Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-09-18
FENCING The Farm
The Value and Cost of Having
Farm Land Surrounded by
Hog Tight Fences
THE COST SOON REALIZED
THE COST SOON REALIZED
One Good Farmer Claims He Got His
Money Back In One Year-An Elk
pertinent With the Road Drag. w.
Griges Unique Character In Han
cock County.

cock County.
Special 10 Times Republican,
| Parkersburg, Sept. 1S.-A few years
ago a we'll known writer on farm sub
| jects stated that no man could afford
to own fifty dollar land without having
| it enclosed with woven wire fence.
If he was right then. Il great oppor-
tunity is being neglected now. For 1T
is yet a comparatively rare sight to
see an entire farm so fenced. The adj
vantages of such a fence are especial
ly evident to one passing along the
bic fields on which there are always
more or less shattered grain. and
meadows covered with young grass, all
of which would otherwise be wasted,
are furnishing droves of hogs with a
perfect ration without any trouble to
the owner and with little or no drain
on his grain bins. Later on when the
corn is husked, those same hogs Will
find every grain which has fallen to
the ground. The occupant OF such a
place never loses amy money by hav-
ing valuable horse ruined by barbed
wire; Is never compelled to stop his
work and chase cattle out of his corn
field. His mich cows never come to
the yard with their udders mangled
and torn making all kinds of trouble
two times u day for weeks after the
accident and he is never involved In
quarrel with "a neighbor on account
of trespassing stock, the source of
more neighborhood rows than those
occasioned by all other causes COM
bned A good fence can be built for
about So cents per rod, plus the labor.
At this rate 1854 would buy the mater
lad to enclose eighty acres, or 1852 for
O. quarter section. / asked one man
whose farm Is fenced In this way, how
long it would take for the fence to pay
for itself, and he said, "One year"
An experiment in road dragging that
deserves mention was made this sea-
son by Mr.. VIM. Watkins on half
mile stretch of local mail route. He
went at the job in a methodical man
ner, recording dates of dragging,
amount of time consumed etc. Since
June 8 he has been over the road with
his drag on six different occasions, and
whatever the conditions may have been
when he began, it is the finest piece
of road on the route today. Five hours
and twenty minutes is all the time 1t
required to do the work. Tho side OF
| the road next his farm is kept in a
style that compares favorably with the
average lawn in town, and the effect
of the dragging on the number OF
| teams that turned out of the road be-
cause of it's condition was carefully
noted. But three left it after the first
working, only two after the second and
/, practically none since then.
In his comfortable home on a section
farm, through which runs one of the
| Goodell mail routes, lives Mr.. j. w.
Griggs, one of the unique characters
of Hancock county. 1t is said that in
his boyhood days he was very fond of
hunting.
Then came period Of about fifteen
years during which his gun was never
used The old longing again returned,
| however, and the man spent several
years hunting and trapping in the
northern counties of the state, at last
purchasing the tract of land which he
now owns and for which he paid Sc
per acre. He is between 80 and 6O
years of age now, but the hunting ex-
petitions have not ceased. He has
a specially fittedup wagon with
boat, bed, camp-stove, tent, and
other necessaries, and one or two
days of every week during the hunt
| ing season are spent without COM
panons on the nearby lakes, while the
grown-up sons attend to the work on
| the farm An occasional expedition is
made to northern Minnesota for deer
hunting in company with other hunt
ers, but the local trips are made alone.
| Thirty acres of his farm are inclos-
ed with an eight-foot woven wire
fence which confines a herd of about
eighty deer, and an hour spent within
j that Enclosure will furnish the visitor
| with some exhibitions which he will
not soon forget. Beautiful specimens,
varying from few weeks to ten years
i'm age, go bounding thru the tall grass
with the swiftness and grace that only
such animals possess. While we were
watching them, one cleared pool OF
water at least eighteen feet across,
with apparent ease.
Mr. Griggs is in the deer raising
businessi both because of his love of
the animals and because he finds them
profitable. Orders come to him from
far off states, from those desiring Their
for pets. Of course / asked him how
much he received for those he sold ana
he replied; From fifteen to fifty dol
lars"
Mr.. Griggs formerly kept a herd of
elk but disposed of them. In the same
inc1osure with the deer are nineteen
wild geese, two of which the owner
himself captured. G. II. WlLSoN'
nCES