168 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[November, 



lands, where the annual burning of the grass 

 takes place. Such fences will not be con- 

 sumed, though if not standing on a strip of 

 plowed land, they may be warped and slightly 

 injured. As is well known, a gnat amount 

 of fencing lis annually destroyed by these 

 prairie hres. This consideration alone is a 

 strong point in their favor. As plain wire is 

 practieally useless the barbed wire, with all 

 ils objectionable features, will be used until a 

 better metal fence is supplied. 



Relative Cost of Iron and Wood Fence. 

 Many letters ask us to give the present dif- 

 ference in the cost of wood and iron or steel 

 fences. We have not yet gathered all the 

 data which we shall be able to give, but some 

 approximate figures may be presented. For 

 a comparison take the common post-aud-board 

 fence, and the Imi>roved Brinkerholf Steel 

 Strap (No. lit), or any of the twenty forms of 

 Barbed Wire given last month. The price of 

 these in quantity may be estimated at 11 cents 

 per pound, 1 pound to the rod. The cost of 

 boards lt5i feet long and b inches wide we 

 will put at 12 cents each, tliat is, S15 per 

 1,00U feet board measure, which is below the 

 actual cost at jioints distant from the luml)er 

 regions. Suppose also that it is practicable to 

 set the posts 8j feet apart from their centres. 

 The steel strap or wire fences require only one 

 post to the rod. The cost of the jiosts we 

 will reckoQ at only 12j cents each, which is 

 below the average. VVe then have 



FOR 100 RODS OF FENCE. 



Post and Board. — i Galvanized Steel Fence. — 

 4 Boards High. Fonr Straifdn Hiqh. 



40(1 Boards at iJc, $48.00 400 rods lie, $44.00 



200 posts at l-.i}^c., ■>5.m 100 posts at IJi^c, 12.60 

 50 Its. Bails at 4c., 2.00 400 staples, " .7.5 



Labor about (2j, 25.00 Labor about (?), 10 00 



Total, $100.00, Total, SH7.25 



The cost of labor will depend upon whether 

 the posts are driven, or set in holes dug by a 

 spade or by post augers. The cost will be 

 only half as much for the steel fence, as oiily 

 half as many posts are used. The cost of 

 erecting the board fence will be several times 

 greater than putting up the metal straps or 

 wire. It is a very safe calculation to say that 

 post and board fence will cost nearly 50 per 

 cent, more than the metal fence ; that it lOLi 

 rods of the post and boards can be put up for 

 $100, the metal fence will nut cost over 170. 

 No allowance is made for saturating the 

 boards with any material to give them a fair 

 durability. Onco put up, the metal fence 

 will outlast half a dozen wooden fences, except 

 the posts, which will have the satne dura- 

 bility in either ctisc. Is there iiny doubt, 

 then, that metal fences are to be preferred on 

 account of cost, durability, and frequent re- 

 pairs V The comparative effectiveness of the 

 two is the chief question to be decided ; and 

 if this be settled in favor of the metal fences, 

 the only question will be, which is the best 

 kind of metal fence. 



An important suggestion comes to us from 

 a subscriber in Westt^rn Kansas, who has had 

 considerable experience with barbed fetiees — 

 a stiggestion that may count somewhat toward 

 obviating the strongest objection to barbed 

 fences, lie raises a line of low embankment 

 along under the fence wires by turning in fur- 

 rows from either side. The ridge thus formed, 

 together with the furrow left on each side of 

 it, arrests the attention and iirogress of ani- 

 mals before they actually reticli the bai'bed 

 wires, and helps prevent their being injured 

 seriously. 



