156 
CURIOUS CIRCUMSTANCE IN BREEDING FOWLS. 
fifty to seventy-five cents a rod, the cost of 
timber to be added. 
The third — and that is as high as a. farmer can 
afford to go — is a post and board fence, say 
oak, locust, chestnut, and red beech, in cedar 
posts ; and pine, chestnut, or hemlock boards, 
which will, at the very lowest — and poor at that 
— cost him a dollar a rod, and if well built, 
$1.25 to $1.50. These fences will last, on an 
average, probably twenty years — possibly more 
— but they will require relaying at the end of 
that time, and more or less repairs annually, 
after they have stood five years. 
These three modes of fencing will gradually 
become more expensive than now, as our 
country becomes cleared up, and the value of 
timber increases; and already a substitute in 
many extensive sections of country is required. 
Now, what is this substitute to be ? In my 
opinion, iron, when all its qualities are taken 
into account, is to form our most available ma- 
terial. Its cost of manufacture is gradually 
decreasing in this country, and but a few years 
will probably pass before we shall make it as 
cheap here as in England. It is now produced 
for about half the cost that it was twenty years 
ago; and even at present prices, our most 
economical fences, to those who have to buy all 
the material and pay for the labor, may be of 
iron. 
Within the past year, several practical arti- 
cles have appeared in the agricultural papers 
on the subject of wire fences, the most of which, 
as yet, display on the part of the writers but a 
theoretical knowledge. Some, indeed, a little 
practical, but all indicating a wish for informa- 
tion, and giving to the public on their own 
part -their best views on the subject. To these, 
followed out with my own impressions, I shall 
give some attention in your next number. 
Black Rock, N. Y., Lewis F. Allen. 
March, 1850. 
CURIOUS CIRCUMSTANCE IN BREEDING- FOWLS. 
In an article by T. B. Miner, in the March 
number of the Agriculturist, at p. 75, he observes 
that in order to breed Poland fowls " in pure 
blood, they must have a yard by themselves, 
and not even allowed to see other fowls ! It is, 
indeed, a fact, that the mere act of witnessing 
other fowls in adjoining enclosures, will destroy 
the purity of the breed." It is a fact — I con- 
fined three white Bantams with some Poland 
fowls. I was very careful not to sit any of the 
Bantam's eggs, as it was very easy to distinguish 
them by their size ; yet the result was, I had a 
very different fowl, in plumage, at least, from 
the Polands. [Was it not sufficient to produce 
a cross or mongrel breed, to confine Polands 
and Bantams together previous to their laying, 
notwithstanding the larger size of the eggs of 
the Polands 1— Eds.] 
My experience with Poland fowls abundantly 
corroborates all that Mr. Miner has written on 
the subject. Therefore, I shall look with much 
interest for something more from his prolific 
pen. Azel Downes. 
Bating Hollow, L. I., March, 1850. 
RAILWAY OR ENDLESS-CHAIN HORSE POWER- 
THRESHING, SAWING AND CUTTING MA- 
CHINES, &c, &c. 
Having used one of the above horse powers 
for two seasons past, for threshing my grain, 
sawing fire wood, cutting corn stalks, hay, and 
straw, and for various other purposes ; and hav- 
ing fairly and thoroughly tested its efficiency, as a 
convenient and cheap portable horse power; 
and having been completely divested of my in- 
veterate prejudices against such powers, as being 
horse killers, and a source of more vexation and ex- 
pense, than of profit, I propose to contrast the 
expenses, advantages, &c, in performing a certain 
piece of work with Allen's power, with those of 
the ordinary sweep power. 
And here, let me say, that this is just the kind 
of power which farmers need. It is mullum in 
parvo. It occupies but little space, and is con- 
structed on such principles, that a great share 
of the strength of the horse, which is expended 
in overcoming the friction of other kinds of pow- 
er, is applied in this power, almost directly 
where it is most needed. 
When I assert, that threshing grain with the 
6 and 8-horse powers, owned by jobbers, who 
itinerate through the country in quest of employ- 
ment's attended with exorbitant expenses, with a 
great waste of straw and grain ; and as a gen- 
eral thing, with great inconvenience on the part 
of farmers, I speak what three fourths of the 
grain growers would say, were they interro- 
gated on this subject. 
If a farmer has 300 bushels of wheat to thresh, 
(which is usually about a day's work for a large 
machine,) his expenses, in this region, would be 
$4 per hand, a dollar a-day for about 7 or 8 
extra hands, and a dollar per day for one or two 
pair of horses ; and to these sums, add the board 
of hands, and grain for horses, and we have an 
amount equal to about one tenth, of the crop ; and 
besides, it is too frequently the case, that both 
hands and team ought to be employed in prose- 
cuting the labor on the farm, which demands 
immediate attention. There is also another 
important consideration. It is too often the case, 
that seeds of noxious plants are carried about 
from not having been thoroughly cleaned, be- 
fore removing ; and it is a very common occur- 
rence, after a machine has been threshing wheat, 
which contains much pigeon weed, or red 
root, for this foul seed to find its way into 
choice wheat fields, where it had not before 
existed. 
A neighbor of mine, who exercises much vig- 
ilance, over his grain-growing fields, told me 
that when he employed one of these large ma- 
chines, it brought to his barn more than a pint of 
wild mustard seed — enough to keep one weeding 
for seven years, had it found a receptacle in the 
grain field. I never discovered any pigeon 
weed on my farm, until after I had employed 
itinerant threshers, with self-cleaners, to do my 
threshing ; and I believe that if each farmer had 
done his threshing with a machine of his own, 
so much of the best wheat land, in Central New 
York, would not have been overrun with pestif- 
erous weeds. There are thousands of acres of 
the most valuable wheat land in this, and in 
