Portable Fencing for Sheep. 
549 
procure hurdles to fold the large flocks (from 700 to 1500 sheep) 
kept by the farmers in this district on turnips. Sheep are rarely 
if ever folded in the summer, but are depastured, on clover-seeds 
or ffrass. 
The nets in use are 50 yards long, made of tarred rope, with a 
mesh G|- inches wide, and when set are from 3|- to 4 leet high. 
Stakes 5 feet long, sharpened at the bottom and bound at the top 
with a piece of hooping iron, are used for setting the nets, which 
have both at the top and bottom a strong line, which is wound 
round each stake. The price of a net is 155., and of the stakes 
about 2d. each. A stake is driven in every 5 yards, and an 
experienced man can drive the stakes and set a net within ten 
minutes. 
A net will last four years, provided ground game is not very 
abundant, but hares and rabbits cut them very much ; and if an 
estate is overrun with these, of course the nets will not last so 
long. In ordinary cases the shepherd is able to repair the nets, 
having a supply of rope, v/hich is rather smaller than what the 
net is originally made of. The expense of removing the nets, 
(Sec, is trifling. In usual winter weather a one-horse cart will 
take ten nets and the requisite number of stakes from one field 
to another. 
Careless farmers occasionally put a piece of old net in the gap 
of a fence, and at other times protect a weak fence by setting a net 
at the distance of two or three feet from it. In these cases I have 
known very serious, indeed fatal accidents, happen to horsemen 
in the hunting field ; and this is the only serious objection I am 
aware of to the use of nets. Cocoa-nut fibre has been recom- 
mended for this purpose, but I am not aware that it has been 
tried in this locality, and I fancy the nets would be heavier and 
not so portable as the ordinary hempen ones. 
3. — On the Comjjosition of Aiinatto. 
By Dr. Augustus Voelckeu. 
AxNATTO is a preparation, containing a colouring matter, de- 
rived from the Orlean tree (Bi.za orcUana). This tree, or shrub, 
grows with an upright stem to the height of from 7 to 9 feet, 
sending out many branches with elm-shaped pointed leaves, 
having long foot-stalks. The flowers are produced in loose pan- 
icles at the end of the branches, and are of a pale peach colour. 
^ The oblong seed-pods are covered outv. ardly with bristles, and 
