129 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
For the American Agriculturist. } 
FENCING. 
In this section of New-Jersey a great va¬ 
riety of fencing is adopted by farmers. The 
most durable and substantial one, on a farm 
five miles distant, is a post and rail fence, 
made with heavy chestnut posts and broad 
white cedar rails eleven feet long. The 
average cost was ten cents per foot, or $528 
per mile. If chestnut rails had been used 
instead of cedar, the cost would have been 
nine cents per foot, or $475 per mile. 
The most ordinary kind of post and rail 
fence, made of white oak posts and rails of 
oak, black, red or pin oak, will cost not less 
than seven cents per foot, or about $370 per 
mile. 
In some cases our farmers have set up a 
neat looking fence, constructed of white oak 
posts sawed and holed, and placed eight feet 
apart, with a railing of hemlock boards six¬ 
teen feet long, six inches wide, and an inch 
and a quarter thick. The expense of this is 
about seven and a half cents per foot, or 
$396 per mile. 
But I have put up on my place a kind of 
fencing which unites cheapness with great 
neatness of appearance. This is made of 
hemlock boards sixteen feet long, six inches 
wide and an inch and a quarter thick, nailed 
with a substantial fencing nail upon white 
oak posts put eight feet apart. There should 
be a breaking of joints by alternation, as in 
this sketch: 
The tops of the post should be sawed off 
even with the top rail, and the whole fence 
whitewashed. Perhaps no kind of inclosure 
so neat and attractive can be made for the 
same money, while it is nevertheless true 
that it is not quite so lasting as cedar and 
chestnut. 
The expense per mile may be estimated 
as follows ■ 
660 white oak posts, at 12c.$79 20 
Cartage do., $2 per hundred. 13 20 
10,560 ft. hemlock, at $12 50 per M.. 132 00 
Carting do., $2 per M.21 12 
200 lbs. fencing nails, 7c. per lb. 14 00 
Setting 330 panel fence, at 20c. each. 66 00 
Total cost per mile.$335 56 
—Which is but little more than one dollar 
per rod, and a little less than one dollar a 
panel of sixteen feet. 
If a closer fence were desired, the two 
lower rails might be seven inches wide, or 
five rails instead of four might be used, 
though the latter is the number intended in 
each of the cases mentioned above. 
Pennington, N. J. Mercer. 
Great Corn Country. —A Mr. Brooks re¬ 
cently made an ascension in a balloon, from 
Rockford, Illinois. Upon his descent, being 
asked what he saw beneath during his ele¬ 
vation, he replied—“ nothing! nothing but 
corn.” 
STABLE MANURE AND GUANO. 
Mr. E. A., of South Seekonk, Mass., in¬ 
quires : “ What is your opinion of good Pe¬ 
ruvian guano, as compared with stable ma¬ 
nure V’ 
The question does not admit of a general 
answer. As long as you have good stable 
manure in abundance, that is the best. 
When the supply of that fails, or when it 
must be procured at great expense, then 
good guano is the cheapest, since it contains 
more plant-food or stimulus than common 
manure in a given bulk or weight. Their 
effects upon the soil or plants are similar— 
both furnish the elements the growing crops 
require. 
For a heavy soil—that is, one that needs 
loosening—coarse manures produce the best 
effects. So, on a light, sandy soil which 
does not contain a sufficiency of organic or 
vegetable matter, we should choose stable 
manure, if to be had. On ordinary soils of 
medium fertility, the question is wholly one 
of relative cost of getting the two kinds of 
manure. Generally, unless the cultivator 
lives near a village or city, where good stable 
manure can be obtained cheaply and readily, 
it is cheaper to get guano. 
Most lands of ordinary fertility may be 
treated profitably with more manure than 
the farm produces. In such cases, we re¬ 
peat, first use in the most economical man¬ 
ner all the manures and other organic mat¬ 
ters to be obtained at a moderate cost, and 
then make up any deficiency with guano. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
HOUSEHOLD MATTERS. 
A CHEAP HAT-STAND—LEMON CHEESE—DELICATE 
CAKE. 
