COSTLY FENCES.—FINE CATTLE FOR THE SOUTH.—HELPS IN READING AGRICULTURAL WORKS. 341 
if unloaded, the teamsters have a sweet night’s 
sleep. Arrived at Venice, and the wheat unloaded 
and payment received for it, they take in a few 
bushels of ship stuff, sufficient to last to where 
they have left feed, at suitable distances from 
home, to carry them through the entire journey 
each way, so that the whole expense of the jour¬ 
ney is the feed at the mill, and perhaps a little hay 
and cut straw purchased on the road. 
I will now contrast this with another section of 
wheat-growing country, lying within a circle of 30 
miles of the canal or railroad depot. The farmer 
puts up his 30 bushels of wheat, hitches on his 
two hundred dollar span of horses, takes his two 
dollar mounted whip, gives it a crack , and away 
he goes to the half-way house; stops, orders a 
bating of hay for his horses, 6 cents; 8 quarts of 
oats, 25 cents; dinner, 31 cents, and 6 cents to the 
hostler for his attention. Arriving at the mill, he 
takes the horses from the wagon to the tavern, 
orders supper, lodging, and breakfast. The whole, 
together with horse-keeping, &c., &c., $1 56. 
Perhaps he may drive home on 31 cents for horse- 
feed and creature comforts; say in all $2 expense 
out of 30 bushels wheat. I have said nothing of 
the difference in cost of the clothes of these two 
farmers; the former consisting of what they call 
jeans, made in the family, of cotton and wool, and 
costing not to exceed $4 for the dress throughout, 
hat, boots, and all. The latter costing $40 af least, 
including great coats and umbrella, and very cheap 
too. The one farm has cost, with all buildings 
complete, say $6 per acre; while the other has 
cost $50 per acre. The former is out of debt, and 
lays aside his money, or loans it on interest; the 
latter has hard work to pay his interest money, 
after meeting all family expenses. Take courage, 
then, my distant and inland readers, and envy not 
your neighbors who live, as you may erroneously 
suppose, in the enjoyment of superior advantages. 
A Buckeye. 
COSTLY FENCES. 
These are all very well where fencing material 
abounds, and the owner can afford to build at an 
expense of 75 to 150 cents per rod. No single 
rule of building or description of fence will an¬ 
swer for all localities. Every farmer must con¬ 
sult his own convenience and interest in the mat¬ 
ter. I think people in general have too great a 
penchant for small enclosures. These should be 
proportioned to the size of the farm. In stony 
countries, solid wall is no doubt the best; in 
wooden ones, the worm or Virginia fence is alto¬ 
gether the best and cheapest, (a) I have lately 
made a contract for some two miles of this, to be 
eight rails high, and double locked at each corner, 
for about 30 cents per rod in length. It takes up 
some six feet of ground in width, it is true, but in 
cheap land that is no object. The rails will last 
20 to 50 years, and if they get infested with 
bushes, it is but little labor to take them up and set 
them a few feet distant on another line. White 
oak, red and white cedar, red, black, and gray 
oaks, chesnut, hickory, the varieties of ash, bass¬ 
wood, elm, &c., &c., in fact, anything that will 
split, makes good fence; but a block of durable 
wood, some six inches thick, should be laid under 
the ground end of each bottom rail. 
Putnam. 
(a) The “best and cheapest” fences are, with 
few exceptions, none at all. They are not only an 
eyesore in the landscape, but a perfect curse to the 
country, and the most unnecessary and outrageous 
tax on their industry that a people ever voluntarily 
submitted to. This language may appear strange 
to many of our readers, but we intend to take up 
this subject in our next volume, and hope to show 
the enormous absurdity and waste of labor in 
fencing in farms, especially in a country like 
the broad prairies of the west, which seems to 
have been made by Omnipotence expressly to be 
cultivated without them. 
FINE CATTLE FOR THE SOUTH. 
As the importers of fine cattle in the south often 
lose them by sudden death, and having had con¬ 
siderable experience in transporting them there, I 
have thought it might be useful, for me to give 
some hints on the subject for your paper. It is 
very important to the breeders of the south that 
they should adopt the custom of selecting young 
cattle instead of old ones, and they are often in¬ 
jured by high feeding. I would say from one to 
two years old were the best ages for importation. 
Ship in the fall not earlier than the first of Octo¬ 
ber. They should have as near the same course 
of treatment after their arrival at the south as they 
had been in the habit of receiving at home. Good 
hay with corn and oats ground, or separate in mod¬ 
erate quantities, bran, or shorts mixed with cut 
straw and roots, if convenient. But above all, 
they should be sheltered from the hot sun, rains, 
and the night air, and have no grass until fairly 
acclimated; last, but not least, good water. This 
course of treatment should be kept up twelve 
months, after which both they and their progeny 
may be treated as the good common stock of the 
country is, and they will live and do well. 
R. H. Hendrickson. 
Middletown , O., Oct. 1, 1844. 
HELPS IN READING AGRICULTURAL WORKS. 
Every one knows the value of a good index, or ta¬ 
ble of contents, to an agricultural or any other work. 
Let me suggest another time-saving help, which 
shall answer the' same purpose for a whole life of 
agricultural reading, that a good index does for a 
single volume. The object is to facilitate a refer¬ 
ence to whatever is of any value in such reading. 
It consists simply in making an index, as you read 
of subjects. Let any farmer furnish himself with 
a blank book of one hundred and fifty pages, 
which will cost three or four shillings, (more or 
less). Then draw a line across each page, about 
an inch from the top, and another down each page, 
about an inch and a half from the left hand side. 
Then commence with the first page with the 
alphabet and write Ain the space at the left hand, 
and a in the space at the top, in the centre of the 
page. On the next page write A—5, and on the 
