AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
1SG0.1 
37 
amid the flowers we have planted around their 
graves, and the singing birds that make their 
house m the trees we have set. Ruralist. 
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Tim Bunker on giving 1 Boys a Start. 
Mr. Editor: “Be sure you’re right then go 
ahead.” Davy Crockett got out considerable 
(ruth when he started that proverb. I guess it is 
about as applicable to starting boys in life, as it is 
to starting land on a right course to make it prof¬ 
itable. Now you may take poor, run-down land, 
and plow it, and crop it, as much as you have a 
mind to, and you can’t make it pay for the labor 
of working. It needs the right start to begin 
with, and then you can go ahead and get pay for 
cultivating. 
Now a great many folks make the same mistake 
with their boys, that I did in working Mrs. Bunk¬ 
er’s dowry lots, until I begun to turn in green 
crops. They don’t give ’em the right start. A 
good many work their boys till they are twenty- 
one, and then send them off to shift for them¬ 
selves,without capital, and without any experience 
in the earning and use of money. They stint them 
on schooling in the latter part of their minority, 
because their work is worth as rfuch as a man’s. 
They seem to have as little regard for the future 
welfare of the boy, as they do for their land 
when they get all they can out of it without put¬ 
ting on any manure. They pay very little atten¬ 
tion to their morals, and before they know it, the 
boy has learned to chew tobacco, smoke, drink, 
and swear, and perhaps to rob water-melon 
patches, and hen-roosts. He comes up to man¬ 
hood a Kier Frink, fond of low company, and 
ready for any mischief that offers. They do not 
see their mistake until it is too late to mend it. 
Now you see, to give boys the right start, you 
must begin early with them. If you don’t get 
right notions into their heads before they are 
twenty-one, I guess you might as well give them 
up. You can’t begin too soon to cultivate their 
hearts, and to teach them to respect the rights of 
their Maker and the rights of their fellow-men. 
Some seem to think it makes no difference what 
sort of principles a young man adopts, or what 
habits he forms. I have lived long enough to see 
that there is nothing pays so well in the long run, as 
correct moral habits. These make a young man en¬ 
tirely reliable, and his friends can trust him in any 
business. Any one of the vices, to which so many 
boys are addicted, is a great pecuniary damage. It 
is just like contracting a heavy debt at the begin¬ 
ning of life, and having to pay interest all 
through. You may safely put down the use of 
tobacco as a debt of five thousand dollars, the use 
of intoxicating drinks as five thousand more, and 
swearing, lying, and theft, at about the same fig¬ 
ures. A young man wants nothing so much, 
when starting in business, as the confidence of his 
fellows. This must be based upon his character. 
But when we have got a boy’s heart and mor¬ 
als all right, there is something else to be done 
for him. A man, however upright, will not suc¬ 
ceed without industrious habits, and a knowledge 
of the value of money, which is one of the best 
incentives to industry. There is only one way 
in which we can estimate money at its proper 
value, and that is to earn it. A silver dollar rep¬ 
resents a day’s work of the laborer. If it. is giv¬ 
en to a boy, he has no idea of what it has cost, 
or of what it is worth He would be as likely to 
give a dollar as a dime for a top, or any other 
toy. But if the boy has learned to earn his 
dimes and dollars by the sweat of his face, he 
knows the difference. The painful stretch of his 
muscles through the long rows of corn, or at the 
plow tail, is to him a measure of values, that can 
never be rubbed out of his mind. A hundred dol¬ 
lars represents a hundred weary days, and it seems 
a great sum of money. A thousand dollars is a 
fortune, and ten thousand is almost inconceiva¬ 
ble, for it is far more than he ever expects to 
possess. When he has earned a dollar, he thinks 
twice before he spends it. He wants to invest it 
so as to get the full value of a day’s work for it. 
It is a great wrong to society and to a boy, to 
bring him up to man’s estate without this knowl¬ 
edge. A fortune at twenty-one, without it, is al¬ 
most inevitably thrown away. With it, and a lit¬ 
tle capital to start on, he will make his own for¬ 
tune better than any one can make it for him. 
The most of the capital they need to start with, 
they might earn in their minority. It is better 
for farmers to pay their boys regular wages, be¬ 
ginning, say, when they are fourteen, and teach¬ 
ing them how to take care of it, than to give 
them a much larger sum when they are of age. 
