NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



397 



WIRE FENCES. 



Eds. Cultivator : Agreeably to you¥ request, I 

 write you on the subject of making -wire fences. 



In the fall of 1846, I commenced making wire 

 fence, along a road running through a piece of wood. 

 Five No. 9 wires, about ten inches apart, were 

 stretched from tree to tree, and between each of these 

 ■wires were stretched smaller ones. The wires were 

 fastened to the trees by nails driven into the trees, 

 one above and one below the wire, causing their 

 heads to touch each other when they touched the 

 •wire. The five large wires, it was thought, would 

 keep out cattle, and with the small ones keep out 

 hogs, sheep, &c. This fence failed in the following 

 points : — 



1st. The nails opened. This evil was remedied by 

 winding small annealed wire around the nails. This 

 was expensive — has since failed — rusting and being 

 easdy broken. 



2d. The small wire broke, and sheep and hogs 

 passed through the fence. 



3d. The wires became bent ; after four years' use, 

 this fence proved a failure, both in appearance and 

 utility. 



The next wire fence w-as along the line of a lot 

 running east and west, through ground liable to 

 heave with the frost, and from its situation exposed 

 to the north-west winds. Good chestnut posts were 

 well put into the ground, about twelve feet apart; 

 some of them braced. Four wires were stretched 

 along these posts, tightened, and fastened with sta- 

 ples made from the same kind of wire. This fence, 

 when first put up, appeared well and strong ; but it 

 was a failure. The posts were loosened and heaved 

 with the frosts ; the wind from the south Avould in- 

 cline some of the posts one way, and the north-west 

 wind, in its fury, would incline some another way. 

 The wire became bent, and in two years the fence 

 was removed. It had failed. 



The next fence was made along both sides of a 

 public highway, running cast and west, where the 

 snow was liable to be drifted in. Along this road 

 ran cattle, horses, sheep, hogs, &c. With post and 

 board fence, they were often, after a storm, getting 

 in from the road. On the south side is a meadow, 

 on the north a meadow and two gardens, close to the 

 fence. 



I have been thus particular, for along this road a 

 wire fence has been made that has now stood over 

 two years: neither winds nor frosts affect it; no 

 snow drifts in the road ; no cattle, or horses, or hogs, 

 or sheep pass through it, though grass, corn, pota- 

 toes, cabbages, beets, &c., are growing in full sight, 

 almost to their very noses, and nothing but the thin 

 and almost invi.sible wire presenting, as it were, an 

 luiscen, but as yet an impassable barrier. 



This fence and others I now make as follows : — 

 Chestnut posts about eight inches thick, not less 

 than nine feet long, are put into the ground not less 

 than live feet deep, and from one hundred and fifty 

 to three hundred feet apart. Great care is taken to 

 have these posts beyond the reach of frost. The 

 posts at the corners of the lots are very Jirmly braced. 

 Then a board (or plank, or timber, or pole) is laid 

 along between these posts, and small chestnut posts 

 or strips about two and a half feet long, sharpened 

 at each end, are driven into the ground at each end 

 of the boards, so that two boards can be nailed to it ; 

 and a short post, or strip, is also driven near the cen- 

 tre of the board. The board is then nailed on to the 

 Btrip, care being taken that the top of the strip Avill 

 be a little lower than tlie top edge of the board when 

 the board is nailed to tlie strips. Four inches above 

 this board, a quarter inch hole is bored tln-ough the 

 post ; five inches above this, another hole is bored ; 

 seven inches above this, another ; eight inches above, 



another ; and ten inches above this, another ; (this for 

 a live wire fence.) The wires are now passed 

 through these holes and fastened with staples. In 

 tightening the wire, the weight of the wires is taken 

 off, by rendering them through staples slightly driven 

 into uprights, set up about every fifty feet for that 

 purpose. Care is taken so to tighten the wire, that, 

 in adding the pickets, hereinafter mentioned, the 

 wires will, when the fence is finished, be sufficiently 

 taut. Pickets, four feet long and one inch square, 

 are now, about every four feet, nailed with two nails 

 to the board, (or plank, &c.,) or passed through two 

 staples, driven into the board, (or plank, &c.) The 

 pickets arc not necessarily driven into the ground, 

 but stand upon it. Care is taken to have the wires 

 the same distance apart on each picket, as they are 

 at the posts. This is done by placing a picket near 

 the post, and fastening the wires to this picket by 

 large staples, so large that this picket can slide along 

 the wires as you place the other pickets, and fasten 

 them to the board and wires. The wires are fastened 

 to the pickets by small staples either driven home, or 

 so driven that the wires can render through them. 



Another fence is made as follows : Five horizon- 

 tal wires, nine inches apart ; pickets four feet apart 

 — no board or plank, &c., at the bottom. This fence 

 is fastened, like a suspension bridge, at the two ends, 

 and oscillates from one to three feet, according as the 

 permanent fastenings are apart. The pickets in some 

 of the stretches, as the ground is uneven, will not 

 touch it ; the wires suspending the pickets from the 

 ground. Stones, as wanted, are buried under some 

 of the pickets ; strips of ii-on or wire being wound 

 round them. A piece of wire is then wound round 

 each piece of horizontal wire, close alongside of the 

 picket, beneath which a stone is buried. The fence 

 is thus brought down so that the pickets all touch 

 the ground, and, these wires being then fastened to 

 the stones, the fence will be held in its place, strongly 

 and well, by this unseen fastening. In some cases I 

 hold down the fence by means of the boards or 

 planks nailed, at each end, to each other, by strips of 

 boards about two feet long, nailed along the ends. I 

 have a fence like this running along a common, and 

 no cattle or sheep, &c., have broken through it. In- 

 stead of wooden pickets, iron ones can be used, to 

 keep the wires separate and in place. 



The following points should be preserved in a wire 

 fence : — 



1st. The fence, like a suspension bridge, must be 

 firmly fastened at both ends, and firmly fastened no- 

 where else. 



'2d. The fence must be so constructed, that when 

 cows, horses, hogs, &c., come in contact with it, it 

 will be so loose that their contact will not be apt to 

 bend the wire, and tlic oscillations of the fence will 

 frighten them from it ; yet so firmly fastened that 

 the fence will return to its position when the dis- 

 turbing cause is removed. 



3d. You must have iipright sui)ports at proper dis- 

 tances to kcej) the wires apart, wliich supports must 

 not be too firmly fastened. 



4th. A wire fence should be so constructed that it 

 wQl keep in and out what you intend to keep in and 

 out ; yet so constructed that n\en can climb over it, 

 and small boys tlirough it, without l)ending the wires. 

 The holes that arc bored in the large posts arc 

 never plugged up with wood. Two men, at seventy- 

 five cents each, exclusive of board, will put up 600 

 feet of this fence in one day. The cost of wire fence 

 is as follows: say cost of 12 feet, or 1 panel. No. 9 

 wire, at 5i cts. per lb., is J of a cent per foot : — 



12 feet will cost $0 20 



1 board 8 



3 pickets 3 



12 nails 1 



