252 



Popular Science Monthly 



Another Use for Tree Roots. Make a 

 Fence of Them 



WHAT shall be done with tree roots 

 after they have been dug or dyna- 

 mited from the soil to prepare it for the 

 plow? The an- 

 swer is given 

 by a farmer 

 who lives in a 

 western state 

 where the 

 barbed- wire 

 fence is in gen- 

 eral use. Gath- 

 ering several 

 hundred tree 

 roots, he trans- 

 ported them to 

 his farm and 



(Q) Brown & Dawson 



Roots of trees arranged 

 answer most of the 



there arranged them to take the place of 

 the usual vAre fence. 



There are hundreds of miles of fences in 

 the far West which serve merely to indi- 

 cate the dividing lines between adjacent 

 ranches. Discarded tree roots answer the 

 purpose as well as wire. As a rule they 

 are never used for fire wood, principally 

 . because they are hard to saw into stove 

 lengths. Furthermore, they require a 

 long time to dry. 



When arranged in 

 a straight line to serve 

 as a fence, the trunk 

 ends of the roots are 

 placed facing the direc- 

 tion of the strongest 

 prevailing winds. In 

 this position the roots 

 rest most securely on 

 the ground and* the 

 prongs act as efficient 

 anchors. 



gate or opening is set to spread the 

 stone uniformly over any desired width, 

 obviating the necessity of hauling stone 

 from one point to another, either to trim 

 off the high spots or to fill in the de- 

 pressions. The spreader consists of a box 



with slanting 

 sides and a rear 

 gate set to any 

 desired open- 

 ing. The box is 

 attached to the 

 rear end of a 

 wagon or truck, 

 as shown below. 

 By varying 

 the speed of the 

 vehicle and the 

 size of the 

 opening in the 

 gate, any desired depth of stone is spread 

 automatically without any hand labor. 



Where the roadway is so narrow that 

 the stone can be spread while the vehicle 

 is running in one direction only, a V- 

 shaped spreader-board may be employed, 

 as shown, to distribute the stone evenly 

 over the entire width of the roadway. 

 When a second and narrower layer of fine 

 stone is wanted on a road already covered 

 with a coarse layer, the 

 V-shaped spreader-board 

 is used. It not only does 

 the work better than it 

 could be done by laborers 

 but it saves much time 

 and expense. 



to serve as a fence. They 

 purposes of barbed wire 



Cost of Placing Road- 

 way Stone Reduced by 

 Simple Spreader 



IT'S expensive to distribute 

 crushed stone for road 

 construction work. That's 

 why the simple box-spreader 

 shown in the photograph 

 was invented. 



The spreader is attached 

 to any type of wagon or 

 motor truck. The rear 



In circle: Hnw the stone is spread uniformly. Above: 

 The spreader used in connection with a motor truck 



