NEW FRUIT GATHERER. 
'289 
butter to the boiling point. Another said that 
the time should bear some relation to the quan- 
tity of material used — >an average period of ten 
minutes being allowed for every pound. The 
same part)' told me that if the butter employed 
was not quite sweet, the addition of a slice of 
bread and a slice of onion (?) will remove this ; 
also, that the appearance of the grounds rising 
up to the top when the mass is stirred, is itself a 
proof that the boiling is sufficient. My guide 
at Chamouni told me that his wife usually added 
a small portion of salt to the mass, in the early 
stage of boiling. 
Everybody agreed in asserting that butter, so 
preserved, will last for years perfectly good, 
without any particular precautions being taken 
to keep it from the air, or without the slightest 
addition of salt. Indeed, I myself tasted, more 
than once, butter so prepared, fully twelve 
months after preparation, and found it without 
the slightest taint. It wanted the flavor of fresh 
butter, but seemed to me infinitely more palata- 
ble than our coarse, salt butter. 
NEW FRUIT GATHERER. 
This implement consists of a strong canvas 
bag, b, with an iron hoop fastened to the mouth, 
which is attached to a long handle, or pole, by 
a wire bail. 
Fruit Gatherer. — Fig. 77. 
The operation of the instrument is as fol- 
lows: — The upper end of the pole, to which is 
attached the bag, is first directed into the head 
of the tree. Then, by means of the iron fork, a, 
the fruit is detached, which immediately drops 
into the bag, and is prevented from being bruised 
by the fall. When the bag is filled, which will 
contain two or three quarts, it is lowered to the 
ground, discharged of its contents, and the opera- 
tion repeated until the tree is divested of its 
fruit. 
An implement of this description, it is obvious. 
will be of great value to those who have large 
orchards of fruit, which cannot be easily reached 
by the hand. Price $1. 
Washing Woolen Clothes. — Woolen goods 
should be washed in very hot suds, but never 
rinsed. Tepid water causes them to shrink. 
MR. ROBINSON'S TOUR.— No. 21. 
Virginia Fencing. — This term is generally un- 
derstood to mean a crooked or worm fence, of 
split rails. But in some parts of the state, that 
kind of fence is least common. I noticed in 
Gloucester county a very good kind that may 
well be imitated elsewhere. It is made with 
alternate long and short pannels, of lengths of 
five and ten feet, six and twelve feet, and three 
and ten or twelve. I like the last best. It makes 
a fence so near straight that it takes up but lit- 
tle room, which is a consideration too much 
lost sight of in good lands. 
This fence may be staked and ridered, or 
staked and capped, if necessary. It is most 
commonly built upon a bank, as, in fact, are 
nearly all the fences upon the "low lands" in 
that and adjoining counties and in the Rappa- 
hannock Valley, upon the west side of the river, 
particularly. This ditching and banking for 
fence may be very well upon wet lands, but it 
is often carried to extremes. I have often seen 
it six or eight feet, and even higher, with some- 
times no rails on top, and then it is no fence. 
Sometimes three or four rails, and then it is about 
half a fence, and sometimes eight or ten rails, 
and then it is a good fence ; and so it would be 
if there were no ditch and bank. Where cedar 
grows, instead of rails, brush is often used, wat- 
tled together between stakes and makes a good, 
durable fence. It will last, with slight repairs, 
20 years, if the slakes are of cedar or chestnut, 
both of which abound in Lower Virginia. 
Another kind of wattle fence is made of poles, 
the stakes being set eight or ten feet apart. 
There are a few hedges made chiefly of cedar, 
and is generally a pretty good fence against 
cattle, except where the trees die, as is often the 
case, but no barrier against hogs, which filthy 
brutes are still permitted to run in the roads, 
notwithstanding the great advancement man- 
kind have made in civilisation. 
At Hazlewood estate, in Caroline county, the 
late residence of Colonel John Taylor, the old- 
est agricultural writer in America, which is now 
occupied by his heir and namesake, there are 
miles of cedar hedges, for which the Philadel- 
phia Agricultural Society gave him a gold medal 
in 1819. It is said that it was then a beautiful 
and good fence. But, like all tree-growing plants 
used for hedging, it has overgrown itself. It 
has been found impossible to keep it trimmed 
down, and as it increases in height, as a matter 
of course, nature prunes the lower limbs. The 
great error, however, in planting this hedge, 
was, setting it upon a high bank, which has 
made it more difficult to trim, and keep in order. 
There is another farm six miles below Fred- 
ricksburg, on the opposite side of the Rappa- 
hannock, upon both sides of the road, which 
looks beautiful at a little distance, but as you 
I approach, you find it. full of unsightly gaps and 
i dead trees. Like that at Hazlewood, it was 
planted upon a bank, and was not trimmed 
down enough when young. There are a good 
many other cedar hedges in the state that I have 
noticed in my travels, none of which are fences. 
An excellent fence very common in Virginia, 
