stock on hand. For fruit 

 growers and hop-raisers, in making their stakes and 

 poles durable, the system is worth attention. 



Board fences are effective, and stand when pine 

 boards, well nailed, are used. Chestnut, oak, and 

 hemlock boards are inclined to warp and draw the 

 nails. Considered as a shelter for early spring crops, 

 in fruit gardens, the board fence serves an excellent 

 pur^OTse. They have secured gardens, whore else 

 gardens have been impossible, on the bleak eastern 

 shores of Massachusetts. But for a family fruit gar- 

 den no shelter is like that of a close growing hedge 

 of evergreens, either Norway spruce, or arbor vits, 

 or hemlock. Its good influence can hardly be over- 

 stated. To this end a IVee growing belt is as goo<I as 

 a clipped hedge, and farmers can spare the room for 

 it. I have never seen better pears and a surer crop, 

 year after year, than where an accidental growth of 

 hemlock has intermingled its boughs with those of 

 the pear tree. ^ 



Walls make good fences, provided the stones are 

 proper and bind through, and provided they are laid 

 upon a self-draining subsoil of gravel. On clayey 

 lands, over swales, and through meadows, walls are 

 a dreary resource, except the found.ations be placed 

 out of all reach of frost, which in this latitude would 

 be, I should say, some three feet ; and having dug 

 thus deep, it were better to make a drain and bury 

 the stones out of sight and forever. Even U[ion dry 

 upland the walls of fair-looking cobble stones, care- 

 fully doubled and capped with broad stones at top, 

 are a nuisance, and will bulge out with their interior 

 and cumulative weight a great deal faster than the 

 I)Ockets of the farmer who builds them. I was 

 reared in the county of stone walls — New London — 

 where over 70 per cent, of the inclosures are of walls ; 

 and there are scores of farms there which could be 

 bought to-day four times over for the cost of the 

 walls upon them. I know wh.it it is to bother and 

 worry, and strain teams and break bars, and break — 

 hasty words — over the lifting of a huge boulder, 

 which, when in place, by reason of its huge bulk, 

 will serve only as a steppinir-stoue for sheep to mount 

 the wall. Better by all odds if much of that griev- 

 ous labor had been spent in buyring the boulders 

 where they lay — by all odds the most economical 

 way of clearing a rough field, and the stones never 

 come up to perplex you . 



In old times — before our recollection, and before 

 yours, I dare say — we will say about the year 13.50, 

 people built cities with walls, and did not consider 

 them safe to live in if built in any other way. Now, 

 what if some disputatious persons had in that day 

 sent a letter to the newspapers (which they didn't 

 have) setting forth that it was all folly to wall in 

 the towns, and it would be much better and cheai)er 

 to let every man look out for his own house, what a 

 stare of wonderment the old people of 1350 would 

 have put on ! Well, there have been those who said, 

 and say, that our whole fence system entails an idle 

 waste of money. In 1813 Nicholas Biddle told the 

 people of Pennsylvania that their fences cost *105,- 

 (i(K1,000, and involved an annual tax of $10,000,(100, 

 and advised their abamlonment and the iidoption of 

 the European herding system. In 18.54 the cost of 

 fencing in Vermont was carefully estimated at 

 ^4,700,0011, and annual tax at ^8.55,000. 



In 18(13 the cost in New York was estimated by the 

 Hon. Mr. Peters, I believe, at $114,000,000, and an- 

 nual cost at some ^15,000,000. And as late as 1871, 

 I'rom very full reports from intelligent observers in 

 all parts of the Union, Mr. Dodge, the statistician of 

 the Agricultural Department, compiled and tabulated 

 a statement placing the whole cost of farm fences in 

 the United States at no less a sum than 81,700,000,000, 

 and the cost of annual rei)airs at $198,000,000. These 

 figures are sometliinir frightful ; and yet, somehow, 

 they do not frighten us. Great masses of figures 

 showing idle spending, I have observed to have very 

 little etfect upon the individual spendthrifts. I rather 

 think they enjoy being in so great a company. Zeal- 

 ous reformers, you know, not infrequently get to- 

 gether a great budget of figures, showing the enor- 

 mous expenditure for alcoholic drinks -and tobacco 

 in the country ; antl the toper listens with lifted eye- 

 brows, and — takes his dram, .and the smoker pon- 

 ders, and — well, he fills his pipe; he must have a 

 smoke on that. So, to the statistics I have given, 

 the farmer listens surjiriscd, wondering, and straight- 

 way proceeds to put a new fence around his buck- 

 wheat patch. 



It looks almost as if fences were good for some- 

 thing. I think they are — in places ; but that wc have 

 far too many of them. They are not universal. 

 There are very few throughout France ; in Belgium 

 still fewer ; in Lombardy and through all of North- 

 ern Italy the}' are scarcely known. In New Mexico 

 there are none ; in many ol the southern counties 

 of Illinois they are abandoning them, as also in many 

 jiarts of Virginia, under provision of express enact- 

 ment with reference to the " no-fence " system. Our 



highways in Connecticut ought to be safe, and all 

 adjoining fields. There is a good law against stroll- 

 ing cattle, whether with or without keepers ; but the 

 people do not work sharply enough to its enforce- 

 ment. I blush to say that in my own town the 

 selectmen are the principal offenders — turning out 

 the cattle of the town farm upon the highways. 

