1880 .) 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
fence are laid in between, the spaces left being of 
the thickness of the poles. The tops of the op- 
rights are bound together with wire or pieces of old 
iron hoops. Flat stones or billets of wood placed 
under the base pieces will keep them from the 
ground and save decay. The distance apart of the 
Jjase pieces will depend upon the length and 
strength of the poles available. No. 36 is the ar- 
Fig. 36. 
rangement for wire, plain or barbed, having only one 
upright of durable wood, and somewhat stronger 
than when two are used. A brace piece is firmly 
fastened with heavy nails upon one side. Any kind 
<of plain or barbed wire can be used on these stakes. 
Experience with. Barbed "Wire. 
FROM A MISSOURI CORRESPONDENT. 
N. B. Shearer, Clinton Co., Mo., writes to the 
American Agriculturist that be is not interested in 
the manufacture or sale of barbed wire, and says : 
“.... Four years ago I put np one wire above four 
boards for a neighbor, and one wire above five 
boards the following year. He told me a short time 
ago that no stock ever troubled those fences. Two 
years ago I put up forty rods for myself, joining my 
neighbor’s pasture, using three slats at the bottom 
for hogs, and three wires above. He has a span of 
young mules that would jump an ordinary fence, 
and they tried those wires long enough for one of 
them to get an car tom about an inch. Since then 
those mules are careful not to touch that fence. I 
was so well pleased with its needing no attention, 
that this spring I have put up 115 rods, using two 
planks at the bottom, and three wires above ; I set 
my posts 16 feet apart, and drove a short stake at 
the center of the planks, leaving it high enough to 
reach the lower wire. I put the lower plank four 
inches above the ground, left a four inch crack be¬ 
tween the planks, and put the lower wire five inches 
above the planks, with one foot openings between 
the wires. It makes a good fence. There is a good 
deal of wire used about here for the upper part of 
fences, but it is pretty well agreed that it needs 
planks or slats at the bottom. A good deal is built 
with three planks and two wires. Once in a while 
I hear of a steer or horse getting hurt, not because 
they don’t see t^o wire, but because they are used 
to breaking over other fences, and they try the wire 
once, but never the second time. I don’t think 
iron posts will be used here for some time, as White 
or Burr Oak posts can be had for 10 to 13 cts. each. 
“ My method of straining the wire is to fasten one 
end, and unroll the strand the whole length of the 
fence then, with a rail or pole, 10 or 13 feet long, I 
wind the wire around the pole, about two feet from 
one end, and with that end catch on to the post, 
and taking the other end walk around. By the time 
I get the wire fast to the posts, the unevenness of 
the ground makes it taut. Barbed wire is univer¬ 
sally liked here, nearly every one making a new 
fence puts on some wire. Some would rather have 
three boards with two wire3; others prefer two 
planks with three wires. It is pretty well agreed 
that it wants some wire to turn cattle.” 
DR. HORNE ON BARBED FENCES. 
Dr. ffm. Home, Veterinary Surgeon, Janesville, 
Wis., in a letter to the ‘‘Country Gentleman” 
writes: “ Unquestionably the barbed wire fence has 
important qualities to recommend it. It is cheap 
tn first cost, and qnite serviceable. It is easily put 
up and easily kept good. It looks-weil and does 
not harbor vermin. This is all well enough, hut 
there are more serious objections. It is unques¬ 
tionably the most dangerous and cruel fence ever 
invented. As now put up, it is a murderous, 
treacherous snare, and inflicts much suffering upon 
our domestic animals. I am quite in a position to 
know whereof I speak. I have seen numbers of 
young colts literally tom to pieces. One fine filly I 
saw with her throat cut, by being tangled in the 
barbed wire and straggling to get free. I have 
seen several with the joints literally sundered by 
this wire. I have seen a fine mare with her fore 
feet nearly sawed off. Many of these, and others, 
were my own patients. Some of them recovered 
fully, having only a few scars. Many of them were 
ruined for life. Sheep seem to be the next great¬ 
est sufferers from this fence. Many of them have 
been fearfully mangled and tom. Cows and swine 
do better. Cattle are much slower animals, and 
much tougher skinned ; still I have seen some cat¬ 
tle badly tom and mangled. Pigs are very cunuing, 
and not much liable to be seriously hurt. Lambs 
and calves suffer a good deal. 
“In its present general construction, the barb wire 
fence comes under the law for the prevention of 
cruelty to animals, and it would be a simple matter 
to make au action lie, if properly managed.—The 
question is, whether we shall do away with this eco¬ 
nomical, useful fence, which is of so much value 
to the treeless farmer out of reach of the lumber 
market, or so far away as to preclude the possibil¬ 
ity of wood fencing. I think not Surely we can 
devise some modification of the evils following the 
use of this fence. I hope our intelligent stock-men 
will try and hit on some method which will do 
away with the objections to this useful fence.” 
Our first strong prejudice against Barbed-wire 
fences was gathered at Lincoln, Neb., and confirm¬ 
ed afterwards at Beloit, Wis., not far from Janes¬ 
ville. It was there that we first met with the Brink- 
erhoff steel strap, which, with the modified barbs 
we suggested several months ago, we still believe 
to be the most desirable fence. This is shown in 
No. 30 of our January number. But there seems to 
be some hitch in bringing it into the general market. 
