THE USES OF WOOD 



929 



crease. By such treatment, some woods which are not naturally durable 

 may be converted into long-lasting posts. 



It has been said that America has used more wood for fences than for 

 houses, and the statement is probably true. Wooden fences are peculiarly 

 liable to destruction by decay, fire and flood ; and they must be repaired 

 or renewed often. They can have little protection against weather. Paint 

 is occasionally applied, but not often. They are in contact with grass, 

 weeds, and leaves, all of which promote decay. Fires were more destruc- 

 tive in the past than at present, but even yet much fencing is consumed in 

 grass and forest fires. 



No one can name a maximum, minimum, or average period of service 

 for a wooden fence. So many influences and accidents must be taken into 

 account that one case is not like any other. A fence of round buckeye 

 poles among the Allegheny mountains has been known to rot down in a 

 single year ; and a similar fence of red alder on the Pacific coast may be 

 useless through decay in a time equally short. On some of the high and 

 dry ridges of western Maryland and the adjoining parts of Pennsylvania, 

 farmers point with pride to worm fences of chestnut rails and claim that 

 their grandfathers built them nearly a century ago. Old-fashioned doctors 



of that region formerly made a 

 rheumatism remedy which is 

 not listed in the dispensatories. 

 It was distilled from the moss- 

 covered chestnut rails, the old- 

 est and dryest that could be 

 found. The wood was hogged 

 with an ax, placed beneath a 

 bottom-up kettle that had a fire 

 built on top, and in that manner 

 the oil was roasted out of the 

 chestnut wood. "A teacup of 

 chestnut rail oil, well rubbed in" 

 was declared to be a cure for 

 any case of rheumatism that 

 was curable. The only interest- 

 ing point in the prescription is 

 that the fence rail must be a 

 hundred years old. Some of 

 the cypress paling fences in the 

 southern states, and the white 

 pine palings in the North, are 

 reputed to be a hundred years 

 old. Ordinarily a chestnut or 

 oak rail fence needs a good deal 

 of repairing at the end of fif- 

 teen or twenty years, and in less 

 time if the fence is permitted to 

 be overgrown with brush, as 

 the custom is with untidy 

 farmers. 



SOUTHERN WHITE CEDAR 



PRIME NORTHERN WHITE PINE 



Thousands of miles of plank fence in the northern 

 states from Maine to Minnesota have been built of 

 white pine boards cut from trees as faultless as that 

 in the accompanying illustration; but at the present 

 time timber of that class is seldom used for fenc- 

 ing boards because it is more valuable for other 

 purposes. 



All cedar is classed as good fence post material be- 

 cause of its durability when in contact with the 

 ground. The tedar shown in the cut ranges from 

 New Jersey to Florida, near the coast, often in very 

 wet situations such as the Dismal Swamp in Vir- 

 Fences have never been the ginia Enormous quantities of posts of this wood are 



uscu ycdi ly. 



product of factories, except to 



a very limited extent. It has always been the custom to procure the raw 

 material, haul it to the desired place, and build the fence in situ. That 

 has held true whether it was a rail fence, or one of planks and posts, 

 pickets, or posts and wire. Occasionally, the raw material grows on the 

 ground to be enclosed by the fence. That was usually the case in pioneer 

 days when the clearing of the land was the heavy job and the building 

 of the fence a side issue. In more recent times fences have usually 



