AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
197 
with beneficial results, and would recom¬ 
mend it in all cases where the disease makes 
its appearance. G. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
COST OF FENCES. 
In the department of labor to which your 
publication is devoted, the cost of fences is a 
very important subject of inquiry and invest¬ 
igation. Will you please, sir, stir up some 
of your best correspondents in different 
places, and let us have a valuable fund of in¬ 
formation on this subject— reliable statistical 
facts about the cost and durability of differ¬ 
ent kinds of fences in different parts of our 
country. 
I have ascertained that in this country the 
cheapest plank fences and the commonest 
rail fences cost about the same ; and never 
less than $500 per mile. A good medium 
rail worm-fence costs $600 per mile. A 
first-rate rail worm-fence and a good post 
and rail fence cost almost exactly the same, 
and not less than $700 per mile. The most 
of the fences within ten miles of the city, 
now are made first-rate plank fences ; and 
with the utmost scheming , purchases of ma¬ 
terial and plans of construction, I find they 
invariably cost by large quantities $800 per 
mile. 
The strings of plank fence (twenty miles 
each side) of forty miles on the Pacific Rail¬ 
road are now being constructed, for which 
the company are to pay $750 per mile. 
These rates of cost of fences are continu¬ 
ally coming nearer and nearer to the general 
average throughought the country as prai¬ 
ries become more occupied and railroads are 
extending. 
Mi . Editor, I wish to elicit free communi¬ 
cations from others on this subject. Let us 
hear from different persons and places all 
about the cost of fences. I close by adding 
some remarks of one of our city editors last 
week in noticing my card : 
“ The amount of capital employed in the 
construction and repair of fences in the Uni¬ 
ted States, would be deemed fabulous, were 
not the estimates founded on statistical facts 
which admit of no dispute. Strange as it 
may seem, the greatest investment in this 
country, the most costly productions of hu¬ 
man industry, are the common fences which 
divide the fields from the highways, and sepa¬ 
rate them from each other. No man dreams 
that when compared with the outlay for 
those unpretended monuments of art, our 
cities and our towns with all their wealth 
are left far behind. Logan Sleeper. 
St. Louis, Mo., May 22d, 1855. 
STEAM PLOWING. 
Mr. Williams, of Baden, England, says : 
When I first conceived the idea of putting 
my portable engine to such a purpose, after 
a great deal of consideration I came to the 
conclusion that if steam-plowing could be 
accomplished, it ought to be done by the 
simple 4, 5, or 6 horse-power engines which 
are generally used for farm purposes. I 
likewise discoved that such an engine would 
be quite sufficient to propel from three to six 
plows at a time, according to the nature of 
the soil, inasmuch as my engine (one of five- 
horse power), which drove a strap nearly at 
the rate of 20 miles per hour, by reducing 
the speed to about two miles per hour would 
increase her power exactly in the same ra¬ 
tio as the speed was diminished. The ad¬ 
vantages appeared to me to be so great, that 
I immediately set about constructing a ma¬ 
chine, to be driven by the engine, which will 
plow a twenty-yard land without moving, 
and draw the plows in furrow backwards, as 
well as to her, by means of a pulley fixed in 
a frame at the other end of the field. It will 
not be a difficult task to prove to all practical 
men, that if steam-plowing is brought about, 
it should be done by the same engine that 
does the other work of the farm ; and as a 
six-horse engine is the outside power that is 
generally required for that work, so it will 
be quite sufficient for all field purposes. I 
am certain that with a six-horse power en¬ 
gine driving a machine I am now about to 
make, considerably lighter than the one I 
have tried, I shall be able to draw at the rate 
of two miles an hour, from four to six plows 
at once at the ordinary depth which is plowed 
in the west of England, to plow both to and 
from the engine, draw out the spare rope, 
plow from 10 to 20 yards in width without 
moving the engine ; and when required to 
move, the engine shall propel both herself 
and the machine on the next land. 
THE WILLOW. 
The Osier and the Bois d’Arc, are two 
plants which promise much value to South¬ 
ern enterprize. That you concur with me 
in this belief, is evinced by several inter¬ 
esting articles in relation to each of them, 
which you have at different times published 
in your valuable journal. 
I have been cultivating the Golden Willow, 
a variety introduced here many years ago by 
the French immigrants, and last year made a 
fair trial of it for cotton baskets. It proved 
a failure. This species of the Willow is the 
Salix Verinalis, and stands high in Europe. 
But the varieties which are valuable there 
are not necessarily so in this country, and 
there is doubtless a difference between the 
same varieties grown north and south. The 
Virninalis has long, slender and very flexible 
twigs, and works well into baskets; but 
when the baskets become dry, the material is 
very brittle, and the baskets are easily brok¬ 
en up. 
A short time since, I wrote to Dr. C. W. 
