Mexico weekly ledger., 1897-04-22
Telephones For Farmers.
A SUCCESSFUL LINE IN OPERA
TION OVER BARB WIRE
FENCES.
Farms at Pearl, Kas., in Communica-
tion With One Another and the
Railroad Station How the
Line Was Put in Opera
tion-Its Cost.
From the Kansas City Star

From the Kansas City Star
One of the greatest drawbacks to
farming in this country is the isola-
ton it entails on women. Women
without society are miserable; men
become morose and habitually taci-
turn. Community farming is the Sc
cret of making country life bearable,
but this is practically impossible in
this region.
The Frenchman is a lover of home
and of his kind, and he manages to
make the life of farmer very differ
ent from that of his American proto-
type. In France he lives in villages,
and trudges off to his distant fields in
the morning and back at night. The
French Canadians, in the province of
Quebec, have a unique way of build
ing up a community of homes. When
the 'Sieurs, to whom were granted
vast tracts of Canadian soil by France,
sold or rented the land to habitants,
the latter insisted upon so dividing it
that they might 1--we together. So they
took their farms in strips so or 100
feet wide, running back thousands of
feet, in some instances, and at one end
of the strips erected their cottages
facing on common "green" and
there they danced in the evenings and
visited one another and were happy.
In no other way was it possible to
found community.
In our western farming districts,
where men often farm a section or
more of land, close communion be-
tween farmers, even when relatives,
is impossible. The bad roads in most
neighborhoods serve to keep the peo-
pie further apart. There are two
remedies for it, however, and some
day, no doubt, both will be applied.
They are good roads and the teIe-
phone.
The telephone, as means of bring
ing farmers nearer each other, has
been successfully tried in one neigh
borhood in Kansas, and the example
should prove contagious. For three
years F. V. Johnson, the local agent
of the Rock Island railroad at Pearl,
K.s., end .. H.aro oiarcnce TsyIorJ
farmers near Pearl, have
been trying to build a farmers tele-
phone line, but, owing to the cost of
erecting poles the entire distance, the
project was abandoned. Mr.. John
son, however, did not entirely give up
the idea, and entered into correspond
snce with telephone experts as to the
possibility of using the barb wire pas
sure fences for the purpose of carry
ng the electric fluid. From some of
,hese he received assurance that the
plan would work successfully.
j. II. Taylor, whose farm Ia five and
/ half miles from Pearl, decided at
asst to put line in operation between
his house and that of his brother, one
nile away. He bought two Harrison
telephone Instruments, and the line
vas connected by wiring from each |
house to a barb wire fence on a line |
With the two houses. The fence was
irst gone over carefully and all splices
n the wire made safe, but no insula- |
;ors were used, the wire being left
Jtapled to the posts. Then the tele-
phone was "cut through" and, to the
surprise and delight of the expert
it worked perfectly.
AS soon as success was assured two
more telephone instruments were Or
for the railroad station at
Pearl and one for the residence of T.
g. Taylor, one mile from Pearl. High
poles carried the line over roads and
,he few spaces where there were no
wire fences. Glass insulators were
put on the high poles SO that in case it
was found necessary to insulate all
the way through that much would
have been done. Everyone who saw
the line predicted that it would not
work because the electric current
would leak at each post.
But the insulation proved an unnec-
essary expense, for, when the line
was opened, it worked perfectly. Part
Of the line was constructed by atap-
ing the wire to q growing hedge
fence and to growing trees, but most
of it ran over the top wire of pasture
fences. At section lines, where the
line was carried over the roads, wire
was spliced to the fence on one side,
carried over and spliced to the top of
the fence wire on the other aide.
The bringing of the houses into
communication with the railroad sta
ton was of great benefit to Clarence
Taylor, who was thereby able to con-
duct his business quickly and conven-
iently. Besides operating large farm
four and one-half miles from Pearl,
he is dealer in live stock and grain.
and owns coal yard and other enter
prises at the station. j. III. Taylor
carries on a large farm and breeds
fancy cattle, and is manager of q
cheese company with factory on his
place and others at Herington, Dillon
and Carlos, Kas., with which, by
means of the telephone line, he can