The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1881-01-19
Preserving Fence Posts.

How to keep fence posts from rotting,
writes a correspondent of the New England
Farmer, has been a vexed question ever
since have known anything about farm
ing and probably for many years before.
Charring the part that goes into the ground
is the most usual device employed. and is
highly recommended by many. / have
found in my own experience that it docs
not amount to shucks," and there seems 10
me to be very good reason for il. The
grave digger in Hamlet maintains that
water is a sore decayer of your dead body"
and the same thing holds good of fence
posts. Now charcoal is a very porous sub
stance, and has the property of absorbing
and holding great deal of water, so that /
honestly believe that post that is simply
charred is worse off than if it had been let
alone altogether. Still, charcoal in itself
Is almost indestructible. but OF course one
can not char the post clear through. as it
would be too brittle. Tar on the outside of
an uncharred post will keep the water ont
to certain degree; char the post, and then
put on tar, and the tar will be greedily alb
sorbed by the wood and the water will be
kept out still more, and if your post is made
of thoroughly dried timber it will last the
longer for it, But if there is any sap in the
post or if the end of the wood is not more
carefully prepared than most farmers care
to take the pains to do, so that the pores of
the wood will take up moisture from the
ground by capillary attraction, you will
find in taking pan old fence, that the posts
will be all decayed inside while the out
side shows very little rot except just at the
surface of the ground, where the water has
stood about it.
Now have found salt one of the best pre-
seTvatlves of organic matter of every kind.
| have seen q salt fish hang for sign by
the door al GREGORY for DOZEN wears
growing harder and firmer all the time, and
yet il would make first-claSs fish balls for a
Sunday breakfast at the end of that time.
have eaten salt junk on shipboard that out
lasted for years the man who picked it, and
1 can show you piiing that was driven in a
salt-marsh fifty years ago, and is still sound
10 the core, aud even more solid than the
day it was driven.
The sap left IN the wood, or the water
that is sucked up from the earth, must be
in some way neutralized, or your post will
rot. Kyanizing and kindred processes are
too expensive, aud need special apparatus,
but they make the wood practically indie
structible. The use of salt, however, is al
most equally effective. and within the reach
OF all. Bore a hole lengthwise into the
post, from the lower end, and somewhat
deeper than the post is to set in the ground.
About an inch and half is large enough
for the diameter of the hole. Fill nearly
full of dry salt, and plug tightly with a dry
plug, being careful not TO split the post Ii
you tar the lower end it will be all the bet
ter, though it is not indispensable.
In setting the posts be careful to heap the
ground around them, and to keep it heaped
if possible, as it is liable to settle and make
depression where water will gather and
stand, and eventually destroy the post. If
these directions are followed, and if the tim
Der is fairly dry to begin with, you may be
sure that the fence will last fully as long IS,
in these days of change you will want to
keepa fence in one place, and will bear
moving after that