‘Centre Farmer.
VOL. 2.
“PROGRESSIVE AGRICULTURE.”
BELLEFONTE, CENTRE CO., PA., JUNE, 1876.
NO. 1.
CENTRE FARMER.
PUBLISHED BY, THE CENTRE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL
BOCIETY.
JOHN A. WOODWARD, Howard,
Prof. JNO. HAMILTON, State College,
B. F. SHAFFER, Walker,
Publishing Committee.
——
————
Officers of the Society for 1876 :
President—Joun A. WoopwArp, Howard.
Vice Presidents—GEN. Geo. BUCHANAN, of Gregg,
Geo. L. PETERS, of Union,
A. 8. TirroN, of Curtin,
SamvEL GILLinAND, of College.
Secretary & Treasurer—J. WESLEY GEPHART, of
Bellefonte.
Librarian—JonN T. Jonnsron, of Bellefonte.
Executive Com.—~JAs. A. BEAVER, of Bellefonte,
JonN RisueL, of Benner,
JonN A. HuNTER, of Halfmoon,
LroNarp RHoONE, of Potter,
Jorn HamirtoN, of College,
B. F. Suarrer, of Walker.
THE CENTRE FARMER will be issued
monthly, and is devoted exclusively to such
subjects as have a direct bearing upon the
interests of the farming community in gen-
eral and the CENTRE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL
Society in particular.
Terms Free, and Postage Prepaid.
To Advertisers.
The CenthRE FArMER will be published for
six months, with a total of twenty six thousand
copies, and distributed, through the mails,
postage prepaid, to every farmer in the
county, whose address can be obtained. The
object of its publication is to advertise, and
create a renewed interest in the County Agri-
cultural Suciety, and its annual fair, a
pains will be spared to have it thoroughly:
circulated. This makes it a very desirable
medium for that class of advertisers who
desire specially to reach the farming commu-
nity. We have still room for a limited num-
ber of advertisements which will be inserted
at the following rates:
One eighth cOlUMN..civiiieiireinnennansirasannes $600
One fourth do ...cccseeneicsicenssnne esasne 10 00
One half do wien AOA a Naira it . 20 00
Whole QO iinidiininriinisiitesenes . 40 00
Address, -
CENTRE FARMER,
Howard, Centre Co., Pa.
—————
(— —
——Our next Annual Fair will be held
on the Society's grounds, at Bellefonte,
on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and
Friday, being the 8d, 4th, 6th and 6th
days of October, 1876.
DR. E. GREENE'S
Iniver Pills.
BEWARE OF COUNTERFEITS.
Dr.-E. Greene's Liver Pills are always and
only put up in OVAL boxes, not round—and
have on the bottom of each and every box—
the name of the Sole Agents and Manufactu-
rers.
J. ZELLER & SON,
No. 6 Brockerhoff Row.
or
AF~See other advertisement in this paper<eg |
W. 8. WOLF & SON,
BELLEFONTE, PA.
MANUFACTURERS
STOVES, TINWARE,
Roofing & Spouting a Specialty.
ALL WORK GUARANTEED.
INTERIOR FENCES.
Prof. Hamilton's reply to the question,
“What is the best plan for Centre
County Farmers to pursue in
regard lo fences, taking
the laws as they now
exist #
The rapid consumption of our
timber, making fencing material
scarcer and more expensive year by
year, and the spirit of improve:
ment which is manifesting itself so
largely among our farmers, com-
bine to make the question of ‘‘fence
or no fence’’ one of the most impor-
tant which the Pennsylvania farmer
is to-day called upon to decide.
Appreciating its importance and
believing that discussion is the
only road by which the truth can
be reached, the Centre County
Agricultural Society requested Mr.
JouN HAMILTON, Professor of Ag-
riculture at the Pennsylvania State
College, to prepare and read at the
April meeting a paper on the above
question. Mr, HAMILTON brought
to the execution of his task a clear
head, large experience, and the
laborious and painstaking habits
which make him one of the leading
spirits in the, very efficient corps
of instructors at the College, and
read before the Society a paper re-
plete with interest and instruction
for every thoughtful farmer.
We cannot but believe that the
free distribution of such carefully
prepared articles throughout the
county will prove of lasting benefit
to farmers, and have secured Mr.
HAMILTON'S paper for publication
in the CENTRE FARMER,
Its great length and our limited
space compel us to abridge it
somewhat. We give below the first
installment, and will continue it
from month to month.
The best plan for Centre county far-
mers to pursue in reference to fences,
taking the laws as they now exist, is a
question about which there is little, if
any, difference of opinion, if opinions
are to be judged by appearances. If
we go tothe tops of some of our moun-
tains and look down upon the broad
valleys that lie beneath with their
miles upon miles of fertile fields and
their cultivated acres numbered by the
thousand, no feature of the land-
scape is more likely to strike our eye
or attract our attention, than the vast
net-work of fences that covers the sur-
face, dividing into all imaginable
shapes and sizes, the territory that lies
before us, Dotted here and there all
over the view are the homes of the
farmers ; and their lands, embracing
from one to two and sometimes three
hundred acres, usually extending in
all directions from the dwellings, are
not only separated by fences fron the
property adjoining, but are themselves
divided by interior partitions, until in
tgood substantial inside fences.
some instances the homes are so shut
in from the highways, by gates and
bars and barricades, and cut off from
neighbors by fields and lots and pens
and yards and similar enclosures, as to
remind one of the Labyrinths of An-
cient Crete.
