42 
THE CULTIVATOR, 
FENCING LANDS IN THE WEST. 
There are few things of more interest to a large portion of our coun¬ 
try, particularly the western states, than the best and cheapest method 
of making a fence. We are of the opinion, that in a very considerable 
part of the prairie districts of the Mississippi valley, live fences, or 
fences constructed of some of our native plants, and which are adapted 
for hedges, and are not liable to the failures attending the fences of im¬ 
ported plants, will eventually be found the cheapest and best. But other 
fences are at present indispensable; and we are pleased to perceive that 
the attention of some of our ablest western farmers has been directed to 
this subject with great success. In a late number, we noticed the Ap¬ 
pendix of Mr. Ellsworth, and proposed at some future day to give a 
sketch of his improvements in fencing as adapted to the prairie lands, or 
indeed to any lands where the soil is free from obstructions to the plow 
and scraper. From Mr. Ellsworth : s letter, and from other sources, we 
shall now give some notices that may be useful to the farmer. 
In all new countries, where wood is abundant, the first fences are what 
is called the Virginia, or worm fence, usually seven or eight rails high 
with stakes, and a rider to give the necevsary firmness. Fence so made 
will require about the same as ten rails to a length, and nearly two 
lengths, or twenty rails, to a rod. Such a fence not only consumes a 
vast deal of timber in its construction, but by being necessarily crooked, 
and commonly staked, the ground occupied by it is much greater than 
that of any other fence. 
In making some experiments to ascertain the cheapest and best meth¬ 
ods of fencing lands, Mr. Ellsworth, from the effects of embanking 
abroad, was induced to combine the embankment with the post and rail 
fence; and where the soil is suitable for the action of his scraper, or 
timber is so scarce as to render the economical use of it desirable, his 
experiments would seem to show that so far as cheapness and efficiency 
is concerned, the embankment fence is all that can be desired. 
Section of the Fence — (Fig. 20.) 
Scrapers used for throwing up the earth — (Fig. 23.) 
The scraper (fig. 23) is made as follows: “ Two planks placed at an 
angle of 18 to 20 degrees, and twelve feet long, will answer the purpose. 
One plank must run straight in the furrow made by the plow; the other 
to be wider, say 12 to 16 inches, placed at the above angle; a brace in 
the rear gives strength and firmness, and two handles are attached to 
guide and press the scraper.” Mr. E. gives these directions for laying 
out the fence. “Measure off 8 feet 3 inches; plow the two parallel 
furrows at this distance, throwing both furrows on the measured space; 
plow two furrows on each side, and then take the scraper, and thus pro¬ 
ceed: first plow and scrape until the embankment is completed, which 
will be in six rounds, that is, six passages on each side; on a section 
line, a span of horses would easily make one mile of ditch per day; 
the angle of the ditch may be about 40 degrees; the angle should be 
such as°the other side of the bank will readily turn over.” 
We may remark here, that as a team of horses in plowing an acre with 
a 9 inch furrow travels about 11 miles, the labor assigned to his horses 
by Mr. Ellsworth does not seem to be overrated, as they will have only 
12 miles to travel, unless indeed the draught of the scraper should be 
much more severe than that of the plow. By making the ditches 18 
inches deep, the earth thrown in by the scraper is raised 18 inches above 
the natural level, making the hight of the embankment alone 3 feet. 
The angle of elevation is so small that the bank will not slide by frost or 
rains, and will soon be covered with turf—blue grass being recommend¬ 
ed at the West for this purpose. The next thing is to make the post and 
rail fence that is to crown the embankment. 
« The posts are bored with despatch by one or more augers propelled 
by hand or horse power. The augers are two and a half inches, and 
these, by two borings together make a mortice of five inches by two 
and a half. The rails may be sharpened by hand, but best with a circu¬ 
lar saw, cutting one side, so that when two rails are brought together 
they just fit the mortice. The lap of the rails 
is about six inches, and additional strength is 
given by pinning the upper rail. If rails are 
cut 12 feet 3 inches, 440 lengths will make a 
mile of fence. This will determine the num¬ 
ber of posts, which are inserted in the em¬ 
bankment 18 inches, (reaching the original 
sod,) by driving down a pile the size of the 
post, thus dispensing with digging. Several piles 
may be prepared to suit different sized posts.” 
