EQUIPMENT OF THE AVERAGE FARM. 



37 



Table 'XI.— Total rods of line, road, and inside fence maintained by the owners of 21 

 Ohio farms, with cost, value, and number of rods per acre. 



' Nos. 5 and 11 omitted. 



The character of fences on the 21 farms is brought out in Table XII, 

 which shows the extent of each of the eight principal kinds of fence 

 and the average cost per rod of all fence on each farm. The total of 

 the eight kinds shown averages 1,204.6 rods per farm, or over 98 per 

 cent of the total, a few miscellaneous kinds being omitted. The cost 

 of the various kinds of fence varies with the difference in the cost of 

 materials in different localities, but even more with the height, num- 

 ber of wires or boards, distance apart of posts, and the labor ex- 

 pended in construction. Woven-wire fence, for instance, may be 5 

 feet in height without barbed -wires in addition, or 3 feet in height 

 with several barbed "wires above and one below. It may be made of 

 either heavy or light wire, with posts 10 to 33 feet apart, the posts 

 costing 10 to 30 cents each. Owing to these variations, estimates of 

 the cost of construction can hardly be made general. 



212 



