Before World War II, for instance, a wire fence ran along the front of the University Quadrangle in Sewanee to keep out the hogs that otherwise roamed freely in the yards and rough ravine areas of the campus. After World War I, with the increasing domestication of the landscape, the sharper focusing of property lines, and with the advent of increased automobile traffic, fencing became more and more common. By then, log and stone fences had long since given way to barbed wire and other kinds of fences. The building and maintenance of fences, particularly board fences, is labor intensive and somewhat technical. The very high value of livestock today makes quality fencing extremely important for the farmer, and very good fences continue to be erected all around the county.
Fences are also good indices to the quality of the farm on which they occur.
The traditional color used by the major manufacturer of electric fence supplies is red. Note however that many new electric fences use yellow insulators. The reason is that it was found that Ruby Throated Hummingbirds mistake the red insulator for a flower like the Trumpet Creeper and are frequently electrocuted. When the decline in hummingbird populations was associated with this cause, a campaign was started to select another color for the insulators. The red insulators are now being phased out and replaced with yellow insulators.