Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1888-09-05
ECONOMY IN FENCING.
fHelpfA Hints for Farmers DESTROYS Of 6avs
III 81 Ing Work and Money.

ing Work and Money.
First, ] have learned that farmers do
not need half the fences that they keep
up on = majority of farms, and that
they can farm more pleasantly and
proftably in large than in small fields.
l have a neighbor with q farm of l60
acres. who, two years ago, removed q
mile Of division fences, and now tells
me that he would not allow any one to
put them back if they would do it free
of cost. Several farmers OF my neigh
bOYhood who have removed division
fences, so as to give them fields from
100 Ito 160 rods long, have made a
careful estimate of the amount Of
work IA team can do in these long
fields as compared with short ones,
and they find it takes third longer to
pillow a given amount in short rows.
Mr.. Bonham, State Secretary of the
Ohio Board of Agriculture, has some
fields which are nearly a half mile
long and only about one-fourth as wide,
and he tells me that team would
cultivate one of these fields the long
way in just two-thirds the time it took
the short way. have now in my en-
Ploy young man who worked three
years ON a farm laid off in fields aver
aging a third of a mile long, and he
found that he could cultivate an
acre of corn an hour with ease, and
keep it up day after day. AS about
SIX and one-half rows made an acre, it
will be seen that he only had to walk
about two and one-fourth miles and
turn his team six and one-half times to
cultivate ar acre.
Ten years ago I removed division
fences SO that, with the exception OF
four acres around the barn, which is
divided into as many lots for pigs.
calves, ETC., my farm of ninety acres ia
all in two fields. One field of thirty
acres. which lis rolling and has never
failing springs, is a permanent pasture.
The fifty-five acre Enclosure is mover
grazed, summer nor winter. Clover is
sown on all land Ia small grain, and
either cut for hay or seed, or else It is
plowed under. We pillow down
on an average about fifteen acreu a
year, the clover growing only between
harvest and autumn, and being plowed
down either late in the fall or early
the next spring. Any one who has
never tried the plan of Letting clover
grow without being fed at all, from
wheat harvest till fall, would be sur
prised to see what a growth it will
often make. About two years out of
three l get as heavy a growth as is
common in June, and occasionally it
natures crop of seed.
Reducing the amount of fence is not
the only way of economizing fence on
the farm, for have also learned how
to make very cheap and yet effective
fences. First, except around two of
the acre lots, all my division fences
are made to turn cattle only. Ny
farm is better suited to wheat and
grass than to corn, and my system of
farming is a mixed one. We run
'noderate-sized dairy, and do not want
hogs in the pasture to wallow in the
water, and so our hogs are all kept in
pens and feed lots, and the fences
made to turn cattle only. The fence
between the pasture and pillow land is
made by row of locust trees set four
feet apart, with a single barbed wire
stapled to them three and one half feet
from the ground, and row of Usage
brush laid along under the wire.
These trees were planted in 1879, and
in 1883 we stapled the wire to
Them and fixed the fence. 1t
cost eight cents a rod, including
and place the brush, and each spring
since we have added a load of brush,
putting on one here and there where
needed. There are so many large
hedges in the neighborhood that we
IAN always get all the brush needed
or the hauling. and it has not cost
fifty cents q year to keep up this fifty
'ods of fence, and it is a perfect pro-
lection. Many of the trees are already
arge enough for posts. am so
pleased with this that I have started
lows of trees for two other lines of
fence along the south border OF a
pasture field. Another cheap fence
which I have found to turn horses
Ind cattle perfectly is made by setting
good, substantial posts from thirty
20 forty feet apart. The end
posts are strongly braced and
three plain wires stretched. The
over wire is two feet from the ground,
The second one ten inches higher, and
The top one seventeen inches above the
last, or four feet and three inches
above the ground. Next, we drive a
good, stout stake every five or six feet,
and staple the wires to them, and then
nail three-inch strip of board be-
tween the two upper wires! This board
Is to enable the stock to see the fence
and keep them from running into it,
and the fence is not safe without it, as
horses and sometimes cattle will run
into it with such force as to break it
and perhaps injure themselves.