Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-04-10
FENCE BUILDING.

FENCE BUILDING:
What They Cost on Our Farms-Some Facts
Not Generally Known.
1t has been said that our fences cost
more than our land, taking the coun.
try as whole. When we consider
that the average life of ordinary
fences is twenty years, we can esti-
mate the waste of wealth by ordinary
decay. Lumber is an important item
to the farmer, especially our prairie
farmer, who relies on corn and grass
for fuel, with the pineries of Mime
sofa, Wisconsin, and Michigan to
look to for a supply, and railroads to
enhance the value in proportion to
the distance and rate of freight. The
past winter has been favorable for
numbering, and the outlook is. flatter-
ing for all.
In markets near the source of sup
ply. where fence-boards average $15
per 1000, the average cost for fence is
as follows:
Four 16-feet boards, 80 feet, 1Kc. per
foot .................... 4oc.
Two sharpened oak posts, 14c. each.... 3Oc.
Cost of fence including nails Qabor
omitteO ooT:
Where one-half boards and one-half
wire are used, the cost is as follows:
Two 16-feet boards, 16 feet, &c. per foot &c.
Two rods wire, lOc. per rod. 2oc.
One post each feet, two posts at loc. ~
each. .................'. ooo.
Cost of materials, nails included, each rod 75c
When wire alone is used, as on the
large prairies, extensive stOck-farmS,
and elsewhere, we give the following
as the actual cost for material: Wire
fence, properly built, requires but
one post to twenty -four feet "a rod
and half.) The labor in digging
post-holes is but one-third, and the
labor in facing the posts and setting
boards is saved. Board fence requires
posts every eight or twelve feet, ac-
cording to the length of boards.
Every board must be supported in the
middle and at the ends. Three steel
wires make a good fence, and, if the
posts are sharpened and driven home
well, will stand for years; for a wire
fence we give the following:
Per rod for posts at Is cts each. ....... 1Oc.
Per rod, three strands steel wire at 10
cts per pound, or 10 cts per rod. zoe.
For material. 4Oc
Thus ehave for board fence, 80
cents per rod; board and wire fence,
IS cents per rod; wire exclusively, 40
cents per rod.
TO have a good fence, you must
have good material; and little time
in philosophizing will settle the ques-
ton as to the cost in labor, for that is
vital question. Whether you require
by. your process boy alone to assist
you, or the whole force or family, for
a week OF more, is the question. Many
dollars and much time are spent in
experiments or some device to save
mOrey, which, if saved, is so much
earned by the farmer.
Get good posts, well sharpened.
Crooked posts here and there are not
Objectionable. Place them twenty
four feet apart. Drive them down
solid.
Your wire should be steel, we'll
DdLDCus IuClO QIO anu
many tastes. Most are good. We
prefer for the top strand galvanized
steel wire. as it is more prominent
and easily seen by freshly turned in
stock, who are unused to barbed wire.
A fat, galvanized wire, twisted after
placed in position, makes strong and
safe top wire; and often alternate
wires Of smooth steel without barbS
are preferred. The main thing, after
you have secured good wires, is to
have them drawn tight. Before you
begin to staple your wires, insert the
terminal points in the earth, at each
corner or end post, to carry off cleo
tricity-for these steel wires act as
conductors to carry electricity, and, if
suddenly interrupted by the end being
wound around the post or cut off at
the staple, your post will be shat
tered, and the whole line of fence will
sag loose. This has been considered
the result of contraction and expan-
sion, butdon't fool yourself with theo-
ries. M ls, ss54,as.
Before you proceed to put up your
wire, provide yourself with the proper
tools, which will do the work thor
oughly, take the least amount of help,
and cost the least money. Go to your
hardware merchant and ask him for
come-along." If he has none, get
him to send for one. 1t is clamp
with ringed handles, and costs but
trife. Get stake about six feet long.
two or two and half inches in diam
eter. Drive peg or piece of iron
into it about six inches from the end,
to keep it from slipping as you go
around the post. Shove the stake
or handspike through the ring, and
staple the ring to the handspike, say
twelve inches from the end, and you
can put up wire fences all day with
out touching it with your hands.
This g come-along has hooked lip,
upon which you catch up the wire and
it closes, holding it firmly as in vice.
The danger in holding barbed-wire
comes from slipping, or loosening the
hold when drawing. With this all
danger is avoided, and there is no
injury to the wire. Now. you are
ready to proceed in earnest. Insert
the end in the earth, staple to the end
post, and run out your wire along the
line, laying it close to the posts.
Now go along fifteen or twenty rods,
pick up the wire about two to three
feet from the post, place the end of