180 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat, 
and they now keep at a respectful distance from 
any kind of wire. I consider barbed wire as dan¬ 
gerous to stock unaccustomed to it, but as cattle 
and horses need but one introduction to the stran¬ 
ger, and shun it ever after, we can not afford to 
dispense with it.” 
Warren Stone, of Lyon Co., Kansas, writes us 
. Here on these treeless prairies barbed wire is 
almost a necessity, and without'doubt is a great 
blessing. The land has lain vacant around Empo¬ 
ria for years, because it was impossible to open a 
new farm and fence it with boards at the price de¬ 
manded for lumber here. But now everything is 
changed; new farms spring up as if by magic. It 
is only a question of two days to fence a quarter 
section. We have a post driver here run by horse¬ 
power, that has a mallet weighing 300 lbs. A 50-lb. 
one would make no impression on this prairie-sod. 
1 find that it is impracticable to make a good fence 
unless the posts are driven and the wire stretched 
tight. Almost every kind of barbed wire is in use 
here, and none are too severe; the town cattle will 
stop for nothing else. We make a very good fence 
with two wires, that is proof against cattle. The 
hest fences here are two wires with a board between 
them. I put the board on top so that horses can 
see it better. But for all purposes I would want no 
better fence than two wires and a board between. 
I write this to encourage you in the work of com¬ 
mending wire fences. It is so quickly done ; there 
are no boards to blow off, decay, etc. No other 
kind of fence is made here since the introduction 
of barb wire. I think it only a question of time 
when it will be so eveiywhere.” 
Louis Yoruz, of Coffey County, Kansas, writes 
ns: “....I have had a year’s experience with one 
kind of barbed fence, illustrated in the American 
Agriculturist, one with loose twist, four-pointed 
wire barbs, long and sharp. I had a mare dart 
through at full gallop, lifting the corner brace 
post clear off the ground, and sawing a fearful gash 
across her breast. She however recovered quite 
quickly. I have about a mile of two-wires fence, 
with posts two rods apart, and in some places with 
two stakes stapled between the main stakes. As a 
rule, an animal which has once been through that 
fence does not care to repeat the experiment. I 
am in favor of sharp, straight barbs [standing out 
perpendicular from the wires, not hooked or in¬ 
clined in either direction] but not long enough to 
penetrate the vital part of any living thing. As for in¬ 
juring people’s dress along the public thorough¬ 
fares, well, I shall care for that when the majority 
of said people make it unlawful for stock to range 
at liberty in the public roads. I am only interested 
in barbed wire as a buyer for my own use.” 
Mr. Yoruz gives in detail his simple plan of put¬ 
ting up the barbed wire which is usually sent out 
from the manufactory wound on a frame or spool. 
A suitable stick or wooden rod being put through 
the center of the spool, is laid across the top of the 
rear end of a wagon box, the projecting cleats pre¬ 
venting it from slipping back. The end being 
fastened to the first post, the wagon is driven along 
the line, the wire unwinding from the top of the 
spool. When the end of the line is reached [or a 
sufficient quantity is reeled off] this end of. the 
wire is twisted or tied to one of the spokes of the 
hind wheel next the fence, near the hub. The' axle 
is then lifted to clear the wheel. The team is then 
unhitched and the wagon tongue fastened to a post 
or a crow-bar thrust in the ground. Then by.turning 
the wheel by hand the wire winds around ilhe.hub, 
and we have .strong lever power, sufficient to stretch 
the wire very taut through its whole length. It is 
then only necessary to pass along and staple it fast 
to the posts. At first the barbs may catch in the 
4 grass, and it may be necessary to lift it by hand in 
some places until a few turns of the wheel brings 
it up from the ground. The operation is repeated 
for the other wires. I learned this practice from a 
neighbor, and hope it is not patented or patentable. 
[We do not think it is or can be patented.— Ed.] 