A Home-made Hay Sask. 
It Is now the time when everything should be put 
in order for the baying season, which, with all its 
hurry, will soon be upon us. Among other things, 
a good substantial Hay Rack, or “Hay-Rigging,” 
as it Is often called, if not already at hand, should 
be supplied ; and this the farmer can do himself. 
The engraving is of one that the writer has used for 
years, and finds it Lu all respects satisfactory. In 
its construction two bed-pieces, A, A, are required, 
these ran the whole length of the rack, about 16 
feet, and rest upon the bolsters of the wagon. Oak 
scantling or plank may be used; but a lighter wood 
is better if made sufficiently large. In the one re¬ 
ferred to, a white-wood log, 9 inches in diameter, 
was used; this was split in halves, the curved or 
sap-wood side being placed outward, with notches 
cut in it, to make a close fit with the stakes, and 
thus keep the rack from sliding. Three cross¬ 
pieces, B, B, of 3 by 3 scantling, and 8 feet long, 
are spiked upon the bed-pieces in notches made to 
receive them, and in the places shown in the.en¬ 
graving. Between the two rear cross-pieces, two 
heavy “ hoops,” C, 0, pass over on a curve to keep 
the hay from falling upon the wheel below. The 
hoops are made from young hickory trees, 3 or 4 
inches through, split in the middle, and bent to the 
proper shape. The ends are securely fastened in 
D-shapcd boles in the cross-pieces. Inch boards 
about a foot in width are placed upon the middle 
cross-pieces, and form the “wings” of the rack. 
These boards are level. In the front, short stand¬ 
ards rise from the ends of the bed-pieces, A, A, 
which are joined by the short cross-piece, R The 
short standards,/), carry the cross-piece, 12, which to 
a foot or so above the bed-piece—the distance to be 
determined by the size of the front wheels. Upon 
this raised cross-piece, and running back in a slant¬ 
ing direction, are two boards, like those in the mid¬ 
dle of the rack—but being raised in front they keep 
the hay from the wheels below them. To complete 
the rack, a “ ladder ” is put at the front; this con¬ 
sists of two stout pieces bolted to the inner sides 
of the ends of the bed-pieces, and approaching 
each other as they pass upward, are united by an 
occasional cross-bar. This ladder serves as a guide 
in loading, gives a place to fasten the reins, and is 
a means of getting off or on the load. Two pins 
36 inches long are 60 t upright in the rear corners of 
the rack, to keep the first forkfuls from sliding off. 
With a number of small bars, F, F, between the 
bed-pieces to hold the floor boards, the rack is 
ready to be put upon the wagon. 
How Does the Water Enter a Tile-Brain? 
It is generally supposed that the pores in drain- 
tiles admit the water; but they do not; if they did 
they would as capillary tubes transmit it very slow¬ 
ly. The ends of the tiles are not perfectly smooth, 
and when they are placed in as close contact as 
possible, do not mahe a water-tight joint. Let us 
suppose the conditions 
to be reversed, and we 
undertake to convey 
water to a distance in 
a pipe made of tiles 
laid as closely together 
as possible. Any one 
at all familiar with such 
matters will at once say 
that the water will leak 
out. at the joints in 
passing through such 
a pipe for but a short 
distance. The manner 
in which the water in 
such a ease would go 
out, allows us to readi¬ 
ly understand how it 
really goes in —it passes through the joints, and 
will enter as readily as it would leak out. Wa¬ 
ter always enters a tile or other drain from the bot¬ 
tom. The surface of the water, as it stands in the 
soil, is called the “water-table,” as seen in the 
engraving. When during a rain water falls upon 
the surface, it at once soaks into the soil, passing 
by gravitation directly downward, until it reaches 
the standing water representing the water-table. 
The water in the soil then rises until the water-table 
cuts the line of the tiles, leaking in at the joints, 
when it begins to run off through the drain. If the 
water-table rises until it reaches the tops of the 
tiles, the drain will then run full, and the water 
will continue to ran off by the drain until the 
water-table fails again to its bottom. 
As to the amount of water which will enter at 
each joint, Gisborne, on the authority of Parkes, of 
high reputation as a draining engineer, says: “If 
an acre of land be intersected with parallel drains 
13 yards apart, and if on that acre should fall the 
very unusual quantity of 1 inch of rain in 13 hours, 
in order that every drop of this rain may be dis¬ 
charged by the drains in forty-eight (48) hours from 
the commencement of the rain—(and in a less 
period that quantity neither will, nor is it desirable 
that it should, filter through an agricultural soil)— 
the interval between two pipes will be called upon 
to pass two-thirds of a table-6poonful of water per 
minute, and no more.” Porous tiles are not desir¬ 
able, as they can aid but little, If any, iu the flow of 
water ; they are not so durable, readily crumbling 
to pieces when exposed to frost, which in ordinary 
seasons reaches them at the outlets, and in extra¬ 
ordinarily cold spells may act upon them in the 
soil at the depth of two and a half or three feet. 
Tile-drains are often spoiled by leaving too open 
joints between the tiles, under the impression that 
the water can not otherwise get into the drain. In 
fact, the joints must be laid closely, otherwise the 
fine soil, or “ silt,” as it is termed, will wash in and 
in time so accumulate as to stop up the drain. 
