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settlement of Wisconsin and I think are still in all those portions of the 
State where the expense does not exceed 84, or 84,50 per hundred, split 
and laid into fence; oak rails well laid into fence and kept in good repair 
will last many years. The reason that such fences often last for a short 
time only, is that weeds and bushes are suffered to grow alongside of 
them, and in addition they are often laid on small blocks of wood which, 
being in contact with the earth, soon decay, this has a tendency to rot 
the lower rails. True economy would require that all such contingencies 
be efuarded against, and that rail fences be taken down once in five or six 
years and laid up again. Early settlers universally used burr oak rails, 
in consequence of the facility with which they could be converted into 
fencing material. Having taken one rail cut, the most that a single tree 
afforded, the remainder was piled in the field and burned, in accordance 
with the Eastern custom of clearing land. Better economy would have 
dictated to cut the tops into 'wood, and if not wanted for immediate use 
it might have served a useful purpose as a temporary fence, being laid 
into line in some convenient manner. 
The clearing of land in the oak opening country has been a matter of 
so little consequence, that it has usually been done after the ground was 
broken up, and sometimes even after it was fenced. Many practised 
girdling the trees, and then allowing them to stand instead of cutting 
them down, where grain was to be sown—a practice that is not very 
eommendable, to say the least. After girdled trees have stood one year, 
the timber becomes so very dry and hard that it requires double the labor 
to cut it that it did when green; besides such trees, standing in a grain 
field, are always a rendezvous for such birds as feed on grain. They look 
badly, and convey the idea of desolation. As much land as is designed 
for crops had better be cleared entirely of timber. The settlers on the 
prairie lands contiguous to timber used it in beginning farms for fencing, 
preferring it to any substitute. Some more remote from the openings threw 
up what is termed “sod fence,” being made of earth piled up like a wall. 
This is now regarded as the poorest fence that can be built, for it is a 
well established fact that it will not stand any great length of time. The 
action of frost soon causes it to cave off and fill up the ditches on either 
side, and in a short time instead of a substantial fence, an irregular bank 
of earth is all that restrains flocks and herds from entering the field it 
incloses—a miserable impediment it forms for unruly animals. 