James R. Gillis, Louisa County, Iowa, writes ; 
J< I am using barbed wire fencing, and find it effi¬ 
cient (if properly constructed) in restraining cattle 
and horses. I have no sheep, and use board fences 
to enclose, hogs. In Iowa, three barbed wires, or 
four wires two of which are barbed, make a legal 
fence. Posts may be two rods apart, but must have 
a stay lath between, to prevent sagging. The 
top wire must be not less than 48 inches from the 
ground, nor more than 56 inches; bottom wire 
not less than 16 inches, or more than 20 inches. 
Hogs and sheep are not permitted to run at large. 
—The common error in building wire fence, is in 
getting it too high. I think, three wires well 
strung, not more than 45 inches from the ground 
to the top wire, will turn any sort of cattle or 
horses—unless it may be calves that can run under. 
Stock soon learn to avoid it. Horses may be taught 
by being led against it a few times. I have used 
barbed wire fence for some months as a pasture 
fence for ten horses, and have only had one 
scratched, and that not seriously. 1 believe the 
day is not far distant in Iowa, when we will not be 
compelled to fence against stock of any sort.—I 
think I see a tendency on the part of the wire I am 
using, to rust. Wire put up in November last, has 
a great many rusty places in it. The paint or tar, 
or whatever is put on the wire, seems to scale off 
badly. For putting up long stretches of fence— 
say 100 rods or more, a steady team is the best ap¬ 
pliance for straining the wire, andmakingit “ taut.” 
For short distances, “ strainers ” of some sort are 
better. The retail price of wire here, is very little 
more than before the advance in iron goods.” 
A. J. Thompson, of Walker County, Texas, 
writes: “_Like Mr. Robt. Wood, of Grant Co., 
Wis., 1 wish a fence that will keep pigs out, and 
I propose one, part of wire and part plank ; posts 
of cast iron. Let every alternate post have a mortise 
2 x12 inches, and the other posts a mortise 1x12 
inches. Or, if preferable, let the mortise be 2x6 
inches and 1x6 inches. Also have a second 4-inch 
mortise above the first. The first would receive a 
plank 1x12 inches, while in the other there would be 
two planks, each one inch thick and 6 inches wide ; 
this would give about 20 inches from the ground to 
the top of the plank, sufficiently high to keep out 
hogs and pigs. The mortise 2x12 inches or 2x6 inches 
would receive the ends of the plank. Here they 
would lap, while the center of the plank would rest 
in the mortise 1x12 inches, or 1x6 inches. If the 
mortises were made 5 inches above the ground, dirt 
might be thrown to the plank to prevent anything 
from passing under. A hole might be cast in the 
center of the mortise to receive a bolt or ten-penny 
nail, to keep the plank from slipping, and could be 
easily removed to renew the plank if it should de¬ 
cay, without interfering with the remainder of the 
fence. Then place the wire any distance above you 
may wish, having places cast in the post to receive 
it. If desirable, mortises might be made in the top 
to receive a slat 1x4 inches. Stock could see this, 
and would not run again at it” [At present such 
cast-iron posts would be too expensive for general 
use. The same mode of construction could be ap¬ 
plied to wooden posts. If the plan here described 
is not practically useful, it will at least suggest 
other modes. Ed.] 
Eastern Farmers—Raise More Com. 
We call especial attention to the experiments in 
Prof. Atwater’s article on pages 180-1. Either the 
unanimous testimony of these trials by intelligent 
farmers on their farms i6 false, or corn can be grown 
at a profit with the right sort of fertilizers. These 
gentlemen get 50 bushels of shelled com per acre, 
which they would otherwise buy at say 60 cts. per 
bushel, and an amount of stalks which,if rightly fed, 
are well worth $10, when ordinary hay is worth $10 
per ton, that is $40 worth of fodder, at an expense 
of—including freight—$9 for fertilizers. And if 
they feed out the produce, the same rates that 
they pay for the valuable fertilizing ingredients in 
commercial fertilizers, will make the well husbanded 
manure worth the whole cost of the fertilizers. 
