Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-08-19
FENCES AND HEDGES.
What the Farmers of tine Country Have t.
Pay for Their Maintenance.

FENCES AND HEDGES.
What the Fsrmers of tine Country Have to
Pay for Their Maintenance.
A Washington writer, close to the
Agricultural Bureau, thus discourses on
the question of fences and hedges. He
says that the fence question is one of
great Importance, as we have in the
United States 5000, 900 miles of fences,
which have cost nearly $1,000, 100000,
and have to be renewed every fifteen
years. 1t, however, interests most of
the farmers, who have the bulk of the
labor to perform and expenses to meet
and the timber to furnish for their con-
struction. The consumption of the
timber for this purpose interests every
philanthropist. 1t is reported that Ken
lucky requires annually 100000 of
trees to keep up her national fence"
the old Virginia rail.
Hedges have been tried for a substi-
tute, but as the farmers of America are
all looking for labor-saving methods in
stead of labor-increasing devices, the
! hedge is not the coming fence. 1t will
not do so we'll in America as in En-
| gland, because our extremes of climate
| prevent its general use, and no plant has
| yet been found that is wholly reliable in
the wide range of latitude through
which the farming of the United States
| extends. The extremes of heat and
cold limit the use of both the Usage and
| buckthorn. Then, too, the trimming
of hedges must be done in the season OF
growth, which is the time the farmer
must give all his strength to the tillable
crops, the corn. wheat. rye. barley and
oats. By the time they are attended to
| the hedge is rampant, and the labor OF
| trimming has been SO increased that 1t
costs more than some other kinds of
| fence. Hedges, as rule, are neglected
and become public nuisance, which
! costs the farmer more to remove than
| to build a good board fence. 1t is clear
| the hope for saving timber and the
| money of the Nation, now locked up
and decaying in fences, is not in
| hedges.
The enterprising manufacturers of
| wire fences have improved the oppor
tunity and proclaimed the barbed wire
as the coming fence. Plain wire at
one time promised to meet every want
of the public 1t has been sixty-seven
years since the first effort to introduce
hand-drawn wire was made. But it
were too expensive and uncertain AT
ter wire-making on the new process of
machinery made wire cheaper and
more abundant. the lovers of light open
novelties in fences claimed that the days
of wooden fences had ended. But slow
ly did this new. smooth wire fence take
their place. The pigs smiled at them,
and the sheep treated them as rubbers
set up for scratching their backs, and
the cattle and colts paid little attention
to them. Occasionally a colt got an
eye knocked out with the end of a
broken wire, or leg damaged by tang
ling up in the loose strands. Build
them as farmers might, the extremes of
heat and cold either broke the strands
or loosened them, so the stock found
little trouble in passing through.
Various were the devices for adjust
ing the tension, but, like the trimming
and caring for hedges, it had to be done
often and regularly in order to be et1i
cient. SO smooth wires, after trial of
years, fell into disuse where introduced.
Its loose, forlorn look did not recon-
mend it, and the broken wires became
an imperishable nuisance in the fence
rows and fields and along roadsides. Its
DAYS were few and full of trouble.
Even the old muley COWS had no fear of
it, but slipped through unframed. New
erthcless, the New England manufac-
turers claimed that in twenty years $780,
900 miles of this kind of fence were
made.
Then came the barbed-wire fence,
Yankee invention, which has come into
general use. Its value is in the sharp
barb, which commands the attention
and respect of every animal that touches
it. Smooth barbs are more dangerous,
as the animals do not fear them and use
them for scratching, and thus get tan
gled in them or push through. A sharp
barb gives value to the wire fence as the
sharp thorns give efficiency to the hedge
plant.
Until something cheaper and more
| efficient than barbed wire is found it
will be more largely used than any
thing else. 1t is more durable than
plain, UNFINISHED strands, stands the
strain of expansion and contraction bet
ter than single strands and can be put
up more rapidly and at less cost than
| board fence and with far less labor than
hedge fence. Until our farmers learn
to farm without fences we shall be COM
PEELED to use barbed wire, with adj its
Objectionable features. Chicago Herald.