WINTER MEETING, 1879. S3 



drifts. In some places they advocate tlie removal of fences during the winter 

 on the west side of the road. 



I wish to call your attention to a kind of fence that costs less than the 

 hedge, requires no care after being put up, can be removed or changed as easily 

 as any portable fence, and offers no obstruction to the snow. I refer to the 

 barbed wire fencing now being so extensively used all through the west. The 

 only serious objection to it is that stock are sometimes injured by running 

 against the barbs. 1 put up 100 rods of it two years ago, part of it on the 

 road, to keep out cow tramps, who could get over, under or through, any 

 fence where they could find a hole big enough to stick a horn in, and it was 

 effectual. Three barbed wires were sufficient. Our own cattle and horses ran 

 in tlie field all summer, and so far as I know were never scratched. A neigli- 

 bor set his savage dog on his colts one day soon after the wires were put up, 

 and they not being able to see the small wires ran into it and were considerably 

 gaslied up, but it was the man's fault. By attaching a wooden strip to the 

 iip})er wire so that stock can see it, I think there would be little danger. I 

 would not advise farmers to go into tliis fence extensively, but give it a trial 

 on a small scale. 



roR A PERMANEKT PElSrCE 



I would build it as follows : At the ends I would set good solid pine posts and 

 brace them so that they would not be drawn over; and also put an ordinary 

 fence post every twenty-five rods. I would fasten the ends of the wires to 

 these posts, having it in sections of twenty-five rods, so that the expansion and 

 contraction of the wire in hot and cold weather W'Ould not strain it so much as 

 it would if the wires ran the whole lengtli of the fence. 



I would saw or split from oak logs stakes six and a half feet long and about 

 three inches in diameter, and punching holes with a crow-bar, drive them in 

 with a beetle one rod apart for the other posts. If they should heave during 

 the winter they can be easily tapped down in the spring when the ground is 

 soft. The wire is fastened to the posts by driving a small staple over it, using 

 three wires, the first fifteen inclies from the ground, the second thirty and the 

 third forty-eight inches. I would get light strips two or three inches wide and 

 hang or fasten to the top wire with small wire. The ends of these strips might 

 be fastened together witli a wrouglit nail or bound with wire, and a nail driven 

 through into each post to keep it from swinging and rattling. 



The cost of 100 rods would be about as follows : 



Five pine posts at 1 Oc. - - 80 50 



Three hundred and two rods barbed wire at lie . . 33 22 



.Four hundred and twenty-five feet 3-inch strips at 810 per thousand 4 25 



!Ninety-six stakes at 5c - - 4 80 



Five pounds staples at JOc - - 50 



Small wire and nails _ 1 25 



Building 100 rods at 4c 4 00 



Total 848 52 



Or forty-eight and one-half cents per rod. 

 5 



