farm-fencing. 
273 
affected with a malady, for the last five years, from 
Maine to Virginia, which seems to have baffled all 
skill in attempting to investigate its cause, and 
which, at one time, seemed to threaten the total ex¬ 
tinction of the race. The past year, however, the 
evil was less formidable, the branches put forth 
with more vigor, and it is generally believed that 
the malady is passing away. 
The Tulip-tree (white-wood), like the occidental 
plane, occupies an extensive range, and has been 
successfully cultivated throughout the Atlantic 
States, for the purpose of ornament, from Newbury - 
port, in Massachusetts, to St. Mary’s, in Georgia, 
and west of the mountains beyond the Mississippi. 
When planted in a soil it loves, and where it has 
room to expand on all sides, next to the button- 
wood, it attains the amplest dimensions; while the 
perfect straightness and uniform diameter of the 
trunk, the more regular distribution of its branches, 
and the greater richness of its foliage and flowers, 
which are rarely attacked by any insect, give it a 
decided superiority over that tree. When grouped 
or associated with the willow, the ailantus, the sil¬ 
ver-leaved maple, or the elm, the tulip-tree forms 
a most desirable acquisition to parks and avenues, 
as well as to public highways. This tree, how¬ 
ever, has but few fibrous roots, and consequently is 
somewhat difficult to be transplanted, unless a ball 
of earth is suffered to adhere to the roots, when re¬ 
moved.— Transactions of the N. Y. State Ag. Soc. 
FARM-FENCING. 
Good fences are among the most important con¬ 
stituents of the farm, and absolutely indispensable 
to well regulated agriculture in this country. But 
it is a serious question whether excessive fencing is 
not a prevailing fault with the American farmer, 
the northern ones at least. In stony districts, 
walls are made to a great extent, for a two-fold pur¬ 
pose ; one to get rid of the surplus stones which 
encumber cultivation—the other to subdivide the 
enclosures into small compass for the convenience 
of pasturage , fyc. For, in the division of grain and 
root-cropping, they are of little or no utility, as the 
extensive and highly cultivated bottom lands bor¬ 
dering many of our large rivers, where they cannot 
be maintained by reason of the annual freshets, will 
testify. The construction of new fences, and their 
annual support and repair, are a heavy and one¬ 
rous tax to the farmer, and it therefore becomes a 
desideratum with every calculating man to what 
extent they shall be made. Mr. Biddle, in a late 
address to the Philadelphia Agricultural Society, 
estimates the annual cost of building and repairing 
fences in Pennsylvania alone, at upwards of 
$3,000,000 ; at least one-half of which could ad¬ 
vantageously be dispensed with. In New England, 
how many thousands of miles of stone wall are 
made for no other apparent purpose than to get rid 
of the stones, without adding at all to the utility or 
ornament of the farm ? I venture to say, that at 
least one-half of the whole extent of the stone 
walls of New England might be advantageously 
dispensed with ; or, by making the boundary and 
road fences of heavier and more durable character, 
fewer subdivisions would be required, and the en¬ 
closures all the better for profitable cultivation. 
Good fencing, in excess, is not the prevailing 
fault, for the character of American fences is gene¬ 
rally deficient both in strength and durability. 
The system needs reform. In the stony districts of 
the United States,- the walls are usually low and 
carelessly laid; often thrown down by frost, and 
frequently more a subject of annoyance than other¬ 
wise. Now, what should be done as a remedy ? 
I answer, lay them deeper and broader at the base, 
where the material is abundant; at least, one or two 
feet below the surface of the ground should lie 
the foundation; and two and a half to three feet 
thick, gradually narrowing to a foot or eighteen 
inches at the top, and at least five feet high. Such 
walls as these will work up a world of stone, and 
divide the farm into convenient sized lots to 
some purpose. No ordinary grazing animal will 
scale them, and they will last a life-time at all 
events, and perhaps for centuries, according to the 
soil and climate. Besides the everlasting tax for 
repairs, the ordinary stone-wall is a perpetual har¬ 
bor for vermin, which are destructive to the crops, 
and the nucleus for a nameless catalogue of nox¬ 
ious weeds and bushes, which every few years re¬ 
quire the extirpating hand of the occupant. This" 
of itself is no small tax, and when to these objec¬ 
tions is added the loss of the land they occupy, 
where land is really worth anything, it becomes a 
serious matter. 
Did it ever occur to the New England husband¬ 
man, in the stony regions, that his farm, be it good 
or bad, if he wants to sell it, in more than an ave¬ 
rage of cases, with all its improvements, will not 
bring him what the stone-walls and buildings upon 
it have cost at ordinary labor prices ? Yet such, I 
venture to say, is the fact. Many, no doubt, wilL 
question it. Very well. Then make the calcula¬ 
tion as the facts exist, and see for yourselves. The 
statement will not vary much from the truth. IF 
may be asked what is the remedy? How are the? 
various qualities and descriptions of our lands to 
be divided into “the usual proportions of plow- 
land, meadow, and pasture,” as our farms on sale' 
are usually described? This is, to be sure, a 
pithy, and rather pregnant question as a general 
one, and is only to be answered in a general way;; 
that where draining and good cultivation are prac¬ 
tised sufficiently, large tracts can be brought into 
one enclosure and render small subdivisions need¬ 
less. These, however, are to be accommodated 
to the size of the estate, and must depend on cir¬ 
cumstances. Sheep-farms require less fencing 
than almost any other, as a broad range is more 
healthy for them, and a great promoter of a good 
growth of fleece. Yet the price of land has so 
much to do with the subject, that the cultivator as 
proprietor must judge for himself, having in view 
constantly the main principles of security, dura¬ 
bility, and economy. 
When stone is wanting, rail and board fencing is 
also carried in many instances, to excess although 
the incentives to it are not so great as on stony 
soils—not in quality , but in quantity The same 
objections exist to them in a degree that prevail, 
with stone fences, save that of harboring ver¬ 
min. The cheapest fence of all others, in a timber 
country, is the common worm, or Virginia rail en¬ 
closure, seven to nine, or ten rails high, as may be 
required, with a lock of two rails at each corner 
