4 BULLETIN 321, U, S. DEPAETMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
to include reports which were incomplete, and many such were dis- 
carded. It is believed a sufficient number of reports were secured 
from all parts of the area studied to furnish data which would be 
representative of the entire area. 
LOCAL REQUIREMENTS AND ADAPTATION. 
There are four main types of fence in use in this country — wire, 
wooden, hedge, and stone— but there are almost numberless modifica- 
tions of these types. Present-day conditions, with high-priced land, 
scarcity of timber, and the consequent high cost of materials for 
wooden fences, as well as the higher wages paid to farm labor, have 
made it impracticable in most localities for the farmer to construct 
any but wire fence. Any data or discussion in this manuscript in 
regard to the construction of the most economical kinds of fence will 
therefore refer to the use of different types of wire fencing. 
Wooden, stone, and hedge fences, at the time they were built, were 
well suited to the conditions, and in most instances they were the 
logical fences to construct. For example, the New England farmer 
cleared most of his land in 6 or 10 acre lots. He could burn the 
wood and get it out of the way, but the easiest way to remove stones 
w^hich would interfere with the cultivation of the fields was to pile 
them up in walls around the fields. This served the double purpose 
of removing the stone from the land and making a fence. The set- 
tlers of Ohio and Indiana had different conditions to meet. They 
also had to remove the timber from their lands, but they did not have 
to contend with stone to any appreciable extent ; so instead of burn- 
ing all the timber they split some of it up into rails and constructed 
their fences of them. The farmers who settled in the prairie regions 
of Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and other Western States had 
neither timber nor stone to remove from their farms or to use in the 
construction of fences. Wire fences at that time were imknown ; they 
naturally planted hedges, which answered both as a fence and as 
a windbreak. 
Stone walls have in many instances become racked, and are hence 
no longer serviceable. Material for reconstructing rail fences is usu- 
ally lacking. Hedgerows make very poor fence; they are also ex- 
pensive. All of these types occupy excessive ground space, form 
breeding places for weeds and insects, and require much labor to 
keep them in order. For these reasons the above-mentioned types of 
fence are gradually disappearing. There are still many stone, 
wooden, and hedge fences in use, but as fast as they become un- 
serviceable they are being removed and replaced with wire. (Plate I.) 