 There are few Connecticut farms on which there are 

 not far more division fences than a sound economy or 

 sound farm practice wonld point. To this point I 

 have already alluded. Unfortunately, the cost of 

 their removal will probably keep many of them a 

 long time in place. But I am srlad to observe ye.ar 

 by year a more general clearing up and sweeping 

 aw.ay of the cumbersome an<l useless and number- 

 less yard palings and pickets which once incum- 

 bered the ground about every country homestead. 



It is an augury of the day, it is to be hoped, when 

 the inhabitants of our country villages will discard 

 and tear away the multitudinous lumber devices with 

 which U[)on their little lots they now barricade them- 

 selves, each man against his neighbor. They keep 

 out no thieves, for thieves can climb them ; they 

 keep out no cattle, for cattle do not come there ; 

 they keep out no scandal, for scandal loves fences 

 better than the open country. This is not fancy. A 

 beginning, and more than one, has been made. 

 There is a village in the suburbs of Cincinnati with 

 not a fence from border to border. Its aspect charms 

 and delights every stranger who passes through. 

 In the thriving town of Greeley, in Colorado, there 

 are no fences whatever. In the pleasant town of 

 South Manchester, where the Messrs. Cheney have 

 established their great silk works, these enterprising 

 gentlemen, by their influence and example, have 

 worked the abandonment of fences throughout the 

 village. The result is a charming, park-like effect, 

 which attracts the visitor, and in which every in- 

 habitant feels an honest pride. 



The summingupof the whole matter is : In respect 

 to farm divisions, lay out your land lor easiest and 

 most economic working ; make the most of any pro- 

 tection your woodlands may afford ; give no land to 

 permanent pasture which will pay better by tillage ; 

 make access easy to every field you own ; order your 

 homestead and surroundings so that your children 

 may love it and ha*, to h-ave it. With respect to 

 fences, abandon them as f;ist and as far as you can; 

 if you will make them, make them good ; watch your 

 State legislation ; see to it that it aids you, and, 

 when laws are made, see to it that they are kept. 

 And when the barriers are down, and the great tax 

 of their cost lifted, learn to trust your neighbor, and 

 to live so that he may trust you. 



Mr. Hostetter stated, that in Cleveland, Ohio, 

 there are some streets in which no fences are built, 

 and Mr. Levi S. Reist also said, that in Akron, Ohio, 

 the same custom is observed. 



-Mr. Epiiraim Hoover said, this question should 

 earnestly engage every farmer's attention, for we will 

 eventually be driven to it. He came in cimtact with 

 a German one and a half years ago, who told him that 

 they had no fences in that part of Germany where he 

 was from. We must be gradually educated to it. 

 He believed the day would come when Pennsylvania 

 and every other State will do away with fences, par- 

 ticularly inside fences. In the point of dollars and 

 cents, it would pay to do away with inside fences. 



Mr. C. L. HiiNSEfKER said if the expense of fenc- 

 ing amounts to one thousand seven hundred millions 

 yearly, in the United Stales, and if it is as great as 

 statisticians state it is, it would be policy to dispense 

 with fences as much as possible. A writer has said, 

 that if the amount expended in a few years were hus- 

 banded, the national debt could be paid. He won- 

 dered why farmers did not get up a petition and have 

 legislation on the subject. 



.Mr. JonxsoN Miller said that it costs him from 

 8(50 to ?75a year to keep in repair the fences on a 

 farm of 100 acres. He believed that ?.50 is about the 

 average. He had kept an account for about ten years. 

 It costs this county about three hunilred thousand 

 dollars annually. 



Mk. Engle said that when the law compels you 

 to t.ake care of the cattle, and keep them fenced in, 

 this subject will be very easily settled. 



Mr. Reist said that the law was well enough when 

 forests were plenty, to compel you to keep your cat- 

 tle in or ont of the fields, but now you must haul the 

 material from far away. The time was when you 

 could let swine run at large, and the result was that 

 they became so lean that it took two to make" a 

 shadow. He believed that the result of this iliscus- 

 sion would be that one-half of the fen<'es would be 

 put away. They have been diminished to a great 

 extent aireadj'. 



.Mr. Johnson Miller explained how he kept 

 fences repaired at the price already stated. He 

 bought rails at. 810 per hundred, posts at 25 cents a 

 piece, and paid 15 cents for having them made. He 

 bought chestnut posts, not locust, and for the interest 

 of the money saved on locust posts he could again 

 buy chestnut posts. Fifty pannels a year, at the rate 

 of 90 cents a pannel, would cost $45. There is great 

 economy in fences, if undetstood. 



On motion, the subject was continued for discus- 

 sion at the next meeting. 



Mr. Johnson -Miller presented two essays to the 