For cheap ornamental purposes, whether 
applied without or within doors, there is no 
tree in our country more available than the 
Red Cedar. Its durability and lightness 
alike recommend it as suitable either for the 
the exposed garden-seat or the more shel¬ 
tered hall—in which latter situation I have 
seen it occupying a conspicuous place as a 
HAT-STAND. 
And very simple and pretty it was, I can 
assure you. It is constructed as follows : 
Procure from the forests a cedar, not too 
stout, but firm and straight; then after re¬ 
moving the bark and trimming out all the 
smaller twigs, leaving the large and strong 
ones as supports for hats and coats—cutting 
them off, however, about six or eight inches 
from the main trunk—proceed by fastening 
it firmly with large nails upon a piece of 
plank, from one foot to eighteen inches 
square, proportioned to the size and weight 
of your tree. This hat-stand, when nicely 
varnished, makes an appropriate and useful 
appendage to a country house—quite as dur¬ 
able, if not so handsome, as the cumbrous 
iron ones in common use. 
I will close, now, by giving you two reci¬ 
pes, which, having repeatedly tried, I can 
assure you are most excellent: 
LEMON CHEESE. 
Take six eggs, and beat them up with 3 
ounces of butter and one pound of sugar; put 
them over the fire in a brass kettle. As 
soon as they come to a boil, stir into them 
four grated lemons, and let them simmer fif¬ 
teen minutes, stirring them all the time. 
The above mixture is excellent for filling 
puff paste, and as it will keep a month, 
country housekeepers will appreciate the 
convenience of having something always 
ready. I have seen it used on the tea table 
as a sweetmeat, and eaten with cream. 
DELICATE CAKE. 
Beat the white of eight eggs to a froth, 
then add one tea-cup of butter, two cups of 
sugar, one pound of flour, one tea-spoonful 
of soda dissolved in a tea-cupful of sweet 
milk, two tea-spoonfuls of cream tartar sifted 
through the flour. Essence to suit the taste. 
Bake one hour and a quarter. 
Eliza. 
LOSS OF FRUIT TREES-HINTS ON SETTING 
OUT, &C.No. 1. 
[The following hints are from a practical 
tree planter, and are worthy of attention. 
Preserving the roots from exposure is im¬ 
portant. Dipping them in a mixture of dung 
and clay or other earth, is an excellent sug¬ 
gestion. Any kind of vessel, or even a hol¬ 
low made in a compost soil, will answer for 
making a “ puddle ” in. Mulching the trees 
with straw, coarse dung, leaves, or muck, is 
always to be commended. There are differ¬ 
ent opinions in regard to the amount of 
shortening-in that should be practised. We 
should cut off as few branches as possibly, 
unless the tree is unusually exposed to the 
wind. The tree feeds through its leaves, 
and will make roots and wood in proportion 
to the amountgof healthy foliage.—E d.J 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist 
I am persuaded that this subject claims the 
repeated and continued attention of those 
who are yearly embarking in agriculture and 
horticulture. No farm is desirable without 
more or less fruit trees upon it, and if not 
already stocked, the purchaser sees this 
defect almost the first thing. The proper 
manner, therefore, of securing success in the 
setting out of trees, and an after culture that 
will give thrift and vigor, becomes at once a 
subject worthy of consideration. The great 
annual loss of fruit trees testifies to the fact 
that all are not fully informed upon this sub¬ 
ject. 
One farmer bought dwarf pears and set 
them out on a dry sandy soil. Two years 
after he called my attention to them, and 
wondered what was the matter with his pear 
trees. I said to him they were dwarfs—that 
is, pears worked on quince, which, to thrive 
must be planted on moist, heavy soil. Also, 
the very necessary operation of shortening- 
in the stem (of which I will presently speak 
more at length) had been entirely neglected. 
I wish now to propose a plan that is prac¬ 
ticable, and within the reach of all who read 
this article, for the management of fruit and 
ornamental trees when received from the 
nurseries. 
Before the trees are unpacked, prepare a 
trench in some spot that has already been 
worked over so as to be loose, taking care 
not to choose a place that will interefere 
