20 BULLETIN 321, U. S. DEPABTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The chemical and physical properties of the wire and also the 
amount of galvanizing carried by it are factors in determining its 
durability. It is not the purpose of this publication to go into the 
details of the manufacture of the steel, as these are very exhaustively 
treated in Farmers' Bulletin Xo. 239 of the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture. It may be well, however, to mention the proc- 
esses commonly used in the manufacture of steel wire. The steel 
from which most of the wire fencing is made at the present time is 
manufactured by two processes, the Bessemer and the basic open 
hearth. Formerly steel for wire was made by what was called the 
puddled-iron process. This process involved the working of the 
steel by hand labor, which was necessarily slow and expensive, and 
upon the introduction of the Bessemer and open-hearth processes 
it was abandoned, as steel could be made by these processes so 
much more cheaply. It is generally believed that the steel made from 
the puddled-iron process was superior to that made by the Bessemer 
and open-hearth processes for the manufacture of wire fencing. 
Farmers point to the fact that the first woven-wire fences gave them 
better service than those of the present day. It is, however, im- 
practicable to make wire from steel manufactured by the puddled- 
iron process, and the manufacturer of wire fencing of the present 
day improves his product by increasing the quality and quantity of 
galvanizing. People have come to realize that the amount of gal- 
vanizing carried by the wire greatly affects its life and demand 
fencing with a heavy coating of it. The relative amount of galvan- 
izing or spelter on a wire may be determined by testing the wire in 
a solution of copper sulphate. 
TEST FOR WIEE FENCING. 
The common test applied to determine the relative amount of 
spelter carried by a woven-wire fabric is as follows: A saturated 
solution of copper sulphate is made by dissolving 36 parts of copper 
sulphate to 100 parts of water by weight. Xot less than a quart of 
the solution should be used in the test, and to make a quart of the 
saturated solution requires approximately 11^ ounces of copper 
sulphate, or, as it is commonly called, blue vitriol. Slightly more 
than this amount should be used, however, as there should be a 
small excess of the copper sulphate. This may be either left in the 
solution or the solution may be strained off from it. The wire to be 
tested is immersed in the prepared solution, which should be at a 
temperature of 60 to 70° F., and left for one minute, at the end of 
which time it should be removed and wiped thoroughly dry. This 
operation should be repeated until the wire shows a deposit of 
metallic copper. The copper will not be deposited on the wire until 
the galvanizing is removed and a well-galvanized wire should stand 
at least three immersions in the copper sulphate solution without 
showing copper deposits on it. Some specially galvanized wire will 
withstand four immersions without showing copper. This wire is 
