14 



BULLETIN 321, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



roads along the farm boundaries will influence the amount of fence 

 needed. Other things being equal, farms having the most frontage 

 on public highways will require the most fence. The number and 

 location of the roads surrounding a farm do much to determine the 

 layout of the farm and consequently the amount of internal fence 

 required. It is the common custom to place the farmstead adjacent 

 to the main or most traveled highway. The field arrangement de- 

 pends on whether this main road runs along the long 

 side or along the short side of the farm. Many 

 times the farm is cut into two or more separate 

 divisions by roads, but it is more common for it to 

 be in one division. This is especially true of small 



farms. For purposes 

 of illustration figure 

 8 shows the field ar- 

 rangement of two 80- 

 acre farms. Each 

 farm has the same 

 number and the same 

 size of fields, yet B 

 requires 120 rods more fence than A. In B the highway runs along 

 the side of the farm, while in A it runs along the end. 



The number and cost of farm gates is another item of considerable 

 importance. 



Table 3. — Number of gates used on farms of varying sizes in Indiana, Michigan, 



Wisconsin, and Illinois. 



60 













_E 



h 



[60 rds. 

















FARfUTEAP 





Fig. 8. 



Acreage grouping. 



Average 

 acreage. 



Number 

 of farms 

 reporting. 



Number of gates. 



Rods of 



fencing 



per gate. 



Per farm. 



Per acre. 



100 and under 



101 to 140 



78.5 

 124.1 

 166.0 

 212.3 

 286.3 

 360.0 

 479.4 

 740.7 

 1,151.3 

 2, 047. 1 



502 

 367 

 512 

 457 

 276 

 137 

 138 

 50 

 12 

 13 



9.9 

 12.7 

 14.3 

 16.6 

 19.2 

 21.6 

 29.2 

 32.6 

 52.9 

 40.9 



0.126 

 .102 

 .086 

 .078 

 .067 

 .06 

 .061 

 .044 

 .046 

 .02 



61.5 



64.6 

 67.6 

 69.3 

 71.7 

 75.1 

 73.0 



110.3 

 83.8 



119.1 



141 to 180 



181 to 240 



241 to 320 



321 to 400 



401 to 600 



601 tol,000 



1,001 to 1,500 





Total... 



2,464 





Average 

 of all.. 



71.2 





The larger farms not only require less fence to the acre but they 

 also require fewer gates for a given amount of fence. There is an 

 average of 1 gate to every 61.5 rods of fence on the smallest farms, 

 as compared with 119.1 on the largest and 71.2 on all farms. The 

 average value of gates is $3.27 each. This makes an average cost 

 of 0.045 cent per rod of fence for gates. The gates used on farms 



