QUALITY IN WIRE FENCING 311 



fancier, or if he be a town poultryman, or one in business 

 commercially for a living from poultry, the greater be- 

 comes his devotion to wire netting good wire netting. 

 Permanent fences, pen divisions, temporary runs, summer 

 coops, line fences, supplementary inclosures, etc., may be 

 constructed almost entirely of wire net. Probably the 

 most useful type, price considered, is the four-foot, two- 

 inch mesh kind. For confining small chicks, however, 

 the two-foot width in one-inch mesh is the favorite. It is 

 much higher in price proportionate to width, however, 

 than the two-inch mesh web. The three-inch mesh goods 

 are ,apt to be in 2O-gauge wire, and thus they have two 

 causes for being less firm than the popular, two-inch 

 mesh grade. But these can be used for confining larger 

 birds like geese and turkeys. The question of width is 

 a rather troublesome one. A fence needs a bottom board, 

 at least, though some dispense with the top strip. High- 

 flyers demand a seven-foot fence. The six-foot width 

 looks much neater, and is more shipshape generally. 

 But many prefer to use a four-foot net, with a two-foot 

 strip above it, because the six-foot strips are so difficult to 

 handle and hang. One poultryman tells me he finds the 

 best way to hang a wire fence is to drive_ nails in the posts 

 where the top should come at a measured height and 

 catch the upper wires on these nails ; the rest is easy, all 

 except the trick of learning how to drive the staples prop- 

 erly, withouttheir dropping, breaking, or going in crooked. 



