SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 907 



tend to seriously retard the flow of water. Engineers agree, however, 

 that unless the slope toward the middle of the slough is decidedly slight, 

 the best results and reduction in cost of construction are secured by one 

 center main of sufficient capacity. 



Generally it is not advisable to install a drain in the lowest part of 

 a draw. In time of heavy rainfall the drain thus located is likely 

 to be injured if not washed out by the torrent of surface water. The bet- 

 ter plan is to locate the drain at one side of the lowest point in the draw 

 and to construct a wide, shallow ditch parallel with the drain. This 

 ditch will carry off all the surface water which cannot be handled by the 

 drain in time of flood. Such a ditch may be seeded to grass or may be 

 cultivated without serious inconvenience. 



GROUND YOUR WIRE FENCES. 



WALLACES' FAKMER. 



Nearly all the losses in live stock killed by lightning in the western 

 states during the year are due to the fact that farmers have not all 

 learned how to ground their wire fences. Perhaps this is not the best 

 way to put it. We should rather say, having learned how to ground 

 wire fences they have not put that knowledge into practice, and knowl- 

 edge not put into practice is a good deal like dead stock on the mer- 

 chant's counter or the farmer's capital invested in non-productive prop- 

 erty. Farmers do not need so much to be told what do to as to be 

 stirred up to do it. 



Nearly every farmer understands the first principles, the elementary 

 laws governing the movements of lightning. He understands that steel 

 wire is a good conductor, that the fence post is a poor conductor, and 

 that when lightning strikes the fence at any point it runs along the wir<s 

 in preference to passing over the post into the earth. He understands, 

 therefore, that if cattle are bunched into the corner, as they are very 

 likely to be during a storm, if lightning should strike the fence all the 

 animals that are in touch with the wire fence are quite certain to be 

 killed, as the body of the animal is a better conductor than the post 

 and the lightning simply takes that as the shortest way of getting back 

 to the earth, where it is trying to go. They are also aware, or at least 

 shcmld be, that barbed wire is in itself pretty good lightning rod, th-- 

 barbs serving the same purpose as the points at the end of the wire on 

 the building. Therefore, all that is necessary to change a wire fence 

 from a source of risk and loss to a farm lightning rod is simply to ground 

 the wires. 



What do we mean by grounding wires? Nothing more or less than 

 taking a piece of smooth wire, pushing it down into the ground until 

 it reaches moist earth, then forming close metallic connection with each 

 wire on the fence. This may be done in one of two ways; either by 

 wrapping it around each wire or around the lower wire only in case 



