Fencing — Its Importance^ 8fC. 493 
planted, the plow can g^o only between the rows, leaving the sub- 
soil beneath the rows unmoved. 
The best time for sowing the acorn is in the autnmn, immedi- 
ately after they have fallen from the trees, and they should be 
planted just below the surface. The plants for some years should 
be kept free from weeds. The most profitable way to do this is 
to plant potatoes or bush beans, which will pay the expense. 
FENCING— ITS IMPORTANCE, &c. 
It is a conceded and well established fact, that the science of 
agriculture has been aroused from a " lethargic sleep," and that it 
is no longer considered a mere handicraft, but that it is a practi- 
cable demonstration of the greater part of all the arts and sciences 
combined. And since new light has dawned upon, and a new 
impulse been given to agriculture, the march of improvement has 
been onward. Within the last twenty years, men, eminent men, 
men of education, of wealth and enterprise, came forth and burst the 
bars of prejudice and superstition, by the power of their writings, 
their practice, and experience; new light has sprung up, and 
hence the vast improvements which now fully develope themselves 
in almost every quarter of our country. 
It would require a volume to enumerate all the improvements 
which have been made within the last twenty years, not only in 
the art of cultivation itself, but in all the multiplicity of imple- 
ments and apparatus required in the business of farming. 
Notwithstanding the wonderful improvements of the age, there 
is one important item in the agricultural economy of our country, 
which has been almost entirely overlooked — the fencing of the 
farm, which is a heavy drawback annually upon the farmer's 
profits, and that drawback is annually increasing, and becoming 
more and more important every year in our country. Even when 
timber is plenty and cheap, it is still a heavy annual incumbrance 
upon the farmer's income. 
The natural decay of fencing materials in the state of New 
York, has been variously estimated at from fifty to one hundred 
thousand cords of wood which is annually decomposed, and ren- 
dered valueless by the decay of fencing timber, in the form of 
rails, posts, boards, &c. Taking this amount, in connection with 
the timber annually consumed for fuel, for building, for shipping, 
and the multiplicity of other uses to which it is applied, the ag- 
gregate of the annual consumption would swell the amount be- 
yond computation; and the alarming truth vrould be forced upon 
