924 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



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RAILING AND POSTS OF WOOD 



Fences of metal, in rods, bars, or wire, are frequently held up by posts 

 and rails of wood. It is difficult to find a substitute for wood at reason- 

 able cost. Wooden posts may be given preservative treatment to prolong 

 tluir period of usefulness and to increase value. This is now done on a 

 large scale. 



ment, but rather as a makeshift for temporary service 

 only. 



The log fence, or that made of logs, poles, and brush 

 in combination, was formerly more common than it is 

 now. It differed only slightly 

 from the common brush fence. 

 It might last a year or two longer 

 if the destroying agent was decay 

 alone. It was often easier to roll 

 logs, trunks, and branches to- 

 gether and build a fence of them 

 to enclose a field than to bring 

 them together in heaps and rid 

 the ground of their presence by 

 burning. A week of constant at- 

 tention might be necessary to rid the ground of a group 

 of log heaps by burning, but when rolled to the margin 

 to form a fence, the logs were out of the way. Some 

 fences were built of stumps pulled from the ground and 

 their roots all 

 turned in one 

 direction. Such 

 were more 

 common in 

 northern pine 

 regions than 

 elsewhere, be- 

 cause pine 

 stumps are 

 easily pulled 

 from the 

 ground and 

 they retain 

 their roots 

 many years. A 

 structure like 

 that is some- 

 times known as 

 a Canada fence 

 because com- 

 mon in the pine 

 regions of 

 Canada. 



The fence 

 rail was the 

 ever- present 



and all-important unit of fencing material. It still occu- 

 pies a conspicuous place, but has lost some of its popu- 

 larity. The rail is split from timber, and the regulation 

 length is eleven feet, but variations in length are many. 

 Rail-splitting was a common occupation in early times. 

 Farmers mauled the rails with which they enclosed their 

 fields. The splitting was done with mauls, iron wedges, 

 and wooden gluts ; and a strong, industrious man, when 

 he had good timber already cut into suitable lengths, 

 could split 400 or 500 rails a day. Champions had rec- 

 ords as high as 1 ,000 rails a day ; but such a number was 

 impossible except under the most favorable circumstances. 

 The rail fence is usually constructed with zig-zag panels, 

 the pattern being known as a "worm" fence or "Virginia" 

 fence, the first name being due to the resemblance of the 

 line to the path of a crawling worm. 



Rails have varied much in size, according to timber 



ORNAMENTAL RATHKR THAN USEFUL 



Rustic fences are built in many styles, but most of them are intended to be ornamental. In most in- 

 stances other kinds of fence could be built for less money, but cheapness is not the main purpose held 

 in view by builders of fences of this kind. The rustic fence is often ready made in factories. 



and region. During the Civij War, lines of walnut fence 

 in Indiana were purchased by gunstock manufacturers, 

 and it is said that those rails averaged the equivalent of 

 fifteen board feet per rail. A mile of that fence repre- 

 sented enough 

 timber to saw 

 75,000 feet of 

 boards. The 

 staked and rid- 

 ered fence re- 

 quired a little 

 more. Enor- 

 mous quantities 

 of timber have 

 been mauled 

 into rails in 

 some of the 

 fore sted re- 

 gions, where 

 wood was 

 cheap, fields 

 small and 

 farms numer- 

 ous. The West 

 Virginia Con- 

 servation Com- 

 m i s s ion esti- 

 mated that, 

 from the earli- 

 e s t settlement 



IS THIS TOO GOOD FOR FENCES? 



They figure that enough wood is in these two cars of logs to make two-thirds of a mile of plank fence, 

 but that the lumber will be of a grade too good for fencing. That is a matter on which opinions may 

 differ. The best white pine of New England was not considered too good for fencing. These logs are 

 Douglas fir. 