The seven year’s wages, if put in the Saving’s 
Bank, in annual investments, would come to over 
a thousand dollars, and with this, and a good 
character, and industrious habits, a young farm¬ 
er’s fortune is secure. That is double the capital 
I had to start with; but then I had Sally Bunker 
for a wife, and the like of her is better luck than 
common mortals can expect. 
Yours to command, 
Hookertoum, Cl., Jan. 15 ] Timotuy Bunker, Esq. 
A New Stump-Puller. 
In many parts of the country, a cheap, porta¬ 
ble, effective implement for extracting stumps, 
is a great desideratum, and a number of forms 
have been brought forward. To keep our read¬ 
ers posted on what is doing, we present here¬ 
with an illustration of the latest machine 
designed for this purpose. The engraving was 
prepared expressly for these columns. Not 
having had opportunity to see the machine in 
actual operation, we cannot speak from practical 
observation as to its utility. From its construc¬ 
tion, it would appear to have power enough at 
least, and we have been furnished with the tes¬ 
timony of several farmers, who speak in high 
terms of its operation. The inventor names it 
the “Hercules Stump Puller.” In preparing the 
engraving we have endeavored to make its con¬ 
struction so plain as to be readily understood 
without particular descriptions. It will be 
noticed that the chain winds around the shaft or 
windlass. This is turned with groat power by 
means of the compound levers acting upon the 
ratchet wheel. The implement can be readily 
moved about by laying it on an axle between two 
wheels—taken from a wagon. 
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For the American Agriculturist. 
Hints on Board Fences. 
[The following article was furnished partly as a critique 
upon the method of building board fences, described by 
the writer of the prize articles in last volume. We omit 
the special criticism, and give the writer’s description of 
what is considered the best mode of building this class of 
fence in bis section of the country, having respect to eco¬ 
nomy, strength, and durability.—E d ] 
Posts .—The most durable kinds of wood that we 
have, are locust, cedar and oak. The variety called 
the swamp white oak is considered the best, 
though the upland white- oak is often used. Of 
cedar, the red is far preferable to the white. 
The locust is better than all others: and here 1 
would observe that, if farmers would pay more 
attention to the raising of the locust, they would 
soon find it much to their interest. The locust 
grows rapidly ; and if set out by the road-side, 
or on rough, jstony, or otherwise unprofitable 
parts of the farm, they would in a few years be 
amply repaid for the labor and expense. On the 
road-side they are ornamental, and fragrant ia 
the season of blossoms, and give a pleasant 
shade. Fifteen years’ growth will make from 
three to six or eight posts to each tree—the most 
durable of any timber in our country. As 
evidence of its durability, I may mention that a 
friend of mine visited his native town in Massa¬ 
chusetts, and there examined a locust post that 
had been in the ground, according to tradition 
and actual knowledge, for seventy years, and it 
was still in a pretty sound condition. In this 
country, where the tree grows very rapidly, it is 
not expected to be as hard and durable as neai 
the salt water, on a light and generally more 
sterile soil ; still it is superior to any other, and 
easy of cultivation. 
For a good strong fence, and none other should 
ever be made, the posts should be set not to ex¬ 
ceed six feet apart. If the boards are only four¬ 
teen feet long, then one post in the center will 
do; but if they are sixteen or eighteen feet in 
length, two intermediate posts should be used. 
Two and a half feet is a proper depth to set me 
posts, and after they are thus set, and befoie ttie 
boards are put on, an embankment should be 
thrown up around the posts of from six to ten 
inches high at least; more than this would be 
better. The surface at the center of the em¬ 
bankment, or along in a line with the posts, 
should be made level and smooth ; this can be 
done before putting on the boards, much easier, 
quicker, and cheaper than at any other time. The 
team can pass between them, and draw the plow 
without hindrance. The benefit of this ridging 
is obvious; it secures the posts to a greater 
depth in the soil; it makes an even surface for the 
bottom board ; it stops up ail hog-holes, and 
causes the water to pass off more freely frem 
the fence to the ditches on each side. The 
ditches should be about two and a half, or three 
feet from the center, each way. Having set the 
posts, and leveled the ridge or embankment, 
then proceed to face the posts (if split from, tho 
log) with a common narrow ax. As they are 
held fast in the ground at one end, a man, with a 
little mechanical ingenuity and a good eye, can 
easily and quickly do this with sufficient accura¬ 
cy. If the posts be sawed, no other facing will 
be necessary. 
In nailing the boards upon the posts, the most 
