BARB WIRE FENCES. 211 



WIRE FENCING. 



Sixty-seven years ago these demands distinctly pointed to 

 iron wire. The memoirs of the Philadelphia Agricultural 

 Society for 1816 contain careful computations of the value 

 of iron wire as fence materinl, asserting: " We have given 

 it a fair trial at the Falls of Schuylkill with the most breachy 

 cows of the neighborhood, and it is remarkable that even 

 dogs avoid passing over it." In 1821 the "American 

 Farmer" of Baltimore urged the same use for wire. In 

 1830, the "Journal of the Franklin Institute" (Philadel- 

 })hia), referring to a patent for a wire fence, declared them 

 no novelty, but in approved and successful use. From that 

 time forward references to the utility of wire fencing became 

 common in farm jouinals and reports. The New York 

 Agricultural Society in 1847 awarded their silver medal fur 

 wire fence as cheaper and mf)re eifective for farm use than 

 wood. In 1849 the "Plough, Loom and Anvil" of Phila- 

 delphia uttered this wise and far-seeing opinion, which 

 covers the essential fact of wire as fence material : " Setting 

 aside merits, the demand for wood fences will increase the 

 price, while the demand for wire fences wdl decrease the 

 price, as the greater the demand for wire the cheaper it can 

 be made." Wire was urged for fence material while it was 

 yet in this country a costly material, hand-drawn by a work- 

 man whose stint was from forty to forty-five pounds per 

 day. It was not until after 1830 that machine drawing was 

 introduced, a single machine now producing fifteen hundred 

 pounds of wire daily. 



Within the period of twenty years between 1850 and 

 1870 it is estimated that three hundred and fifty thousand 

 miles of plain iron wire passed into use in fencing. But 

 ])lain wire was never a full success. It sagged in heat, and 

 snapped in cold, and had no terrors for cattle, who broke 

 through it in all directions. 



In 1874 an Illinois farm3r, studying his own needs, 

 armed his plain fence with a sharply pricking barb, in- 

 tended and successful as an appeal to the quick warning 

 sense of pain residing in the skin of the animals who 

 possess most acute instincts in guarding it. The history of 