The above engravings show a section of the 
fence as completed; the manner of lapping the 
rails; the auger used for boring, and the two 
holes to be morticed; a cross section showing 
the ditches and embankment; and the scrapers 
used for throwing up the earth. 
In an interesting letter to Mr. Ellsworth from 
S. Robinson, Esq., the latter makes these re¬ 
marks on this kind of fence. “Many attempts 
have been made to fence with earth, and nearly 
all fail. Cause: the sods are piled up like lay¬ 
ing stone wall, and in two or three years the 
whole fence is a pile of the softest fine manure. 
Others have tried to pile up earth, and sod it 
over with the native sods. But these rarely 
succeed; the grass dies, and the bank being too 
steep, slips down in spring, and there being no 
rails on top, the cattle soon form a path over. 
But if some cheap plan of making a bank two 
or three feet high from the bottom of a ditch on 
each side, with a gradual slope, which would 
soon grass over with blue grass sown upon it, 
can be adopted, in which bank, posts with two 
or three rails, just like the old fashioned yan- 
kee post and rail wall fence—it will be com¬ 
plete.” The fences that have been already 
made on the plan indicated above, seem to 
show that it will be what Mr. R. suggests—• 
^complete.” 
Mr. Ellsworth gives the following, as the 
Cost per mile of such fence in the West. 
2 teams, $2-50 each, 1 day, (one with plow and one 
with scraper,). $5 00 
1,320 rails sharpened and delivered, at Mr 
R.’s estimate, 2 cents, 
440 posts bored, complete; 3 cents,. 
Setting posts and putting in rails, 5 days, 
26 40 
13 60 
6 00 
$ 50 00 
It is evident that the cost per acre of fencing 
land, will materially depend on the shape and 
size of the tract, as the following table will 
show. 
640 acres, 4 miles of fence, $200, or per acre, 32 cts. 
u q ISO. “ 461 
160 
U 
2 
Cl 
100, 
It 
62) 
SO 
it 
1* 
(l 
75, 
Cl 
93 1 
40 
Cl 
1 
u 
50, 
Cl 
1-25 
We find in the “Union Agriculturist” the 
following notice of a substantial embankment 
and ditch, which, should it succeed, may dis¬ 
pense with the post and rail. Such a mound 
would be a capital place to commence a hedge; 
and if made of some hardy American plant, 
such as the honey locust, buckthorp, wild mul¬ 
berry, or perhaps some of our thorns, would 
soon make a most impervious fence. 
“Jason Marsh, Esq., of Rockford, informs 
us he has been enclosing his land by an em¬ 
bankment 8£ feet in diameter at the base, and 2 
at the top, and about 4 feet high. On either 
side is a ditch 2| feet across. He has made a 
mile and three quarters of this kind of fencing 
at an expense of sixty-nine eents per rod. 
This we should suppose large enough to be 
permanent, and resist drouth. It could be 
turfed over by sowing grass seed upon it, (the 
Kentucky blue grass, or the orchard grass, 
would probably be the best;) and then, on the 
top, a hedge row could be planted that would 
be out of the reach of cattle. How beautiful 
would our prairies be, divided by such fences.” 
Although the Atlantic states are as a whole 
much better provided with fencing materials, 
both wood and stone, than the West, still there 
are large districts where farmers and land own¬ 
ers will ere long, if they do not already, expe¬ 
rience serious inconvenience in making good 
fences. There are thousands of farms in all 
parts of the country that have been so denuded 
of their original timber, while none has grown 
to supply its place, that there is not upon them 
timber sufficient for rails to enclose them. The 
old worn fences are rapidly decaying. Twenty 
years may be stated as the duration of a fence 
made from any of the common kinds of timber 
used; and still, very few farmers have asked 
themselves where the materials for their next 
fences are to come from, or taken any measures 
to remedy the approaching evil. Those who 
have stone on their farms need have no appre¬ 
hensions; those who have not, should by em¬ 
bankments, by hedging, or by nurseries of for¬ 
est trees, endeavor to secure the requisite ma¬ 
terial for the preservation of their crops. 
Few are aware of the cost of fencing a farm, 
after the fences have once been allowed to go 
to decay. Mr. Shurtleff of Massachusetts, an 
enterprising farmer, gives from his own expe¬ 
rience the cost of several of the most common 
I kinds of fence in the eastern states. 
White cedar or cypress fence, made of posts 
and rails, five rails in hight, three lengths to 
two rods nearly, cost 91 cents per rod. 
