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'< 18 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Jan 
Moveable Board Fence. 
Within two or three years, some twenty or thirty 
patents have been granted for modifications of the 
moveable board fence, made in separate pannels and 
fastened or locked at both the ends. Being placed so 
as to form a zig-zag line like the common “worm 
fence,” their weight keeps them in their position. The 
various patents granted, are for different modes of at¬ 
taching or locking them together at the corners. Yet 
nearly all have one prominent defect, namely, liability 
to be overthrown by strong winds. In sheltered val¬ 
leys, the danger is small or nothing; but on more ex¬ 
posed lands, these fences are sometimes overturned 
throughout their whole length, when their zig-zag struc¬ 
ture, lying on their sides, makes them appear very- 
much like a row of hen-coops. To prevent this disas¬ 
ter, stakes are sometimes driven obliquely across the 
bottom board, and in a sloping direction into the 
ground, but these stakes are inconvenient and destroy 
the neat appearance of the structure. 
was manufactured at considerable cost, as the ends of 
each panel had to be furnished with a stout stake, 
which must be inserted into as many holes in the earth 
made with a crowbar, and the ends be bound firmly to¬ 
gether. The moveable fences, recently patented, rest¬ 
ing with their own weight by their zig-zag position, 
obviate this labor, but are less secure against wind 
and occupy a wider strip of land. 
Fig. 2. 
The writer has endeavored to combine some of the 
advantages of these two kinds of fence, so far as is 
practicable / in one made not wholly straight, but oc¬ 
cupying less land than the others, and with a single 
short stake at each corner, locked in and held to its 
place by the mere contact of the ends. 
Fig. 3. 
The above figures are a representation of this con¬ 
trivance—fig. 1 being a view of the whole, and fig. 2 
a plan or view from above. (The pannels are repre¬ 
sented shorter in the cut than they are actually made.) 
In both figures, a a is the stake driven into the ground, 
and our readers will probably find no difficulty in under¬ 
standing from the figures how these stakes are held 
firmly in their place as the pannels are successively 
locked together, by means of the cross battens at the 
ends. An advantage which this fence possesses, is that 
the angles at the corners may be made more or less 
acute by altering the distance between these battens 
S when the pannels are made. If for instance, it is de¬ 
sired to have the fence nearly straight, the battens are 
placed further apart; if the fence is to be more zig¬ 
zag,they must be nearer together. The stakes are en¬ 
tirely separate, and need not be more than four or five 
feet long. The depth to which they are driven into 
the ground, depends on the degree of exposure to 
winds. The holes are quickly made with a crowbar 
successively for each corner, as the fence is put up; 
and as the stakes are separate from the rest of the 
fence, they may at any time be driven in with great 
facility by striking the top. In strong winds, the ten¬ 
dency is to lift the stakes out on the windward side, 
and they may work loose by the action of winds during 
the lapse of years; a few minutes are however suffi¬ 
cient to drive them in again, even for a long line of 
fence. 
This fence (an invention of one of the editors of this 
paper,) is not patented. Where lumber is of medium 
price, it may be made for about seventy-five cents per 
rod, and its manufacture would form good winter em¬ 
ployment for farmers who have workships. Both the 
boards and battens may be made of inch pine or hem¬ 
lock fencing, and good cut-nails, well annealed by heat¬ 
ing to redness, will answer the purpose of clinching. In 
order to place the boards for nailing, expeditiously to¬ 
gether, and in exact position, a frame is made lying 
flat upon the ground, with a space cut out for the re¬ 
ception of each board, a portion of which is shown in 
Fig. 3. 
--- 
Kentucky Blue Grass. 
.Editors Co. Gent. —In an article in the Ohio Cul¬ 
tivator, copied from the paper of Sanford Howard, 
on Grasses and Herbage, I find, under the caption Poa 
pratensis, enumerated as one, the spear-grass, June 
grass, and Kentucky Blue-grass. This is certainly an 
error. Last winter I looked in vain in New-York and 
Michigan for the Kentucky Blue-grass; what is com¬ 
monly called June-grass there is very much like it. 
But the June-grass has joints in the “ culm” or main 
seed-bearing straw. In !he culm of the Kentucky 
blue grass there are no joints. The straw is sheathed 
in the blades or leaves, but when they are stript off no 
joints are found; the culm ascends in a single shaft 
from the crown. I sent specimens of the June-grass 
and Kentucky Blue-grass to the Ohio Farmer in a let¬ 
ter, for scientific analysis, but they were too much in¬ 
jured for use. I now enclose you a specimen of Blue- 
grass. For further particulars I refer you to an arti¬ 
cle of mine in the Ohio Farmer, 1856. It maybe that 
the northern June-grass is the “Poa sylvestris,” or 
some near variety of the Poa pratensis. For the culm 
of the sylvestris is described as “ nearly erect and 
compressed,” which I think is applicable to the June- 
grass. The straw of the Blue-grass is “erect” and 
cylindrical. Will some of your scientific botanists 
look into it ? An error here is a great loss to the agri¬ 
culturist, as I regard the Kentucky Blue-grass much 
the most valuable wherever it will flourish. Cassius 
M. Clay. Nov. 15, 1857. 
The specimens had become much crushed and broken 
by the time they had reached Union Springs; but 
enough remained to show when examined under a mi¬ 
croscope, along with other dried specimens, that they 
had all the specific character of the Poa pratensis. 
There were no indications of the peculiar “joint” in 
the seed-bearing straw or upper portion of the culm, 
