139 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
In the price of fencing stuffy and that we shall be driven at no very 
distant day, to substitute some other mode of fencing. What that 
substitute should be for economy and durability, and when to adopt 
it, is the object of inquiry. At the above price for rails and boards, 
the cost of fence would be 15 to 20 cents per rod per annum includ¬ 
ing interest. R. L. 
REMARKS BY THE CONDUCTORS. 
The subject of live fences is one of increasing importance to the 
agriculture of our country. We have many champaign districts of 
choice land, particularly in the west, and independent of prairie 
tracts, where there is not likely long to be a reservation of much 
timber ground, and where there is few or no stone to construct fen¬ 
ces. In those districts fencing materials will soon become extrava¬ 
gantly high, and the inhabitants seem to be threatened with the al¬ 
ternative, of either dispensing with enclosures, as in France, or of 
resorting to live fences, as in England. The latter is decidedly pre¬ 
ferable, not only to open fields, but to dead fences, unless in districts 
where fencing materials are abundant and cheap. 
Caleb Kirk, of the state of Delaware, a man of the highest repu¬ 
tation for veracity and practical knowledge in husbandry, published 
some years ago, in the American Farmer, several numbers on hedg¬ 
ing, in which he gives the result of nearly 20 years successful expe¬ 
rience. In 1819 he states the actual cost of 1,000 feet of an efficient 
hedge fence as follows: 
1,000 plants, planting and care first year,..... $8 50 
Dressing and care of plants six years following, .... 5 00 
Expense seventh year for stakes, splashing, &c. 11 25 
Expense six following years,. 4 50 
Total expense for thirteen years,...$29 25 
The posts and rails for 1,000 feet of fence are stated at.... 75 00 
Showing a gain, in favor of the live fence, of.$45 75 
in the thirteen years, besides the advantage of the live fence being 
permanent,—as good as new—while the dead fence would have 
gone to decay, and required a new expenditure to rebuild it. In 
1823, when Mr. Kirk’s judgment had been corrected by four years 
further experience, he says,—“I find that forty cents a rod will 
complete the raising to a mature age, and one cent a rod will fully 
maintain for ever after, if duly attended to and applied with judg¬ 
ment. No failure has ever appeared, except some local cause is 
present; therefore durability is now well established.” 
We have considered the subject of live fences of that primary im¬ 
portance, that we intend to publish, in the second volume of the Cul¬ 
tivator, the best information we can obtain on the subject, in con¬ 
nexion with our own experience, which has been something, and to 
illustrate the subject by cuts or engravings. In the mean time we 
offer a brief reply to the queries of our correspondent. 
If by “ hedge thorn,” is meant the English hawthorn, ( bretcegus 
oxycantha,) our decided opinion is that it will not answer in Ohio, as 
it does not do well here, in a latitude nearly parallel. We have 
given it a fair trial, and after patiently nursing it seven years, aban¬ 
doned the hope of success, and dug up a hedge row of nearly a half 
a mile of it, and substituted other plants. Neither our summers nor 
our winters seem suited to its growth or preservation. The yel¬ 
low locust is wholly unfit for hedges, from the fact that it produces 
innumerable sprouts from its roots, which would disfigure the hedge, 
and seriously encroach upon the fields. Yet we do not know of a 
tree which it would be more valuable to plant upon the western prai¬ 
ries, for wood and timber than the yellow locust. The growth is 
rapid, it propagates itself, and it affords a valuable material for fence 
posts, mill works and ship buildings. It will attain a maturity fit for 
these purposes in twenty-five years from the seed. But the thorns 
of our country afford excellent materials for live fences, particularly 
in the districts where they are found growing natuarally. This we 
state as well from personal experience and observation, as from the 
information of others. In the middle states we have seen good 
hedges of the Virginia and Newcastle, or cockspur thorns, and we 
have a promising hedge composed of several indigenous kinds, ga¬ 
thered from the woods and pastures. But the great difficulty is in 
managing our hedges well. Our own people have as yet but little 
practical knowledge on the subject, and too many of the foreign la¬ 
borers, who profess a knowledge on this subject, are mere quacks at 
the business of managing them. Besides, our climate differs from 
that of Great Britain, and demands a different culture from that 
which succeeds there. We have more cold, more heat, more drought. 
