1854 . 
THE. CULTIVATOR. 
215 
operator sometimes omits the punishment, or sometimes 
strikes twice, he may as well give up the attempt at 
once. 
We have known the most furious animals so changed 
in a fortnight by this management, as to stand quietly 
through a milking with a dreamy expression of face, 
quietly chewing the cud, when formerly all was rage, 
fury and teri’or. The whole was accomplished by a 
self-controlling exercise of the simplest common sense 
and reason. 
Nothing is more common among boys and thought¬ 
less persons, than a treatment of animals which one 
moment’s reflection would show to be ruinous to their 
quiet and gentle habits. A cow kicks spitefully, but 
happens to do no harm,—she escapes the penalty. 
She accidentally moves her foot and upsets a full pail 
of milk, —a tempest of blows descends upon her. Such 
a course will soon spoil any cow. Or, her kicks are 
borne without notice till the patience of the milker is 
exhausted, and then commences a general broadside 
of kicks, thumps, and blows. It is impossible for any 
animal, possessing even the sagacity of a politician, to 
understand such treatment, or to form any distinct con¬ 
nexion between cause and effect, offence and penalty. 
It often happens that animals are untractable solely 
because they are not familiar with men. The most 
successful trainer of oxen we ever met with, always 
made this his first point of attention. When he was 
about to commence operations, he enclosed a considera¬ 
ble number of young steers in an ample yard, and 
spent several hours in merely passing round among 
them in order to render his presence familiar to them. 
.The timid amongst them soon learned that he was 
neither a tiger nor a boa-constrictor, but a very harm¬ 
less companion. Occasionally, he would touch them 
gently with his hand, till after a time they became 
accustomed to his touch, and finally to handling freely. 
After several hours spent thus, he next applied the 
ox-bow to their necks—then by gentle pressure, perse- 
veringly continued, he learned them to follow—by de¬ 
grees they were drawn side by side—then yoked to¬ 
gether—then led or driven about. By coolness, deter¬ 
mination, and perseverance, he often succeeded in 
breaking them without striking a blow; and the re¬ 
mark has been often made that oxen of his training 
were the best-broken of any in the country. By ope¬ 
rating on six or eight yoke at once, especially during 
the earlier part of the process, he did not lose any 
time, and could afford to be patient and deliberate in 
the treatment. -■©■— 
Wire and Live Pences., 
Mr Tucker — I notice in your paper, an inquiry re¬ 
specting Wire Fences. The writer has had but small 
experience ; but proposes to give that for the benefit of 
your inquirer. The last fall, my son made nine or ten 
rods of it. Set a post very firmly at each end, and one 
in the middle—then drew wires of large size tort and 
straight, fastened at the ends, and also to the middle 
post by staples made of wire. Then placed uprights of 
scantling, about twelve feet apart, and fastened the 
wires to them with staples, and interlaced the whole 
with small wire in the most approved manner. It look¬ 
ed well at first; but the first time my horse was let loose 
by it, being a little playful, the first dash he levelled 
half of it, coming down broadside to the great risk of 
his neck and limbs. The other half the wires have 
stretched so that every wind sways it to and fro; and 
altogether it is as great an eye-sore as any decent man 
would like to see on his premises. 
I would remark that my horse has not been accus¬ 
tomed to break out of enclosures, though the fence 
happened to be low; and the wire fence was from five 
to six feet high. ' I would advise your inquirer and all 
others to try but a short piece first, and think they 
would never wish to add to it. D. Vfatertoicn, Ct. 
Messrs. Editors —I notice an inquiry in relation 
to the availability of Wire Fences, and having derived 
much information from the pages of your periodical, 
it is acting on the merely tit-for-tat principle to com¬ 
municate in return whatever experience and observa¬ 
tion has taught me in regard to those matters that are 
not as yet brought under the general knowledge of 
your readers. 
The growing sparseness of timber, and the occasion¬ 
al scarcity of stones, in the cultivated districts of the 
state, induces our farmers to look about them with a 
little speculation, and much of anxiety in their eye, 
for something at once cheap and durable, to replace 
the aboriginal log or worm protections that erst were 
piled, or wriggled round, the pasture lots and grain 
fields of old. 
The reason that wire fences have been meted out a 
measure of condemnation, is on account of the general 
taste and slightness of their construction. The suppo¬ 
sition has been that because the notion of their erection 
was new, four wires and 16 ft. apart posts were full 
proof; but a trampled down patch of grass, and gaps 
big enough for a herd to pass, have somewhat correct¬ 
ed the error. 
The first wire fence we constructed, was from draw¬ 
ings in the Cultivator. Five wires, with cedar stakes, 
were stretched down the tempting length of an orchard. 
The fruit was, however, too much of a temptation, and 
the barrier too weak—the staples not long enough or 
strong enough to prevent its becoming an occasional 
pasture lot, and no patching or boards, or twisting in 
of rails, was sufiicient for an antidote. 
The fact is, a wire fence will not be worth any thing 
as a protection, unless the posts be of good size, 8 or 
10 ft. apart, a board at bottom about 8 inches or a foot 
from the ground, a rail spiked on the top of the posts, 
and five wires filling the intervening space. Running 
the wires first on one side of one post, and then on the 
other side of the other, will not answer as well as bor¬ 
ing holes with a small augur, and inserting them 
through the post. The method of bracing the large 
posts at the end, as laid down in The Cultivator , and 
the fastening the ends of the wires by staples, cannot, 
as far as our experience has gone, be improved. I 
hardly know if the number of wires thus necessary to 