If you go upon the farm and ask the
owner why he thus barricades himself
behind this chevaux de frise of fences,
shutting out his friends, and repelling
the social dispositions of his neighbors,
he will, doubtless, with a look of pity
for your simplicity, tell you that these
are a necessary part of the equipment
of every well regulated farm, and that
no man would, for a moment, think of
paying full price for land destitute of
This
usually silences all discussion and the
enquirer goes away and too often
follows the teachings he has received.
Your committee, either from sheer
contrariness or possibly from inability
to see just why these statements, made
so frequently by those who advocate
the subdivision of their farms, should
forever put the matter beyond dispute
have appointed me to institute a search
and see whether there may not be a
better way than that practiced by far-
mers at the present time, and to bring
before you here to-night the result of
my investigations,
| muy question that they have pro-
posed for answer, is, “ What is the best
plan for Centre county farmers to pursue
in reference to fences, taking the laws as
they now exist 2’
This law, as it now stands, requires
that farmers in Centre county shall
fence against’ all animals running at
large on the public roads, and against
all animals in their neighbor's fields ; or
in other words, the law requires that
fences along the highways shall be
tight, high and in good repair, and
that line fences shall be constructed
and maintained at the mutual expense
of individuals owning adjoining lands.
These then are, in brief, the condi-
tions under which your committee ask
their question. Without disputing the
wisdom or justice of these enactments,
I will confine myself to the discussion
of the particular point submitted.
“What is the best plan to be pursued with
reference to fences, under these laws ¥"
By best I suppose is meant, that plan
which shall pay the largest percentage
on the capital and labor employed,
with the least injury to the land and
trouble to the owner. And since the
question implies that there are more
plans than one that may be pursued,
it would seem essential that some at
least of the most generally accepted
plans should be carefully considered
and compared. I have thought it well
to bring to the discussion of this sub-
ject those appliances and methods of
calculation, that have been found use-
ful and even necessary in other pro-
fessions in life. Whilst it may be true
that “guess work is the best when it hits
right,” yet mathematical precision will
continue to be used in all enterprises
where accuracy and close attention to
details are essential to success. Far-
mers have a way of lumping things
that is rather startling to men trained
to arrive at conclusions by the slower
process of reasoning, and accustomed
to know just why they believe the
things they do. Let the figures then
tell the story, and inasmuch as we are
wholly desirous of arriving at correct
conclusions I ask that errors in calcula-
tion, if there are any, may be carefully
observed so asto have them brought
up for correction when the general
discussion of this subject comes before
us.
The plan most generally pursued by
Centre county farmers to-day consists
in the subdividing of farms into a
number of fields containing from eight
to ten, or twenty acres, and in raising
upon these fields certain different crops,
succeeding each other in a rotation
occupying from four to seven years.
The usual number, however, being
five. The plan further consists, and
this is the part with which we have
specially to deal to night, in a system
of pasturing stock upon the fields,
which necessitates the separation of
these divisions .by means of interior
fences to protect certain growing crops
from the encroachments of the cattle.
As these enclosures are erected, not
through the requirements of law, but
of the farmer's own accord and for his
own special purposes of convenience
and accommodation” they thus le-
gitimately come within the scope of the
inquiry presented for our considera:
tion.
Since the best plan for a farmer to
pursue with reference to his fences,
must be the one by which the best re-
sults can be obtained with least ex-
pense ; it becomes necessary in exam-
ining any system in comparison with
others that first of all we shall ascer-
tain what it costs. One panel of post
fence eleven feet long and five rails
high will cost one dollar and ten cents.
Add the price of half a panel fifty-five
cents and we have one dollar and sixty-
five cents as the cost per rod.
Take about an average farm, rec-
tangular in form and containing one
hundred and eighty acres, being with-
in a fraction of one hundred and ninety-
six rods long by one hundred and forty-
seven rods wide, divided into twelve
fifteen acre fields forty-nine rods square,
with a lane one hundred and ninety-
six rods long, one half of its length to
be thirty-three feet wide and the other
half to be twenty feet in width. There
will be one thousand and twenty-four
rods of inside fence.
If you multiply this by $1.65, the
cost per rod, you:will have a total of
$1689.60 as the first cost of the in:
side fences of this one hundred and
eighty acre farm. This fence with or-
dinary care will have to be entirely
renewed once every twenty years. In
order to find its cost we must calculate
compound interest on the principal
invested. = This first'cost at compound
interest for twenty years amounts to
$5418.77, which gives an average an-
nual loss of $270.93, in maintaining
these inside fences.
] Continued on 3rd page.)