Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1916-02-09
SPEAKING ABOUT FENCE POSTS.


The department of agriculture has
been investigating the cost Of fencing
and fence posts and in pursuit of the
lnvestlgaiion gathered data from sew
erai thousand farmers on the cost and
life OF fence posts. Usage orange av-
cage t. last about so years, locusts %,
cedar 20 white cedar II, burr oak 10,
| and concrete As years.
Now the astonishing thing to some Of
US who used to split burr oak posts
that sold for : cents apiece is that burr
/ oak should be given so low place on
! the list. Why burr oak post was con-
! sidered some post in those days after
the true red cedar had been used up
not the red ceder of this day which isn't
cedar at all--but the good old fash
Toned red cedar that is patched up into
| boxes for miladys boudoir nowadays
and costs like sam hill when it has a
brass hasp and a strip or two of brass
! days red cedar was red cedar and
lasted longer than most folks stayed on
one farm. And locust. good black
locust, stayed in the ground sturdily
, opposed to the rubbing of warbled cat
, tie in the spring and kept the fence
horse high and bull strong for an ordi-
nary lifetime.
The fencing proposition is utterly
different now. Then a man either
bought red cedars or made his own
locust posts from the strip of locust
trees along the turn row at the back
of the field; or perhaps he sent a man
INTO the wood lot-most of the prairie
farms had a acre or two or more pur-
chased for tirewood and posts down in
the grove-and started him making
posts Of the white oaks and burr oaks
a, cent apiece for the making Then
be bought pine fencing six inches wide,
an inch thick and sixteen feet long to
nail on when the posts were set. When
it was completed he had a fence of
clear lumber five boards high with
posts every eight feet that was the
pride OF his heart and that did the bus
mess
Those were the days when great
RATS fioated their acreages Of pine logs
down the Mississippi to every town
a.oEg the river and the fencing de-
scr. bed sold a $l4 per NJ. What meal
cu.aoIe miles upon miles OF board
lengths went into those fences Then
came the certain shortage OF sucn Ium-
her The good red cedar had been
split into posts and sawed into shin
sles. Somebody started smooth wire.
The post question was still solved by
the wood iots however. Perhaps he
had 10 descend from white oak 10 red
oak and take sprinkling Of butternut
and walnut but he got his posts from
the woods mostly. And he bored holes
in them and ran wires thru and
stretched them and hadn't much of
fence after ne had finished. 1t wouldn't
stand the pressure Then some genius
twisted barb about the wire and the
job as done. That fence turned any
thing. 1t also cut the legs OF
half the horses on the place
and cost as much in that way
by depreciation Of their value as il
cost in the first place to erect. And
then the wood lot played out and the
lumber yard furnished the posts. big
round white and red" cedars that were
mighty good posts. Little by little the
diameter % those posts diminished.
But before this the Usage orange
hedger had been abroad in the land.
He grew the plants and contracted to
plant and bring to maturity an i'm
northern Illinois and elsewhere the
hedges multiplied. If they were wei!
kept and tended they justified all the
claims Of their promoter. good thick
set Usage orange hedge was harder to
pas than a civil service examination.
But neglected they grew high and in
twenty years thicKened into possible
fence posts And when the hedge had
been hacked down at the expense Of
bloody hands and bent and dinted piety
hose posts set III the ground were as
nearly immUtable to decay as anything
wooden ever was.
That's the way We came up to Is to
80 cent Usage orange posts, 25 70 80
cent locust posts and SO on. We ate
our cake and thus haven't il. Perhaps
1t vas all right at that. This great do
ma n that is the trans Mississippi was
to be developed. To what better use
could the pines in Wisconsin and the
posts on its buttes have been put? And
! here we are at concrete fence posts
that cost an average Of 80 cents and
! last half century.
This is the cement age. II come to
supply the pace Of the cake we have
eaten. tine things at our hands that we
Used We shall use It more and more
We shall have to. Moreover we are
building fences and houses and barns
and highways to last. The period of
| pioneering is over. We are settling
down 10 solidity and permanence and
! TO stay where We are well off. We