6 BULLETIN 321, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 
farming system and have the same fencing needs. This may be 
explained by the fact that Area Xo. 1 is an older established com- 
munity than either Areas 3 or 4. Most of Area Xo. 1 was well 
fenced with the different types of wooden fence before the days of 
wire fencing. Farmers here did not, therefore, use much barbed 
wire, which was the first to be placed on the market. The farms in 
Areas Xo. 2 and Xo. 3 were not as completely fenced at this time, 
and considerable barbed wire was used in fencing them (fig. 4). 
Woyen-wire fence was deyeloped later, but was placed on the market 
while the wooden fences in Area Xo. 1 were yet in use. On account 
of the high price of the first woyen wire, it was made narrow and of 
Fig. 2. — The distribution of wide woven wire. 
lighter wires to keep down the cost. When the farmers of Area 
Xo. 1 began to use much woyen wire the processes of manufacture 
had been so modified that the cost of the wire was much less and the 
higher fencing was being made. 
WOODEN FENCES. 
Much wooden fence is still in use in Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana 
(fig. 5). These States were originally heayily timbered and when 
the farms were cleared this timber was used to fence them. The best 
liye, white, and bur oak, chestnut, and walnut was used to make rails, 
boards, and pickets, and the relatiyely high percentage of wooden 
fence still in use is the remnant of fences built by the early settlers. 