How far and where it may be expedint to 

 use the leading varieties of barbed fencing is 

 still an open question for examination and 

 disctission. Also, which of the various kinds 

 are the best for getieral use, when any may be 

 used. One thing is pretty well settled, viz : 

 that none of the long sharp-pointed barbs^ 

 having perpendicular sides, or those nearly so, 

 and none of those inclined in any direction to 

 act partially as hooks, are ada'pted for use 

 along highways or where clothing will be 

 likely to come in contact with them. None 

 of the above barbs are adapted to small iu- 



closures, or where vahtable animals are in 

 danger of contact with the long, sharp points 

 of any form. Though they may be so short- 

 ened as to remove danger of fatal injury, dis- 

 figuring sores and scars will be produced. 

 Something in the form of the " Brinkerhoff 

 Improved," with sides so inclined as to pre- 

 vent catching and tearing, and so short as not 

 to inoduce deep incisions when struck 

 squarely, will need to be provided. We 

 understand that the kind referred to is not 

 yet in the market. AVhether it is or not, the 

 field is open to inventors and matiufacturers, 

 and the public want tnust be and will be soon 

 met. Hundreds of thousands of land owners, 

 both farms and village plots— all over the 

 country, and especially at the west and south- 

 west — are desirous of changing from wooden 

 to cheaper, more dnrable metal fencing, and 

 iron posts are included in the demand — those 

 good enough, simple enough, and cheap 

 enough for general farm fences. 



BARE PASTURES IN AUTUMN. 

 Why should meadows and pastures be brown 

 and bare late in suiimier and in the autumn ? 

 Lawns can be kept green, and grass plots for 

 late soiling may be made to yield a good cut- 

 ting in October, "brown October, " as it has 

 been called. Tlie reason is that we deal more 

 liberally with our lawns and soiling plots ; it 

 is not that we do not cut them close, for no 

 grass land is cut closer than a well-kept lawn. 

 It is not the climate either which we have 

 been so ready to blame for our brown and dry 

 fields, but something in our management. 

 The fact is, we do not give our grass lands a 

 chance to do the best they can. As we write 

 we look out upon a grass field which has been 

 cut the third time, but which has been top- 

 dres.sed after the first cutting ; and another 

 beside it which has been pastured since it was 

 cut in June. The former is in complete ver- 

 dure, and the ground is thickly covered ; the 

 latter is a miserable exhibition of bare brown 

 spots, interspersed with masses of ra.g-weed, 

 left uneaten by the cows ; a fair representative 

 of the majority of meadows and pastures. 

 When we have learned that it is possible to 

 make more profit from an acre of grass than 

 from an acre of any otiier crop we shall do 

 justice to it and treat our meadows liberally, 

 .lust now it is very important to consider 

 what this treatment shall be. A coarse, tufty 

 growth should not be left on the surface, which 

 dies but does not rot. and is in the way of the 

 mower next season ; but this cannot now be 

 removed by pasturitig which would only leave 

 it in patches, nor by mowing, which would 

 only leave it in patches, nor by mowing, which 

 would be a costly way of getting rid of it, 

 unless it is considered that the advantage 

 would over-ride the expense. Perhaps to 

 mow over such a surface, leave the cuttings 

 on the ground as a mulch and a fertilizer, 

 mi.ght be a cheap way of disposing of it. But 

 the most helpful thing to do is to give a fair 

 top-dressing of manure, fine and well rotted, 

 before the winter. This will be well washed 

 into the soil to nourish the roots, so that an 

 early and rapid growth will be made in the 

 spring, after a smoothing harrow has been 

 run over the surface to lireak up any lumps 

 that may remain. This early growtli is the 

 greatest advantage, because the crop being 

 cut before the usual dry weather occurs, a 

 second growth begins immediately, and is 

 ready to cut very soon after the usual first 

 cutting would have been made under other 

 circumstances. During the hot, dry season, 

 the soil is well shaded and protected, and the 

 roots are uninjured, and when the second 

 crop has been gathered a third gets under 

 way at once. This exacting treatment of 

 cour.se requires liberal return, and in this case 

 the "liberal .soul shall be made fat." In fact, 

 niggardliness in the treatment of the soil is 

 the worst economy; while liberality is re- 

 turned many fold. This is especially true 

 with regard to grass lands, which in America, 

 on the average, can pasture one steer or cow, 

 only upon seven acres ; while in England 



pastures that will fatteti one bullock per acre 

 are common. 



