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Barb-wire is now sent from this country to Mexico, South America, and Australia.  It is also being manufactured in England under American auspices.

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Mr. Glidden, associating with himself a Mr. Sanborn, a young man of push and enterprise, has opened up an extensive cattle ranch in Potter and Randall counties, Texas.  They have fenced with wire a tract thirty miles long by about fifteen miles broad, and have now upon it 14,000 head of cattle.  Two twisted No. 11 wires were used for this fence, and the posts are the best that could be procured.  The wire was taken 200 miles on wagons.  The total cost of the completed fence was about $36,000.

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Messrs. Glidden & Ellwood put up the first barb-wire ever used by a railway company—­the Northwestern.  So great was the caution of the company that the manufacturers built it themselves, agreeing to remove it if it proved unsatisfactory.  The railway folks feared it would injure stock, the damages for which they would be forced to pay.  It is needless to say that the fence was not removed.  More than one hundred railway companies are now using the Glidden wire, and it stretches along many thousands of miles of track.

A RAMBLER’S LETTER.

I would like to call your attention to the fact that there is considerable cholera among swine in Dewey township, Ill., west from Joliet.  Mr. Cooter lost about 130 hogs.  Other farmers have suffered equally.

I have been looking over the stock in this part of the country and find it excellent, as a general thing.  Many of the farmers are breeders of fine Hereford cattle.  They also own first-class horses.  Some of them whom I called upon would like to know the address of State Veterinary Surgeon Dr. Paaren, and I should be pleased if you will give it in the prairie farmer.[A] I have often thought, Why is it that so many sons of wealthy farmers leave their homes for the purpose of either studying in some classical college, to learn a trade, or to become book-keepers and clerks in mercantile business.  I think if farmers would take more interest in agricultural papers, instead of having their children fooling away their time on novels or comic stories and pictures, it would be better for both old and young.  Let the parents buy a microscope and let the young folks examine insects and fungi of all kinds, and let them write their experiences down in a book whenever there is leisure time.  Or let them write to the prairie farmer something in the line of farming, be it agriculture, horticulture, or about raising and caring for stock.  In so doing the boys of our farming country will become proud of their noble profession and of their homes.  They will gradually be, as every farmer should be, educated up to the times.  There are few farmers who can afford to let their sons study in an agricultural university, but every one can surely afford to subscribe for an agricultural paper, it being one of the most profitable investments for himself and family.