92 
AMERICAN AGRIG ULT URIST. 
[March, 
Fencing and Fences, 
Wooden Fences. 
A large number of descriptions, drawings, etc., 
of wooden fences have recently come to hand. 
Some of them are interesting, and we shall keep 
them for further reference and some of them for 
use in this Journal. Just now we are giving special 
attention to the subject of metal fencing. 
About Patents on Fences. 
A multitude of inquiries, too numerous to answer 
individually, come to us from all over the country, 
some describing well, and some unintelligently, va¬ 
rious devices, and asking our opinion if they are 
11 patentable ” or worth patenting. Inmost cases 
it would require careful, thorough examination at 
the Washington Patent Office to answer these 
questions, and we can not undertake such work. 
An Important Change of Circumstances—A 
Great Rise in Price of Iron and Steel. 
Since this series of articles on Metal Fences was 
planned during our summer trip through the West, 
there has been a very rapid and great advance in 
the price of Iron and Steel. In September, 1878, 
the Standard No. 1 Anthracite pig iron was selling 
at $16@$17 per ton, and in September last it had 
only risen to $22@$23—that is, to a trifle over one 
cent per pound. The last week in January it sold 
as high as $43 per ton, and to-day (Feb. 6) is quoted 
at $40@$41—an advance of fully 90 per cent, or 
nearly double since last September 1. This has re¬ 
sulted from the great demand arising from the 
wonderful revival of business that took place as 
soon as our large crops were secured and the gen¬ 
erally poor condition of crops throughout Europe 
became fully ascertained. This demand enables 
iron producers to charge their own prices, and they 
are realizing enormous profits. Such a state of 
things may continue for a moderate period, but 
when all the idle furnaces are in operation, and the 
new ones projected are in full blast, prices will be 
likely to fall back to figures affording only a fair 
profit. As a very large part of the cost of iron and 
steel fence materials depends upon labor, patent 
royalties, etc., the actual cost of metal fencing has 
not advanced correspondingly, and will not do so. 
Yet this rise materially affects, for the time being, 
the progress towards securing Iron Fence Posts that 
can successfully compete with wood for ordinary 
farm use. But even at the present value of iron, 
there are, or soon will be found, iron posts which 
will be more economical than to use wood posts at 
a nominal price. 
Iron and Wood Posts Compared. 
Suppose we take the present cost of Iron posts 
at 50 cents each. Several are now offered at this 
rate and under. The tables last month (page 51) 
estimated 100 rods of Post and Board Fence at $100 ; 
and of wire fence with wooden posts at $67.25. 
Taking similar figures we have 
FOR 100 RODS OF FENCES: 
( Galvanized Steel Wire or Strap, 4 Strands High.) 
WOOD POSTS. I IRON POSTS. 
400 Rods Wire, at 11c_$44.00 400 Rods Wire, at 11c_$41.00 
100 Wood Posts, at 1244c. 12.50' 100 Iron Posts, at 50c_ 50.00 
400 Staples.75 Labor about. 7.50 
Labor about. ■ lS-W Total.floT^O 
Total. $72.25 1 
Two men with a single horse and wagon should 
distribute the material, drive the iron posts and 
put up 100 rods of wire in two days, at a cost of 
$7.50. This gives a cost for iron posts over wood 
of 30 cents per rod (less than 2 cents per foot). 
But for the increased outlay to start with, we have 
a permanent fence, one occupying the smallest pos¬ 
sible amount of ground, one scarcely needing any 
repairs for half a century, and one indestructible by 
fire. We are quite sanguine however, that with the 
present interest and the great activity of inventive 
minds, we shall very soon learn of some form of 
iron post that will be both effective and cheap, 
at a cost considerably below 50 cents each. 
Non-Destructible, Non-Combustible Wooden 
Posts. 
We are glad to learn that hopeful experiments 
are now being made towards producing a wood 
fence post that shall be both non-combustible by 
any ordinary fire, and practically non-destructible 
by the weather or ordinary decay, and at an in¬ 
creased expense of only a few cents per post. The 
information is private and confidential as yet, and 
we can not judge as to the probable success, but 
we do not see why, with the Kyanizing process long 
successfully practised, and with the new applica¬ 
tion of asbestos there should not be valuable results 
in the direction indicated. Perhaps by applying 
such improvements to the cheaper, more abundant 
varieties of wood, we may get such prepared posts 
at about the present cost of those made from cedar, 
chestnut, and like comparatively durable timber. 
Other Forms of Posts. 
A very large number of suggestions have recent¬ 
ly come to us in the way of new forms, or supposed 
new forms, of iron posts. Some of these are cover¬ 
ed by those already before the public; more are im¬ 
practicable on account of their expensiveness ; some 
are not clearly described; a majority, while send¬ 
ing queries, insist upon their ideas beiug considered 
private and confidential until they have further de¬ 
veloped them or obtained patents... .In figures 22, 
23, 24,25, are suggestions of our own, somewhat in 
the line of figure 11 (Jan. No., page 10)—and we 
offer these only as suggestive. The above-ground 
post (fig.26) is to be a simple flat bar of wrought iron, 
say H inch wide, 1 inch thick—or of whatever size 
may be required for the particular fence to be put 
up : to be notched or pierced for attaching the hori¬ 
zontal lines ; to be 4 to 44 feet above ground, and 
-aiajLlp*"- 
Fig. 22. Fig. 23. Fig. 24. Fig. 25. Fig. 26. 