Grant, of Newburg, N. Y., who I understood 
to be one of the first willow culturists of our 
country, if not the very first, requesting him 
to send me cuttings of what he esteemed the 
best willow for baskets, and for this climate, 
and he very obligingly complied with my re¬ 
quest, by sending me the Purpurea, or Bitter 
Purple Willow—which he says is valuable in 
all respects as an Osier, and particularly for 
work that requires long, slender, unsplit 
wands, of great toughness. The intense bit¬ 
terness of its bark and leaves, he further 
says, renders it exempt from beast and in¬ 
sects, and consequently adapted for making 
live fences. Lasting fences, very ornamental 
and profitable, made of it, producing one 
crop of Osiers annually. 
He recommends three varieties, viz. : 1st, 
$. Purpurea; 2d, Triandria ; 3d, Forbyana, 
as a complete assortment for basket makers, 
and such as will supply all their wants. He 
speaks highly also of a fourth species, the 
Salix Beveridgii, which he says is on trial by 
Mr. Anderson C. Armstrong, of Jackson, 
Mississippi. He has also sent to most, if 
not all the Southern States, and expects re¬ 
ports from them the coming autumn. 
Dr. Grant says that a great discourage¬ 
ment arose at the commencement of the wil¬ 
low culture in this country, from the failure 
of the most vigorous growers of Europe to 
produce good Osiers. Verninalis, and the 
celebrated Longskin, of Nottingham, their 
most popular Osiers, are nearly worthless 
here, not being adapted to our climate. Dr. 
Grant imported all the European varieties of 
note, and by a comprehensive and careful 
experiment, ascertained which are best 
adapted to our climate, and also which are 
the most valuable. Among many which 
proved to be good, three have been found of 
surpassing excellence. These are the three 
Osiers before mentioned. 
As a marketable commodity, nothing will 
compare with them in profit. In England 
the net cost per acre is from one to two hun¬ 
dred dollars, and frequently two hundred and 
fifty dollars, and although the business of 
the willow culture is extensively engaged 
in from the peasant to the lord, the Duke of 
Bedford having a plantation of 100,000 acres; 
the demand still keeps ahead of the supply. 
There are annually imported into the United 
States, some four millions of dollars worth of 
this article, and it sells some twenty percent 
higher here than in Europe. Statements 
have been published of profit as high as $330 
per acre, in the State of New-York, from 
willow twigs. 
From 10 to 15,000 cuttings are required to 
the acre, and as to the best soils, culture and 
management generally, they may be all ob¬ 
tained from Dr. Grant, who will also furnish 
cuttings of the aforesaid three varieties at 
$5 per thousand, making a discount to those 
wishing to plant by the acre, or to make a 
business of this culture. He will, besides, 
give such particular directions from time to 
time as will assure success.— American 
Cotton Planter. 
USEFULNESS OF BIRDS. 
From an address delivered before the 
Aquidneck Agricultural Society (Middletown, 
R. I.,) last September, by .1. Prescott Hall, 
Esq., we copy the following generous para¬ 
graphs, for which the birds ought to present 
their thanks to him en masse, as they once 
did to us, for having said a good word in 
their behalf. 
There is an act upon your statue book, 
entitled “ an act of preservation of useful 
birds.” And which are the birds declared 
useful by law 1 “ larks, robins, wood-ducks, 
grey or black ducks, partridges, quails, wood¬ 
cocks, snipes, grouse, and plover. 
The object of these laws, is to preserve 
those feathered races, during the time they 
are rearing their young, which of course 
every reasonable man would do, even if he 
were cruel. But why should birds of song 
be ever destroyed 1 Why should the migrato¬ 
ry thrush, which is generally called the rob¬ 
in, be the object of slaughter"? He is your 
companion throughout the year unless the 
winter be unusually severe ; the firstto greet 
you in the spring, your cheerful, social, con¬ 
fiding friend during the summer, and the last 
to desert you at the end of autumn. He 
builds his nest in your orchards and upon 
your fence rails. Why will you permit your 
children to tear it down in mere wanionness 
and the love of purposeless havoc "? 
The meadow lark makes vocal your fields 
during the whole month of October and 
November, when the blasts of the north 
have sent away the warblers, the viroes, the 
bob-o-lincolns, the finches, the catbirds and 
song thrushes to the milder climes of the 
south for warmth and protection. Even 
the payicious birds do little or no harm with 
us. The little screech-owl amuses our au¬ 
tumnal evenings with his mellow, though 
somewhat mournful notes. The graceful 
harrier, balanced on equal wing, sweeps 
over your meadows and swamps, seeking 
for rats, for frogs, for mice,snakes and other 
vermin of a like loathsome character. Gun¬ 
ner, why should you strike down this crea¬ 
ture, which God has made so beautiful and 
brave, for the mere purpose of exhibiting your 
cruel skill? In winter, when pressed with 
hunger, he may take a chicken from your 
yard, or a pigeon from your dove-cote, but 
upon the whole he does you more good than 
harm. 
And so all the worm eating and insect 
catching birds, including even the woodpeck- 
