356 FARM DEVELOPMENT 



there such a comprehensive plan of combined farming 

 and homemaking, nowhere else such a great, rising race 

 of farmers. The wire fence stands with the modern rail- 

 way, the plow, the cultivator, the reaper and the thresher 

 as a large factor in promoting our extensive and pros- 

 perous agriculture and the unsurpassed country life of 

 our American family farms. 



The great variety of materials and uses, also the vary- 

 ing conditions under which fences are built, give the 

 farmer the opportunity to exercise considerable ingenuity 

 in devising structures to best meet his needs. The fence 

 should efficiently do its work, be easily kept in repair, 

 and economical of construction, enduring if may be, 

 good to look upon or at least not conspicuously offensive 

 to the eye. 



A X B C D 



20 """* 40 RODS 



R 



Figure 240. Fence line placed in the wrong place. 



The first step in building a fence is to secure the exact 

 location desired throughout the entire line of the fence. 

 Where practicable, the two points where the fence is to 

 end should be located with care, and the fence line laid 

 out on a line between them. Thus, in Figure 240, the 

 corners of the farm, A and D, should be first established 

 and the fence line staked off in a straight line between. 

 If first in fencing field O a slight error is made in plac- 

 ing the corner at B, and the fence line thus established 

 is projected forward in a straight line to D, the error 

 will have been multiplied, placing one-eighth of an acre 

 on the wrong side of the fence. 



If a post and wire fence is to be built the planting 

 and bracing of corner and end posts is a matter of most 

 careful consideration. If the wires, or ribbons of wires, 