[The small section cuts at the top are not for use, but 
merely to show the form more plainly.] 
extend down as deeply as may be needed by the 
firmness of the soil, the kind of foot-piece used, 
the nearness of the posts together and the conse¬ 
quent strain upon each. The ground, or Foot- 
Piece, to be made of clay and burned the same as 
brick, or it may be made of hydraulic lime and 
sand.—Figure 32 is a simple round tough brick, 
say 4 to 5 inches in diameter, and 15 to 20 or more 
inches long, with an opening in the center to re¬ 
ceive the iron bar. A little thin hydraulic grouting 
will hold it firmly in. If burned to vitrification it 
will be as tough as iron, and absolutely indestruc¬ 
tible. A post auger will quickly make an excava¬ 
tion for its reception in ordinary soil.—A Foot- 
piece 4 inches in diameterand 19 inches longwould 
require the same clay as three ordinary brick of 
8x4x24 inches dimensions.—A piece 5 inches in 
diameter and 201 inches long would equal four or¬ 
dinary brick in contents.—To save weight and clay, 
this piece may be made as in figure 23, the core 
only so thick as needed, with three flanges project¬ 
ing an inch or so ; or better still like figure 24, with 
wedge-shaped flanges, as in this form the piece 
could be driven with a wooden mallet into a hole 
made to fit the round central core.—Figure 25 
shows the same with four flanges.—Figure 3® 
shows the post set with the iron bar. 
A Primitive Cast-Iron Post. 
Henry Gaylord, of Cheshire, Conn., sends us a 
description of a very simple iron post, made by 
Sterling Bradley of that town many years ago. 
These were merely fiat cast-iron pieces, three- 
fourths of an inch thick or so, three to four inches 
wide. Holes were dug of any desired depth and 
width, the posts set in, the holes filled with small 
cobble stone, and grouting (thin hydraulic mortar) 
poured in. Boards wye used for the running pieces, 
wire not having come into use. These posts, after 
standing 20 to 25 years, still remain firm. We give 
the above as suggestive only. Where small stones 
abound and hydraulic lime and sand are readily 
obtained cheaply, it may sometimes be practica¬ 
ble to use a small single bar of wrought or cast- 
iron of the strength needed, and fasten it firmly in 
the ground by putting around its base the neces¬ 
sary amount of grouting mixed with small stone or 
gravel. Notches or holes in the bars will serve for 
attaching the running wires. For general fencing, 
posts are required that can be quickly driven. 
Fig. 27 shows a form of iron post manufactured 
by A. G. Powell & Co. (see advertisem ’ t). It consists 
of an upright post of 
wrought iron, one-and-a-half 
inch wide, and five-six¬ 
teenths of an inch thick; 
6 feet long, and notched 
and pierced with small 
holes for attaching the 
running wires. This is 
driven into the ground, say 
20 inches. An angular 
looped collar is slipped 
down to the surface of the 
ground, and two shorter 
pieces of iron 14 inch wide, 
one-fourth inch thick, and 
about two feet long, are 
driven through the collar- 
piece, as shown in the en¬ 
graving, to form braces. 
This appears like a some- s^|fi^|g|||g||j^g||§|g 
what effective post—per- & Fig. 27 . 
haps too expensive for general farm fencing at the 
present advanced cost of iron. The weight of 
the whole is about 144 lbs. 
An Important Point in Favor of Wire Fences 
is referred to by several of our readers, which, sum¬ 
marized in nearly the language of one of them, 
runs thus: “ I raise winter grain mainly, and my 
fields are subject to snow-drifts. Formerly I 
usually lost a pretty wide strip of wheat along the 
wooden fences, owing to the heavy snow-drifts re¬ 
maining so long on a strip two to five rods wide on 
at least two sides of the field. I have now four 
ten-acre fields fenced with barbed wire and small 
cedar posts. These do not check the wind so as 
to produce snow-drifts, and I save wheat enough to 
pay the cost of the wire in every two or three crops, 
while the fence will outlast half a dozen rail fences, 
I think. Two of these fields adjoin pasture fields, 
and on the sides next these pastures I have spiked 
slim long poles upon the posts about 3 feet from 
the ground. While these do not stop the snow, 
they warn off the animals, and so far I have had 
no accidents.” 
Another correspondent writes that his fruit trees 
were often girdled by mice that found good winter 
quarters in the snow-drifts along his old wooden 
fences. Two years ago last summer he substituted 
wire fences, partly barbed and partly plain wire, 
and has had no snow-drifts and no trouble from 
mice, by taking the precaution to remove or tram¬ 
ple hard any considerable bodies of snow that gath¬ 
ered around the trees; and further, that since the 
removal of the wood fences the mice have had no 
breeding places, and they have mainly disappear¬ 
ed, so that this winter he will not take any troubU 
with the snow around the trees. 
Specific Ross and Gain. 
A Subscriber in Central New York, states figures 
thus: “ In autumn of 1878,1 sowed winter wheat in 
a field with a high rail fence on one side, 70 rods long. 
The snow-drift killed a strip full 4 rods wide, or 280 
rods—just 14 acre. The rest of the field averaged 
24 bushels per acre, and I sold my wheat at $1.45 
per bushel. The 42 bushels lost by the snow, were 
worth $60.90. Here was a loss on one crop of 
enough to have built a new wire fence, with iron 
posts, along the whole 70 rods—a fence that would 
be permanent for a life-time, and need no repairs.” 
... .Another writes from Wisconsin: “ I have fields 
fenced with wood, and others with wire. My ob¬ 
servation is, that the latter can on the average be 
worked at least a week earlier in spring ; the former 
