REVIEW OP THE SEPTEMBER NUMBER OF THE AGRICULTURIST. 
15 
up, it would be better to heat the wire, and after¬ 
wards paint it. Coal tar would also be an excel¬ 
lent substance for that purpose. Now for the ex¬ 
pense. 
A strand of No. 11 wire, 80 rods long, 
weighs 25 lbs. 
80 rods of fence would weigh 125 lbs. at 
7 cents, . . 
14 red-cedar posts, 25 cents each, 
85 stakes, 1 cent each, 
Preparing wire and painting, . 
Setting posts and stakes, . 
Putting up fence, including spikes, or 
boring posts, .... 
Contingences, . . . . 
$10.75 
3.50 
0.85 
1.00 
0.50 
1.00 
1.00 
Outside cost for 80 rods of wire fence, . $17.60 
This would be 22 cents per rod; but the actual 
cost to the farmer would not be 20 cents. 
On most farms, where there is plenty of timber for 
posts, it would not cost but about 16 cents per rod. 
But allowing for all contingencies, and that it costs 
25 cents per rod, it is then by far the cheapest fence 
that can be built. 
In order to fence against hogs, I would drive 
down short posts and put on boards about two feet, 
and put the wires above, but nearer together. I 
think that no hog that ought to go at large would 
ever get through. For all other kinds of stock, it 
would be impenetrable. A neighbor of mine, who is 
compelled to fence against a whole village of street 
cows, put but two strands across a stream, where 
his fence was washed away, and it has proved a 
perfect protection. I have seen the cows walk up 
to it, but have never yet known one to attempt to 
get through, although the temptation between a 
fresh pasture and the dry streets was very great, I 
have no doubt. T. C. Peters, 
Darien , N. Y., November , 1848. 
REVIEW OF THE SEPTEMBER NUMBER OF THE 
AGRICULTURIST. 
Potash Necessary as an Ingredient in the Food of 
Plants , is the title of the first article in this number, 
from the reading of which the reflection naturally 
arises, of how much of this indispensible ingredient 
is wasted in many parts of our land—in the waste 
of household ashes, clearing of forests, and the neg¬ 
lect of gathering and burning weeds, leaves, &c. 
But, above ail things, is the want of knowledge of 
the value of such ingredients, or that potash is at 
all required to enable the farmer to produce a good 
crop. How small a portion of the cultivators of 
the western prairies are there, who think of the 
potash stored up in the soil upon which an annual 
crop of grass has been burnt for a thousand years! 
Do one in ten of the advocates of burning stubble, 
ever think that it is the potash given immediately 
to the surface, that tends to enrich it more than it 
would be by the slow decay of the whole mass of 
straw and weeds, when plowed in, or what is much 
more common, left to rot, or dry up and blow away, 
or be washed off by the rains. This matter of ma¬ 
nuring land with potash, is one that demands more 
attention. 
Social Meeting of Farmers and Gardeners. —This 
is one of the kind of meetings that should be much 
more common. All trades and professions have 
their meetings to devise ways and means to pro¬ 
mote their business. But a meeting of farmers to 
impart knowledge to each other about their own 
business, is almost an unknown thing. Farmers 
are certainly too unsocial for their own good. The 
organization of farmers’ clubs and social meetings, 
always tend to improve every neighborhood in 
which they are established. I wish their number 
might be increased a thousand fold. 
Adulteration of Food , No. 3.—I have heretofore 
given my views upon this subject. If the citizens 
of New York use adulterated milk, in these latter 
days, they deserve but little pity. The railroad to 
Orange county alone is sufficient to supply the city 
with pure, sweet milk, without any assistance from 
Pump , Chalk fy Co. If the consumer will only de¬ 
termine that he will have good milk, I have faith to 
believe he will find honest dealers enough to sup¬ 
ply him. It is well known to dairymen that one 
cent and a half a quart for milk, will pay more pro¬ 
fit than the average price of butter and cheese. 
But there seems to be a class in the community so 
thoughtless, or careless, that they are willing to be 
fed under the name of milk, with the refuse of the 
filthy still tubs, after it has been run through the 
intestines of a poor feverish cow, with just life 
enough left in her to enable nature to separate the 
coloring matter from her food, and make that wish- 
a-washy stuff that is drawn from her teats, and 
which bears no other resemblance to fluid from the 
same source in a good grass-fed, country-bred, 
healthy cow, than is found in the fact that it has a 
whitish, milky look. There is another source of 
adulteration of milk, that the writer of that article 
has neglected to speak of. It is to be found in the 
unaccountable negligence of whole communities, in 
breeding calves for milking qualities. 
American Horses in France. —I am delighted to 
learn that “there is a tide in the affairs of” horses, 
as well as men ‘ and that it may yet turn and flow 
towards Europe, with such a flow as will complete¬ 
ly overwhelm that prejudice against everything 
American, until the people of that country, as well 
as this, will learn that we can grow horses upon 
our cheap lands, for less money, and of as good 
quality as can be done in the “auld countrie.” 
The truth is that the importation of stock has been 
carried to a ridiculous extreme; and it is time that 
the tide should turn. 
Marking Sheep. —Until something of this kind is 
adopted, I wish to impress it upon every one who 
keeps a flock, if not more than half a dozen, that 
Yenitian red is the best thing that 1 ever saw used 
to paint-mark sheep. It is, as most all know, a 
cheap red paint, only a few cents a pound, and one 
pound will mark a thousand. Take up a pinch of 
the dry powder, and draw.the thumb and finger 
through the wool upon the particular spot you 
would mark, loosing the powder at the same time, 
and it will combine with the oil of the wool, and 
make a bright-red mark that rains will never wash 
out, and which will endure from one shearing to 
another, but does not injure the wool. It is 
readily cleansed out by the manufacturer. 
A Mink Trap. —The one described, for ought I 
know, may be a very good one, and probably the 
fish bait on the dried muskrat flesh, a very good 