The great point is that the corn, aided by the inex¬ 
pensive mineral fertilizers, gathers the most costly 
element, nitrogen, from natural sources. If it can 
be established, as these trials imply, that com can 
generally do this, that it is, like clover, a “ renovat¬ 
ing” crop, that fact will be of untold value for our 
agriculture.—The “ bonanza farms ” out West will 
in their turn run out bye and bye. The mineral 
elements to bring them up can be had at compar¬ 
atively little cost, but nitrogen in fertilizers is 
scarce and dear. If com can gather it for us 
and give manure for other crops the portent of 
exhausted prairies is not quite as dismal as our 
political economists would make it, after all. 
Benefit Yourself and the Public/ 
. Those who omitted to carefully examine the ar¬ 
ticles on Fertilizers, pages 135-6-7 in the April 
American Agriculturist, should do so at once. There 
is yet ample time to secure the experimental fertil¬ 
izers and test them on corn. Every one who does 
this, will not only gain much information, positive 
and negative, in regard to his own farm, that can 
hardly fail to be of great use to him in the future, 
but every such experiment that is made and re¬ 
ported adds to the amount of general information 
that will be of great and universal public utility. 
As a general rule, the fertilizers will more thau 
repay their cost the first year by the increased pro¬ 
duct realized from their use. 
Science Applied to Farming—LVII, 
Fertilizers for Corn. 
How to grow corn profitably is an important prob¬ 
lem. The main factor is the manure. What are the 
best and cheapest fertilizers for corn, is a question 
that deeply interests most farmers in our older 
States and many of the newer regions. 
The Feeding Capacity of the Corn Plant. 
The first things to be learned are the power which 
the plant has to gather its supplies of food from 
natural sources, and the specific effects of different 
materials upon its growth. Can corn gather Us 
nitrogen from soil and air like clover, or does It, 
like wheat, require large quantities in fertilizers ? 
Is it especially helped by phosphoric acid like tur¬ 
nips, or is potash more important to aid its growth ? 
Opinions differ widely on these points. There is 
urgent need of more light upon them. The main 
question is the nitrogen supply. If, as some prom¬ 
inent agricultural teachers have recommended, 
farmers must advance from $10 to $15 cash in the 
spring for nitrogen for an acre of com, ran all the 
risks of soil and season, and wait until winter for 
the return, the future of corn growing is not 
bright. But if, on the other haud, we may omit the 
nitrogen, apply only the inexpensive mineral fertil¬ 
izers, reduce the yield but little, have the com 
gather the nitrogen itself, feed it to stock, enrich 
the manure, and help bring up the land, that 
capacity of this grand staple will go far to establish 
it in the place for which nature seems to have de¬ 
signed it—next to grass, the sheet anchor of farm¬ 
ing in the older States. Is Com an 
“Exhausting” or a “Renovating” Crop. 
In the American Agriculturist, for April, 1879, I 
gave results of some special experiments, to test 
the question of the nitrogen supply. Similar trials 
were made last season. The results of the two 
seasons’ work are given in the table, in which 
the plan of the experiments is also mapped out. 
The idea was to compare the effects of mineral 
fertilizers (superphosphate and potash salt), alone, 
and the same with nitrogen in different amounts 
and forms. The nitrogen was supplied as nitric 
acid in nitrate of soda, as ammonia in sulphate of 
ammonia, as organic nitrogen in dried blood, and 
in several forms combined in the “ Nitrogen Mix¬ 
ture” aud in Peruviau g-uano. In view of the 
danger of results being vitiated by irregularities in 
soil or otherwise, the tests of the effects of nitro¬ 
gen in varying amounts were duplicated in groups 
III. and IV. and that of the “ Mixed Minerals ” in 
VI. and XVI. Suggesting a careful study of the 
table for details, I give a brief recapitulation of the 
Effects of Nitrogenous Fertilizers upon Com. 
As regards the effects of nitrogen in different 
forms, in 1878, the Peruvian guano brought the 
