278 



ELEMENTS OF FARM PRACTICE 



poor condition that they are very little improvement to a 

 farm, while on other farms they are straight, well built, 

 well kept and a very great addition to the farm both in 

 usefulness and in appearance. 



Fences are used to keep stock either in or out of fields. 



Formerly fences were 

 made of rails, but of late 

 years timber is more 

 scarce and other fencing 

 material is being used. 

 Barbed wire and woven 

 wire are now compara- 

 tively cheap, easily put 

 up, and so effective in 

 enclosing stock that prac- 

 tically all fencing is of 

 this material, even in 

 timbered sections where 

 rails are plentiful. 



Fence Posts. — There 

 is a great number offence 



Figure 123. — A poorly-braced corner post 

 from which it is impossible to stretch wires 

 that will remain tight. 



posts used every year, and, as timber becomes scarce, posts 

 become more and more expensive. There are many different 

 kinds of timber used for fence posts, and they vary in value 

 according to their durability. Some kinds of posts will 

 last from ten to twenty years before they rot, while other- 

 kinds will become useless in three or four years. As a rule, 

 posts that last well are made of slow-growing timber, such 

 as oak or cedar, while quick-growing timber, such as willow 

 and Cottonwood, rots very quickly when placed in the soil. 



Posts deteriorate when set in the ground, by rotting. 

 They usually rot off just below the surface of the ground,, 

 because here the soil keeps them moist and the air gets in 

 from the surface, thus making conditions favorable for 

 rotting. The top of the post does not rot, as it dries off 

 too quickly, and the bottom of the post does not rot, be- 

 cause the soil keeps the air away from it. 



A process has been discovered by which wooden posts 

 may be treated with creosote and thus made to last two or 

 three times as long as when untreated. This process is. 



