FENCES. 223 



circumstances may suggest. I may say, however, that I am a great foe 

 to fences. I have torn down miles upon miles of fences, and have 

 gained by it a great deal of the very best land. I don't believe in 

 having any fences whatever except line fences, and highway fences. 

 It will always pay better to hire a good boy to take care of cattle than 

 to build fences. The kinds of fences must of course depend upon 

 the locality. In some sections, where timber is plentiful and lumber 

 scarce, the cheapest fence may be found to be the ordinary rail 

 or post and rail fence; but wherever lumber can be obtained at 

 reasonable price, I think it will be found that a board fence can be 

 erected at less cost, besides taking up less land and presenting a 

 much neater appearance. A solidpost and three-rail fence can always 

 be made at less cost than an ordinary worm fence, even without con- 

 sidering the economy of land. Live fences are now used to a great 

 extent on the prairies, where timber is scarce. No other fence is cheaper 

 or better than this if a little care be taken for the first four or five 

 years in their management. The seedling plants of Honey Locust or 

 Osage Orange can be bought at $5 per 1,000 plants, a foot high. Such 

 plants, if set out at one foot apart and the land kept clean for a foot 

 or so each side of the hedge, and kept carefully trimmed into the shape 

 of a blunt wedge, will attain a height of five or six feet in five or six 

 years, and will form a barrier, with needlelike spurs, so dense that 

 a rat could hardly get through it; of course some temporary 

 fence would be required till it grows up. Transplanted two- 

 year-old plants will always be found the cheapest, even at $15 

 per 1,000. 



Wire fences are coming into general use, both plain and barbed. 

 Barb wire is no doubt the best, and in grazing localities is indispen- 

 sable. But where valuable animals are kept there may be danger of 

 injury, which it is better to avoid by using the plain wire. A plain 

 wire fence may be made equally effective as one of barbed wire, by 

 putting the posts down firmly, and bracing them sufficiently, and 

 straining the wire tight. Eing staples with screws and nuts may be 

 used at the end of the fences for tightening the wires, when this is 

 needed. No less than four wires should be used. In some cases a 

 narrow board nailed to the posts over the top wire is used with ad- 

 vantage, as this is more easily seen by the animals. The posts should 

 never be more than sixteen feet apart, and twelve feet is better unless 

 the posts are very firmly braced. Number nine galvanized steel wire is 

 used. Such a fence, put down in the best manner, need not cost 

 more than three cents a foot under favorable circumstances, or five 

 cents a foot at the most. 



