Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1885-04-14
TREES AND WIRE FENCE.
AN ISCONTROTE ARG GUMENT
BY THE "oLDEsT sUBsCRTBER"
Practical Experience That Demoiishes Fan
ciful Theories-The Story just As Its
Author Tells It. with Some Desired
Corrections OF Orthography.

MEssRs. STEINMAN S HENsEL-l wan
10 give You my experience in planting
and raising locust trees. When / was q
young farmer came to the conclusion thai
every panel of fence ought TO have locust
tree, which would i'm course Of time serve n
post. So l bought a lot of the largest trees
| could get But found 1t would cost toe
much money TO buy many trees, and as
had bought my farm on trust had to find O
cheaper way to get the trees. Besides, want
ed better trees than the large ones planted
turned out to be-for they were poor, scrub
by, knotty and rotten, and were not worth as
much as the ink it takes to write the result.
A SECOND EXPERIMENT..
My next experiment was to gather locust
seeds and plant them, but they would moi
sprout Then sent to Lancaster for pound
of seed l put the seed in pot, poured
water an it, and set the pot on the stove to
cook the seed just little. But it happened
that some visitors called and in enter
tanning them ] forgot all about the
seed, which kept on cooking until
the fire went out. or course they were
cooked to death, and ! sent TO town for
another pound of seed. put it into bucket
and poured gallon of boiling water over it,
and stirred it until tho water got cool. j then
put the seed in rag, kept it warm and moist
and in few days the seed began to sprout.
This was just before the hay-making. l
planted the seed i'm sows, in rich, deep, cul-
tivated ground. 1t soon came up and the
young trees grew rapidly, many of them
growing from two to four feet during the first
summer, but most of the trees had only a
heart-root or tap-root which was very long.
In the following spring l took up the young
,t.Ntf' tl,nk t,sl
were only about ten inches long. l put five
hundred of them into basket, and took my
son and hired man TO assist in planting them.
AT every panel of fence, my hired man with
a digging iron, sunk hole into the ground
my son stuck one of the young trees into the
hole, and ] with my foot pressed the ground
closely around the trees. Itrequired only an
hour to go all the way around a field and set
tree at every panel of fence. All that was
necessary afterwards was to keep the grass
away from the young trees and TO allow only
one sprout to grow.
The result was that in eight years from the
time the seed was taken out Of Mr.. Sprech-
er's store, the trees were strong enough TO
tasten fence wires to, some of them being as
thick as common stove pipe, and that field
was furnished with posts that will endure
from generation TO generation, and in course
of time will furnish many posts for other
fields. But the cutting oil of the tap-roots
caused the side roots to spread i'm all direc-
tion of the field, and they also had to be cut
off.
MY THIRD EXPERIMENT..
In sod field in the fall of the year dig
holes eighteen inches square at each panel of
fence. Lay the sod on one side of the hole and
the good ground on the other side. Loosen
the subsoil as deep as you can, but let it re-
main i'm the hole I; this will give the tap-root
a chance to go down when planting time ar
riyes. Take piece of sod and put il upside
down in the hole, and put the other soil on
top, and so on at every panel until you have
gone around the field, and when yonr last
hole is finished you will have no holes at all,
but only row Of small heaps or mounds of
ground.
In the spring after corn planting, have
your sprouted seed ready ; take hoe and
cultivate the top of each of the prepared
holes, or rather heaps drop on each two
grains of seed (for fear one may miss y cover
the seed with two inches of soil, and press
down with hoe
When your seed comes up, hoe tho ground
around them to Kill tho grass allow only
one tree TO stand to each panel of fence in
the fall rake the grass away and put shovel
full of earth around each tree to drain off the
water. In the following spring shear the
trees OIL about two inches above the ground.
Take all the sprouts off except two-the
strongest one is left to form the tree, and the
top of the othermus be pinched back to form
protect it from being broken off, There
should be no pruning for the first four years ;
all that is necessary is to have some lines to
keep the trees straight, rake the grass away
on account of the mice, and keep the road
cattle from reaching over the fence and break
ing Off the tops, which become very heavy
and grow very fast when fairly Started.
EXPERIENCE on PUBLIC ROADS.
There is one road which passes alongside
my farm and another that passes through it.
Along one of these roads | built Il new fence
with chestnut rails and oak posts, at the
same time planted the locust seeds at every
panel. My fence lasted about eight years
and cost me good bit of money. Now
will state what happened during that time /:
Whenever there was snow and wind, the
road drited full of snow and a great deal Of
labor was required to open even single
track and il was dangerous to meet a runa-
way team, as one could not turn out without
upsetting and as soon rs the next snow
stOl m came work had to be done over again.
In the spring the road was SO muddy that
one was hardly able to get through and
when it dried IL was so cut up and rough
that il would be near hay-making time be-
fore it was fit for travel. Then there were
many accidents ; a drunken man drove
against the fence and broke his wagon a
man with a basket full of eggs, on his way to
the store, met two young bulls coming at
great speed, with kettles tied to their tails
and stones in the kettles they frightened
his horse So badly that his eggs flew in all
directions a COW grazing on the road tr led to
lump the fence, and was found hanging
on the top rail. Time and again rails were
broken, posts were split, cattle broke into my
fields and caused me heavy losses. There
were hundred accidents of one kind or
other during the eight years that the post and
rail fence lasted. Finally it had to be taken
down, as il was not fit to remain longer.
Then put up five wires to my now pre-
pared locust trees which were fully strong
enough to sustain them and getting stronger
every year. ] used four barbed wires and
one twisted saw wire on top, the lower wire
being one foot above the ground. In some
places put six wires, making my fence sc
high that road cattle cannot jump into my
fields, nor my own cattle jump into the pub
lie road. My old Jersey bull tried it once
He thought he could do anything after
Drover Iook brought him back from tho
Lancaster state fair. lie bucked against thu
fence without breaking it, and he was no
damaged himself, though he looked little
striped rs though he had received a severe
COW w-hiding. The wires We're too strong FOL
him, and he only tried it once.
Now l will give you the accidents that hav,
happened during the two years that the wir'
fence has been up. A farmer had two Yer,
spry mules he let them loose In the dunl
ward to see their activity, but forgot to shu
The gate. The mules took the road one 0
them Jumped over a post and rail fence int
a.. t,t \,