The ditch and bank wil not do here, nor is it desirable that it should, 
as it causes a waste of ground, is unsightly, and is too often a nur- 
sury for noxious weeds. A bank and ditch require a width of eight 
or ten feet, while a simple hedge does not occupy more than two or 
three leet. 
It is believed all the species of native thorn will answer for hedges, 
as well as many others of our native shrubs and trees. The Bos¬ 
tonians speak well of the buckthorn, though we have never seen it 
assume any thing more than an ornamental appearance,—nothing 
like a barrier to cattle. We have planted the honey locust ( Gledit - 
schta irianllia ,) as a material to experimentt upon; and so far our 
confidence of success remains unimpaired: though we are not yet 
prepared to speak with confidence of the result. The best evidence 
ot our confidence in it is furnished by the fact, that we have now a 
mile or two of hedge row of the plants growing, planted in four or 
five successive years. The principal fear is that it may grow too 
large,—an objection which will not apply so forcibly in Ohio, where 
land is abundant, and where the level nature of the country renders 
shelter desirable in winter. Yet we think, from our manner of train¬ 
ing, the nearness of the plants, and by careful attention to clipping, 
when the growth of the hedge requires it, we can keep it within 
reasonable bounds. The honey locust, when cut in, does not throw 
out numerous shoots, like the thorn, but the principal growth is con¬ 
fined to a single stem. Our remedy for this defect is, to bend down 
and lay in the plant at a uniform height, when the stocks are from 
one to two inches in thickness, and to repeat laying the new growth 
every second or third year till the horizontal barrier is four to five 
feet high. The tops are wattled to the right and left alternately, of 
the adjoining plants; and if the top is not depressed below a hori¬ 
zontal position, it continues to live and grow, and sends up shoots 
from nearly its whole length. The hedge of course becomes firmer 
and stronger every year. 
We will close our remarks by advising Mr. Lockwood and his 
neighbors, to collect without delay, haws or seeds of the indigenous 
thorns of their neighborhood, and seeds of the honey locust, which 
we believe is a native of their forests, and to sow them in the spring 
in beds of good earth. The first will net come up till the second 
year, and many seeds of the latter will not germinate in a shorter time. 
Keep the seed beds free from weeds, and after two years’ growth, 
the plants will be fit to put in a hedge row; and if they continue to 
take the Cultivator, we promise to instruct our Ohio patrons in the 
subsequent management, should they require our aid. They may 
also collect in the spring, from the woods, plants of the thorn of any 
moderate size, say from the eighth of an inch to two inches thick, 
saw off the tops near the roots, and having prepared the ground well, 
make a trench on the site of a desired fence, and plant the roots one 
foot apart. 
OLD-FASHIONED MERINO SHEEP. 
I had occasion, in the last number of the Cultivator, to notice a 
lot of very beautiful South Down sheep, lately imported from Eng¬ 
land by F. Rotch, Esq. of Butternuts, Otsego county. I have since 
been favored with a view of twenty-one head of very superior “ old 
fashioned Merino ewes,” destined to grace the valley and verdant 
hills of the Butternuts, whose fleeces, I was informed, averaged, last 
summer, four and a half pounds of clean wool each, besides giving a 
good lamb. s 
In October last, four bucks of the same description, whose fleeces 
weighed from to 9j lbs. each of good fine wool, passed through 
this city—two for Mr. Rotch and two for Judge P. Franchot of the 
same town. 
These, I believe, are descendants from the famous breed of Meri¬ 
no sheep, first introduced into this country by the late Chancellor 
Livingston from France, and Col. Humphrey from Spain. 
They are a more hardy and thrifty race than our native or Saxo¬ 
ny sheep, as is acknowledged by every person who has kept a mix¬ 
ed flock, feeding together either on dry food or grass. 
A valuable correspondent observes, in one of his letters to me, 
“sheep of the above description are now very scarce, and will soon 
be in great demand, for all wool-growers are aiming at small fine 
fleeces, whose constitutions will not stand severe wet and exposure 
to cold. The difficulty is already beginning to be felt, and nothing 
but a resort to the ‘ old-fashioned Merino ’ will help it.” 
These sheep have been selected by a person well qualified to the 
task, and whose experience in sheep and wool has been very exten¬ 
sive ; were procured at a very great expense—having travelled over 