The want of manure with which we should 

 he so liberal is the great difficulty. But this 

 may be managed by devoting one special com- 

 [)ost heap for this purpose, and enriching this 

 with the addition of bone dust, potash salts, 

 gypsum, or phosphate of lime and wood ashes. 

 If this is pre])areil in tinre for use in the fall, 

 and a light dressing of nitrate of soda and 

 gypsttiu or grass fertilizer is giveti after the 

 first cutting tliere can be little doubt that the 

 brown appearance of the fields will be changed 

 to verdure, and the bains filled with a largely 

 increased product. — American Agriculturist. 



A NEW IDEA OF HEDGE CULTURE. 



In one of our exchanges we see it stated 

 that the Illinois farmers have discovered a 

 new principle of hedge culture. They need 

 to have discovered something ; for, if reports 

 of those who have traveled in the West are 

 worth anything, a good Osage orange hedge 

 is one of tlie rarest of sights, and this though 

 the Osage orange has been grown for ly^dges 

 by the hundreds of millions during the past 

 forty years. 



The new idea is in regard to trimming. It 

 has been the doctrine to cut and slash on all 

 occasions. The young plant has scarcely 

 made a growth before it is cut back to thicken 

 it ; and as soon as it sprouts again it is again 

 cut, and so on is it through life. But with 

 all this cutting back to thicken, it would get 

 naked below ; and then after all this it had to 

 be "plashed," as it is called, to make that 

 thick below which the previous trimming has 

 failed to do. This plashing is to cut the stem 

 half-way through near the ground atid then 

 push the plant over ; the next plant treated 

 in the same way, and pushed over the one 

 already laid down, and so on till the whole 

 hedge is done, leaving etieh plant lying on the 

 other, like furrow slices in a plowed field. 

 But this has not resulted satisfactorily. It is 

 found that the continuous trimming has 

 weakened the plant's hold on life. Many of 

 the heads die, and the mass of dead stuff as 

 it disappears leaves a hole, which is not a 

 hedge, or anything that was designed to be. 



So they have now discovered .something 

 new ; and tlie novelty is to let the plant grow 

 as it will for three or four years and then 

 "plash" it. They find that the uncut and 

 untrimmed plant is healthier and stronger 

 every way than the plant cut and slashed 

 about in the old way ; and from the base be- 

 low the half-cut part, a mass of strong shoots 

 put up and make their way between the 

 layered heads in a way never dreamed of 

 under the old plan. 



But the interest for us in Pennsylvania is 

 that it is not a new plan left to the inventive 

 genius of Illinois to find, but only a Pennsyl- 

 vania idea, alluded to frequently in the re- 

 ports of our fruit-growers' and horticultural 

 meetings and noticed on severtd occasions in 

 these columns. We have given it as our opinion 

 that though Penu.sylvania has never made 

 much talk about live hedges, as she yet has 

 trees for timber-fencing in abundance, she 

 has more good Osage orange hedges than the 

 whole State of Illinois, and we suppose this is 

 because the principle of good hedge culture is 

 better understood. Lancaster, Chester and 

 Columbia counties are full of good hedges, 

 which it would do our Western friends good 

 to see. 



The Illinois farmers, though we cannot 

 give them credit for priority of the discovery, 

 will, however, find tliat they have hit on a 

 good plan in letting their young plants grow, 

 as they will for a few years, before allowing 

 the trimming hook to touch them ; but they 

 will have to go farther than this, and abandon 

 the plashing system altogether before they 

 will have a real good hedge that it would de- 

 light the heart of a good man to see. Instead 

 of cutting half through, our progressive 

 hedgers cut entirely of)', close to the ground, 

 and the mass of thick, strong,,vigorous shoots 

 that push out are moulded into form, and 



