Norwich bulletin., 1910-08-27

isn't yet clear how long the galvaniz- ing is going to last. When spots do 1 begin to rust through one must call I in expensive labor to mend them The | cheap felt and other materials are 1 short-lived in ordinary exposures and ! subject to damage from very trifling l accidents. Perhaps they'll last as long ] as the nails they're fastened with! | But this idea of making roof to ' stand New England weather with pa per and paste isn't any too promis- | ing at the start off.
 Fences, too. The old staked rail fence is no longer feasible Timber l is lacking to split the rails from; the labor-cost of making them is prohibit few of which still remain on this farm were built my great t-grandfather went to the woods with his three or four husky boys, cut the best chest nuts they could find, hauled the rails with oxen and built the fences rapidly. strongly and very cheaply. l haven't today in my sixty-odd acres of wood a dozen chestnuts as good as they used to make rails from. And I've already refused an offer of ten dollars apiece for these, on the stump. be- cause, if I should ever have urgent need of a few real big sticks they'd d be worth much more than that to me certainly can't afford to build rail fences when the rails would cost me
  Der is so high that post and board fences are out of the question except for short lines in special situations. The labor-cost of making stone walls puts them out of consideration. Wire fences are not cheap-except, per haps by comparison-and anyway, they are mighty unsatisfactory. They endure no longer than the posts last to which they are fastened, and are no stronger than the staples used in fas- tening. them. I have some wire fence and find it that it is necessary to go over it at least twice a year to re- place the staples which have drawn out of the posts or to mend it where it has rusted "a part or to set new posts where they have routed off. cost of a good wire fence, including 1 freight and posts and staples and 1 labor, around my hill pastures, would l be greater than the total value of all | the land inclosed. This was first l cost only, and includes no estimate 1 Tor Annual repairs. Such an expense l would be as absurd in practice as to | utSup fifty cent potatoes in dollar | silk bags, or to buy a $10 rain coat | to protect a $1 work shirt. We farm CTS can't afford to put more money | into inclosing our farms than the farms are themselves worth, or than the val ue of all we can get off them. Per haps the western farmers, who have | wealth enough to buy automobiles and to build e1ectic roads between their wheat stacks and their barns perhaps they can do that sort of thing. But we eastern farmers aren't apt to be troubled with more money than we can find immediate use for.
 nor whether the investment would 1 pay. l am req asonably sure that 1 could 1 have a set of roofs on my buildings | that would defy the weather and that would last as long as I shall Simil ] arly, if I didn't care for first cost, I l could put a fence around my pastures that bTeachy Old Brindle couldn't get over or through or push down and that So could any farmer. But the roofs would cost more than any buildings we can afford are worth. and the fences would cost more than any farm could pay for.
 For one, confess that am "up ing I have now five different kinds of roofs under the sun and rain. One of them I know is no good the other four are too new, yet to tell what they'll be. AS for fences, Pm mending old ones as well as.I can so as to make them "do'' for a little longer, or tearing them down and making one field of two when they get too hopeless for further re- pair. I've just removed one Part of it was built by myself with posts and built by Great-Grandfather Phineas more than a hundred years ago. My old part was already so worn out that it wouldn't have kept in a sick COW with a poke on, if she had happened to cough against it. The other part was better, but not much We got a few rails out of it suitable for repairing remaining portions of stake and rail fence. Some of these were of old frst-growth pine certain ly more than hundred years old. but still sound. Straight gra ined. knotless still elastic and flexible in strips, they were evidently split from trees which, if standing today, would make alnfost invaluable lumber. But there wasn't a post left in my fifteen year old fence which was fit for fire-wood. Theyj were all rotten or ''punky."
 must maintain roadside fences to protect my crops from stray or inde- luately guarded stock. And I must my share of the line fences gainst my neighbors' land. But in tide my own buildings I ann coming to .hink that, for me, temporary fences nclosing temporary crops are the most 1 practical and the cheapest in the end md wires, no matter how small the irst nor how cheap the second, will < zeep out stock for a season Such a | : barrier can be put up in May and talk i n down in October. But I'm finding ess and less need, every year. for even | hat sort of makeshift. As things are, the nearer we can { .ome to roof1ess barns and fencaIess ields, the better off we'll be- :
 THE FARMER !
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