White pine rails sawed two inches by eight, 
and chestnut posts, four rails high, three lengths 
to two rods nearly, cost 64 cents to a rod. In 
both these instances, the cost was exclusive of 
the setting. 
Good four and a half feet stone wall varied 
from $1 to $2.50 the rod, according to the ease 
with which the stone could be procured, and 
the manner in which it was laid—whether by 
trenching or otherwise. 
Hedge fence made of the Virginia thorn, set 
21 to a rod, cost at the end of the fourth year, 
including planting, trimming, &c. 40 cents to 
the rod. 
Mr. Shurtleff found his white cedar posts to 
rot off at the ground in about 15 years; and this 
agrees very well with our experience with this 
kind of timber. Farmers err much in making 
their posts to set in the earth so small as is usu¬ 
ally done. We have a cedar bar-post now 
standing, and promising to remain so for several 
years to come, that was cut and set 40 years 
since. The post was from a green tree, and 
some 16 inches in diameter; and our experi¬ 
ence has uniformly been, that durability Was 
much depending on size. The method of set¬ 
ting posts recommended by Mr. Ellsworth, that 
is by merely driving them, is certainly much 
the quickest and easiest; but a board fence, the 
posts of which are so set, we have found would 
not stand as well as when the holes were dug 
to the requisite depth, and the post secured by 
either filling in with stone firmly packed, or 
earth driven solid and close by a heavy square 
headed pice of timber. The frosts of the north 
are more destructive to the post and rail or 
board fences than anything else; and the secur¬ 
ing the posts against its action, one of the most 
necessary, yet difficult, of fence making opera¬ 
tions. In the West this evil is not so great; 
but still it is not to be overlooked; and we pre¬ 
sume it will eventually be found that the posts 
in a prairie fence cannot be too firmly or care¬ 
fully set. There seems to be no limit to the 
growing of cattle, and the consequent accumu¬ 
lation of wealth in the West, if some mode of 
converting the open woodland or prairie to pas¬ 
ture, and providing the materials of suitable en¬ 
closures can be found. The Appendix of Mr. 
Ellsworth, with the accompanying letters of 
Mr. Robinson and Mr. Stevenson, (the last of 
which originally appeared in the Cultivator) 
would seem to prove that these difficulties have 
been greatly overrated, and may be easily over¬ 
come by energy and perseverance. 
“A. OF THE NORTH.” 
Some of our friends have requested us to ap¬ 
ply the new test agricultural thermometer, re¬ 
cently invented by ‘ A. of the North,” and some 
of the uses and applications of which have been 
so well described by the discoverer in a previ¬ 
ous number of the Cultivator, to the numerous 
papers with which that gentleman has enriched 
so many of the horticultural and agricultural 
journals of the country. We should have done 
so before the present time, had we not thought 
the new. instrument too short for the purpose 
indicated, and had we not remembered the fate 
of poor Richmann at St. Petersburg, while ex¬ 
perimenting with a fluid to which that of the 
new thermometer, when highly excited, bears 
no inconsiderable resemblance. Science is, 
however, progressive, and the agricultural ther¬ 
mometer may yet be so improved as to indicate 
with perfect safety to the experimenter the high 
value of the papers alluded to, and respecting 
the excellence of which the public entertain but 
one opinion. 
APPLES FOR STOCK. 
Under this head, a “Practical Farmer,” in 
the Boston Cultivator, says—“ Last year I butch¬ 
ered a hog sixteen months old which weighed 
500 lbs. For some weeks before bringing him to 
the tub, he ate nothing but boiled apples.” Corn 
meal cooked was offered him, but refused; the 
pork was of the best quality, and though the 
moon was not consulted in killing him, the 
« Meat ne’er shrunk a bit i’ the pot.” 
BOSTON MARKET. 
The Yankee Farmer estimates the amount 
of produce, annually sold at the Faneuil Hall 
market, at $8,000,000, viz: 
“Pork, .$3,750,000 
Beef, . 1,750,000 
Butter, . 600,000 
Vegetables and fruit, 500,000 
Mutton,. 300,000 
Fish,-.- $300,000 
Poultry, 270,000 
Cheese, 250,000 
Eggs, •• 117,000 
Veal, • • • 63,000” 
Cannot some of our New-York and Philadel¬ 
phia friends furnish for the public the provision 
statistics of those cities ? 
