Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-05-19
Cheap Portable Fence.

We give the following design of an
Inexpensive portable fence furnished by
S. D. Harris, Of Ohio:
In long experience with patent-right
men, and visiting at the principal agri
cultural exhibitions OF the country. |
had come 70 a realizing sense of the
various devices for portable fences, but
when | came to be farmer and had
need to use 3 portable fence, I found a
thing which seemed better for nv use
than any OF the patented articles which
[ had ever seen. This fence is the in
ventlon Of one of my neighbors, and the
use of it is free TO all. It is most avail
ablo for horses and horned cattle, rath-
er than for sheep or swine, of which lat
ter we have next to none in this dairy
region Of Ohio, so that for picket fences
this devices answers all our needs, and
is the soonest made, cheapest and most
durable of anything Of the kind. The
fence consists OF < shaped uprights or
supports, and common fence rails or
poles, with Iock-rails OF any refuse stuff,
from 7 to 10 feet in length. For all
ordinary purposes two horizontal
rails are sufficient, but where calves
or other small stock are to be
fenced against, it viii need three hori
zontal rails. For the uprights I had
oak timber sawed at the mill, IL feet
long, 3 inches wide, and L inches
thick. One such piece will make a
whole upright: first cut off two feet for
the cross-piece, and then cut the rest of
the piece in the middle. making two
pieces, each 5 feet long. Make the
upper fork Or place Of crossing 10inches
from the ends Of the strips; let the two
feet OF the uprights stand 4 feet apart
on the ground, and, for two bar fence,
let the cross-piece be eighteen inches
from the ground. To make these sec
tons | set two stakes IN the ground, fleet
apart, to mark the place for the foot of
the pieces; then [ set a stake to mark
the angle at the place of intersection:
here l laid a piece Of solid scantling, to
nail upon, and another like piece of
scantling, IS inches above the foot, to
make firm place to nail upon for the
crosspiece. This done, I could knock
the uprights together very fast. For
the upper nail | used 10-penny fence
nails, which are thick and stout. One
such nail, well set, is sufficient For
mailing on the crosspieces used 8-penny
nails, which are stout enough for that
place. Snch stuff will do well
enough for the crosspieces, and
they may be softer wood than the
uprights. Where pine is cheaper than
oak that will do for uprights, though it
does not hold nail SO well. The up
rights need TO be made OF durable wood,
as the bottoms rest upon the ground
and are subject to decay. I have seen
very good uprights made of split hick-
DRY timber, but any cross grained oak
or hickory may be sawed for this pur-
pose, and do as well as that which is
tree and stralght-grained. To set up
the fence stand up pair of the up
rights at such distance apart as will
accommodate the rails or poles to be
used for horizontals, lay in the top rail,
then lag on the back rails, with one end
to rest on the ground to prevent the
fence from gong down endwise, then
lay III the bottom rail, and so on. keep
ing the fence well locked as you pro-
ceed. Having occasion to make consid-
cradle temporary fence I soon found
that few old rails and broken pieces
for locks made long string of fence
with small cost Of material or labor. and
the fence viii stand any wind that is
likely to blow.