336 
FHIPPs’ PATENT WIRE FENCE. 
mac, I cannot pass it by without leaving a slight 
tribute to his memory, as one who was alive to 
the importance of working a radical change in 
Southern cultivation, and teaching the people 
that agriculture was a science, which required 
study and improvement of the mind to improve 
the soil. 
The people of the south owe a debt of grati¬ 
tude to this good man, for the benefits they have 
derived from that excellent agricultural paper, 
The Southern Cultivator, for he was its founder. 
He also introduced a variety of choice fruits 
around his mansion in Athens, to demonstrate to 
the citizens how easily they might provide them¬ 
selves with such luxuries, upon a soil and climate 
where they already enjoyed the still greater one 
of health. 
Improvement of the Soil in this part of the state 
can be best and cheapest brought about by the use 
of lime, and peas as a substitute for clover, with 
the addition of some fertilizer, such as guano, 
bone-dust, or phosphate of lime, and an improv¬ 
ed system of cultivation, with improved imple¬ 
ments. A change for the better is already going 
on, and when the time comes that men cannot 
run off to the West to get new and cheap land, 
in some bilious swamp, then will these granite 
hills be appreciated at their real value, and these 
old broom-straw fields and pine barrens be re¬ 
stored to usefulness, and covered with a healthy, 
happy, wealthy population. 
March 18th was a day worthy of the latitude 
of Quebec, but the cold did not stop the corn 
planting. The average yield of corn is esti¬ 
mated at ten bushels to the acre. The average 
yield of cotton, about 400 pounds, in the seed. 
It grows very small, say about two feet high, 
and is planted, on most of the lands, two and a 
half by three feet. 
Col. Billups, one of the gentlemanly planters 
of Athens, whose hospitality I partook of, con¬ 
tends that side-hill ditches will not answer the 
purpose here, because the rain falls in such 
torrents, it fills up or sweeps them all away. 
That was the case upon his plantation five 
years ago. I contend, however, that if made as 
they should be at first, they will neither wash 
away nor fill up. 
Light Crops of Oats .—I had supposed this a 
favorable soil for oats. But I have the author¬ 
ity of Dr. Hull, an intelligent planter, for saying 
that many of the fields sown do not average 
500 lbs. straw and grain, all told. The probable 
reason is, the ground is so poor for want of ma¬ 
nure, so shallow plowed for the want of better 
plows, that a few days of sun exhausts all the 
moisture, and leaves the tender plants to strug¬ 
gle for life in a bed of dust, lying upon a founda¬ 
tion nearly as hard as brick. 
Cultivation of Grass .—This is almost entirely 
neglected. I know the difficulty of making a 
hay crop in this climate, yet I cannot help 
thinking it may be profitably done upon many 
spots unfit for any other crop. 
-—-—— 
PHIPPS’ IMPROVED PATENT WIRE FENCE. 
By this improvement the great difficulty in 
the construction of wire fences—contraction 
and expansion, which has heretofore deterred 
farmers from building the cheapest and best 
fence ever brought into use—is entirely obviated, 
without adding to the expense. This contrivance 
is as simple as it is perfect. The wires, the best 
size of which is No. 4, one-fourth inch diameter, 
are made in twelve feet lengths* with peculiar 
shaped heads, which are inserted in the posts by 
springing them together, and when the line of 
fence is all up and drawn tight, no one of the 
bars can be taken out without loosening the 
tightening screws, and then the whole can be 
taken down and removed with great facility, or 
any one pannel or rod can be taken out so as to 
form an opening through the fence. It will be 
observed, the power of contraction and expan¬ 
sion operates upon bars only twelve feet in 
length, each independent of the other, and so 
constructed that it does not affect the whole 
fence, but moves back and forth in the mortise 
of the post without becoming loose. The posts 
are made of flat bars of iron, If by f, which 
may be fastened in the earth by setting them in 
blocks of stone, brick, or wood, or filling the 
hole bored to receive them, with rubble stone 
and lime grouting. It is recommended in each 
length of fifty pannels, to have a stout spiral 
spring to each wire, which will keep up the ten¬ 
sion. After the fence is all up, it is fastened 
firmly to a well braced post at one end, and 
then drawn tight by screws at the other end, 
inserted in a wooden post so that they are not 
seen, thus obviating all objections to unsightly 
machinery. Another advantage of this fence 
is, that it is all prepared ready for putting to¬ 
gether at the manufactory, so it can be set up by 
a common laborer. The patentee informs us, 
that it can be made and delivered, done up in 
