THE USES OF WOOD 



927 



later to be made into lead pencils. On the northern 

 Pacific coast the giant red cedar contributed rails for 

 many a mile of fence. In California a similar service 

 was exacted of the incense cedar ; but the rail fence was 

 never as popular in the far west as it was in the eastern 

 country in early times. The westerners preferred to use 



USAUE ORANUE 1-'K\CI-: I'OS'IS IN KANSAS 



These posts were cut from planted timber, for Osage orange is not a 

 native tree in Kansas. It once formed hundreds of miles of hedge fence 

 in the treeless states, and now some of these hedges are being cut for 

 fence posts, having reached that size because they were not kept cut 

 back. 



the incense cedar for posts and finish the fence with 

 lumber cut from yellow and sugar pines or from redwood. 

 Southern cypress possesses the essential qualities required 

 of good rail timber, and much of it was once put to 

 that use. 



Nearly any wood may occasionally be made into rails, 

 either because it is convenient, or because no better is in 

 reach. One rather abundant tree is never worked into 

 rails, because it is unwedgeable. It is black gum which 



cannot be split unless solidly frozen. Old rail splitters 

 always liked to initiate a novice by assigning him a black 

 gum log to split, and then joshing him on the subject 

 of his speed. 



The best trees were always selected by rail makers 

 (speaking in the past tense) because such were more 

 easily split than those that were crooked and knotty. The 

 result was, in pioneer times, that the very finest oak, 

 chestnut, ash, and walnut were cut for rail fence material. 



Enormous numbers of fence posts are now in use and 

 have long been in demand. The chief quality of posts 

 must be durability. They are always in contact with the 

 ground, and at the point of contact decay is active. For 

 that reason it is necessary to select the more durable 

 woods for posts if long service is wanted. Probably half 



RAMSHACKLE RAIL FENCES 



Unless rail fences are kept in repair, they are not things of beauty and 

 may soon cease to be things of utility. There are reasons to feel thank- 

 ful that old style rail fences are passing out of use. They are wasteful 

 of both wood and ground. This is a scene in southern Indiana. 



UNUSUAL BUT EXCELLENT FENCE MATERIAL 



These uncouth specimens, which might be mistaken for vegetable porcu- 

 pinesi are tree yuccas growing on the Lincoln National Forest, in New 

 Mexico. Stockmen use I the dead and dry trunks in making corral fences. 

 The logs are set on end in the ground, forming palisades which answer 

 the purpose well in regions where other timber is scarce. Photograph 

 iiy the United States Forest Service. 



of the fence posts in use are neither sawed nor split. They 

 are round poles, sometimes with, the bark still on, but 

 commonly peeled. It is not so essential with posts as with 

 rails that the wood split readily, though trees more than 

 six or eight inches in diameter are generally sawed or 

 split before being set as posts. 



Trees of every species, if large enough, may be used 

 for posts ; but some of them decay so quickly that they 

 are scarcely worth the trouble of setting. A post that 

 does not last five or six years is unprofitable. A split 

 or sawed post usually lasts longer than one of the same 

 wood in the round, because the round post is apt to con- 



