10 
REVIEW OF PROFESSOR JOHNSTON’S NOTES ON AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 
REVIEW OF PROFESSOR JOHNSTON’S NOTES ON 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 
In the Edinburg Quarterly Journal of Agri¬ 
culture for September, is published Professor 
Johnston’s Notes on American Agriculture, from 
which we clip such passages as appear most 
worthy of comment, and upon them express 
our opinion freely without noticing the other 
portions. 
The first part of the following extract is what 
we might naturally suppose would be the most 
surprising thing to an Englishman; that is, our 
“horrible slovenliness” in farming; and the 
balance describes some of the beauties of 
our self-taxing beautiful fencing system. The 
whole of the article, from which the extracts 
are taken, might be very properly headed, 
“English Opinions of American Farming.” We 
hope the extracts will be read and duly consid¬ 
ered for our benefit:— 
“In noticing some of the peculiarities of 
American farms and farming, one cannot fail to 
be surprised at what has been termed the hor¬ 
rible slovenliness of American agriculturists 
generally. And first as to fences. They may 
truly be said to be of the rudest description. 
So far as we can recollect, we did not see a real 
good-looking English fence during our visit, and 
we have been in the best agricultural districts 
of the state of New York. We will describe 
one very favorite form—we may call it the zig¬ 
zag fence. A number of wooden rails, or pieces 
of scantling, no matter how rough and crooked 
they may be, are first obtained. One rail is 
laid in the ground, then another is laid so as to 
form an angle with the first one, its end resting 
on that of the first. A third rail is then laid on 
the end of the second and forming an angle 
therewith; and the same is done with a fourth 
rail, and so on. Other loose rails are laid upon 
them until a proper height is obtained—this is 
generally four or five feet. The whole forms a 
peculiarly unstable-looking fence, but it is in 
reality very strong and capable of resisting con¬ 
siderable opposing force. The whole is upheld 
without the assistance of a single nail, or other 
fastening. It is this peculiarity, doubtless, that 
has caused it to be adopted. It is, however, ob¬ 
vious that, in its construction, a vast quantity of 
wood is uselessly expended. This, however, is 
of little moment in the interior, where wood is 
so plentiful. The farmers are very fond of this 
species of fence, ugly and cumbersome as it 
is. * So stupidly attached to this form of fence 
are some old people, that when they build wall 
fences they build them in and out, in the same 
zigzag way that they have been accustomed to 
do their rail fences.’ As may be supposed, the 
gates in farms are quite in keeping generally 
with the rudeness of the fences. Posts are driv¬ 
en in on either side of the gateway; and in the 
inside of these, holes are cut at equal distances; 
in these holes, rails are inserted—of course 
losely—all of which have to be removed when 
a cart, for instance, is required to pass through 
Regularly hung gates are sometimes used; these 
are, however, rude enough in their construction. 
‘ To balance a gate, you will see the topmost 
piece of timber extended five or six feet over 
the post to which it was attached. On this 
piece of timber, you will sometimes see a trough 
filled with stones, while at other times, a huge 
piece of wood is attached. It is needless to 
say, that, in all well-conducted farms, the fences, 
&c., are admirably constructed and arranged. 
This unfortunately is the exception, not the 
rule.” 
This is a modest description of the manner in 
which these, to us, familiar sights, strike the 
senses of a stranger. He might have told his 
readers that we pile up these zigzag fences 
sometimes sixteen rails high; that they rot 
down every seven years and have to be replac¬ 
ed at an enormous expense of toil; and that no 
agricultural people in the world are so severely 
taxed as the self-inflicted fence tax of the Amer¬ 
ican farmer. 
The enormous expenditure of time, money, 
and waste of lands, to say nothing of inconve¬ 
nience of cultivation, occasioned by stone walls, 
seem to have escaped the writer’s notice; and 
no wonder, when we consider how he must have 
been dazzled and confounded with the sight de¬ 
scribed in the next paragraph. 
“ But the fences and gates are not the only 
things unpleasing to the eye of the scientific 
farmer. The appearance of some of the fields 
of a comparatively new tract of land is pecu¬ 
liarly odd. On clearing land, the trees are cut 
down some three feet from the ground; the 
stumps, thus left, are allowed to remain in the 
ground till they utterly decay. They are gen¬ 
erally black and scorched looking; this is ow¬ 
ing to their being burnt, which prevents vegeta¬ 
tion from proceeding after the trees are cut 
down. This, as may be judged, has a tendency 
to preserve the wood for a much longer period 
than otherwise would be the case if allowed to 
remain unburnt. One enterprising farmer told 
us that he never burnt the stumps, but allowed 
them to remain to decay naturally. The period 
taken in such cases is ten years; when charred- 
much longer. The stumps, thus left, almost in¬ 
variably burnt and charred, present a curious 
