268 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



all else was hidden by rails nice, straight rails, 

 neatly and carefully laid on other nice, straight 

 rails, and these on others as high as the French 

 farmers could reach. All this reminded me of the 

 little fields of my boyhood and the interminable 

 fences, and of myself, a discouraged, spindly lad 

 mowing the weeds out of those " snaky " fence 

 corners on muggy August days. I must declare 

 that splitting such rails never produced a Lincoln 

 but rather, poor white trash Lincolns are born 

 and they split rails only under protest ! 



Afterward I travelled in western North Caro- 

 lina and there I found the farmers fencing in 

 " moonshine " cornfields with black walnut rails 

 making barriers that were horse-high, bull-strong 

 and pig-tight. In that country of narrow-chested 

 pigs, the rails had to be split small and it was not 

 uncommon to find old fences twelve and fourteen 

 rails high, the practice being to lay new rails on 

 top as the under ones settled, to make it horse-high. 



During all my earlier travels I was securing 

 lecture material by this study of things at first hand 

 things as widely scattered as were the homes 

 of the students whom I taught for at that time 

 agricultural literature was very meagre and un- 

 reliable. These journeys gave me opportunity to 



