Farm Fences

Tho question as to what material to use tor fenccs and how tu muke them, is beeoining ono of thought ;is woll as ono great importuno.-. Wasteful extravaganco híis so thinned out our fovi tiïliber that the time oftheir cxtinction or aomperativo usolessness from slow growth can be easily caloulated. Then Íiioneer enterprise finda that the prairie Emds furnish a more ready return than thoso covered with wooda ; while those who olear tlio wooded lands, instead of utilizing the timbor, light up the darknoss of tho night with the glarc of their bonfires, and reaolve iuto smoke and ashes and smoko thousands of dollars' worth of material which theworldnow noeds, and which is so rapidly b They would be pardoned a littlo if they evbat they saldo m, if ever, do that. Iü the Southern States and the Northv.v-t as yet fhesoaroity of tiuiber is hardly feit, but even there, the demand for palts not so bountifully provided, i wooden fence material costly in prico. In New England, nature has thrown up from her soil many of hei' iliuty bones, ■which tho patiënt laborera of that land have not failed to get rid of and i mako useful by converting iuto what prove - wher. v-jli pul up- the most end uring of f enees. But on the great stock farms of the West and t Texas, and hundreds of grain and grass farms, i need is feit for a cheap i nci durable fence material. We read of ftfsrmerin Texas who has jast pat up tv enty-flve miles of woodon fjnce, at an erciuious cost. He had tofloat and transpot t his lumbar bj i at n-Tirs wagon, over three hundred miles. T m day was when hi ■ fence was not aecded, but Texo lidly, and the gTeat ranoneros must now iuolose tlvir stOO'c. Ihen: i . for a new and cl f noo material is selt-evidcnt ; we shall only indioate our opinión. There is uo ma irial so abundant, none which oarries sa mucli atrengtb iaso littlespaceaa iron, and in the rapid m of American knowledge and skUJ none likely to be prodkeed so chéaply. We may plant our groves of trees - they take ten, tw;nty, or thirty years to grow to size enough to be of value. We ean dig from the eternal mountains for centuries to como, millions and millions of tons of iron ore, and then tho vast supply will be hardly touchel. ïhe forin of the body or plankingofthis fence saust be wire in plain straight linee or network, as fancy or the uses for which it is intended may díctate. And this wire should bo galvanizad. No other material can be so easily or bo cheaply transported. One may send from rtew York to Texas a, quantity of iron wire sufficient to fenco in thousands of acres at a freight rate far lesa than plank for a hundred acres oan be oarried l'iy rail oven a short distance from the wooded to the prairie lands of that State. The sume is trae as to the Western States. Then a fence of galvanizad wire will, if proporly put ají, last foi a lifetime; a plank fenco must be renowed in great measure evory ten vean. A No. 1 galvanized iron wire has greater strength than a pine plank six inches wide, and three-fourtlis to jnoinch thick, especially ■when stretched from posta ten feet apart. Tliíit there are looalitíes where, for many ycars yet to come, the old plank fence will still be oheapest there is no disjjute, but the time is wheu theingenuity of the meohanic an' i turer should bo devoted to supplylng thig need of a now, cheap, and durable fence material for the locale there ia already a damand. In oonneotion with bb auity the farmer should give Uis own praetioal oxperience of what wil] sui[ly 1 i what atyle and oharaoterof fence willanBwcrtiiede) ferm or the stockrango. Cdmbining thus tho practica] ideas of the farmer with the knowledge of materials and of fo hem of the meohanio, an i we maj if ';.'liope tbhave a m ' ■ ■ ' the same time durable. The fault of too many now suggeated íb tba! they are gotten upbymen who do not kuow tlie noeds of Üiu Earm.