Rail fence

“ It is interesting to note the largely increased demand for meshed wire field fencing in the more thickly settled-portions of the United States, and along the lines of railway. Beginning with 1899, there has been an annual increase in this demand, owing to the scarcity and high cost of labour, and the discontinuing of the building of rail fences. Meshed wire is considered by many a better enclosure for small animals, like sheep and hogs, than the barbed wire fence. ”

“ Properly built, of good material, on a clear, solid bed, kept free from bushes and other growth to shade it and cause it to rot, the rail fence is as cheap as any, and as effective and durable as can reasonably be desired. Good chestnut, oak, cedar, or juniper rails, or original growth heart pine, will last from fifty to a hundred years, so that material of this sort, once in hand, will serve one or two generations. ”

“ As sound, well-seasoned rails will last almost a century, it is probable that they will be plentiful in the country for some time to come, though in some places the farmers are finding that they can sell their old rail fences for fuel at a price that will pay for wire fences. On the farms where rails are still in use many styles of fence are to be seen, varying from the stake-and-rider snake fence to straight fences with posts, to which the rails are fastened with wire. ”

“ The description of fence will be influenced by the locality, and the materials conveniently obtainable. Where stone is plentiful, perhaps brought forward out of the cuttings, and labour cheap, a masonry wall will be found a most suitable permanent fence. Any fence to be of service should not be less than four feet high. A wooden post and rail fence is much in favour in some districts, the posts being firmly set or driven into the ground, and four or five stout bars nailed on to, or set into, the upright posts. ”

“ The stakes, resting on the rails and standing at angle, brace the fence firmly. But the feet of the stakes extending beyond the jagged corners formed by the ends of the rail are objectionable. This is remedied in part by putting the stakes over the middle of the panel—at considerable distance apart—and laying in them long poles horizontally. In this case the stakes should be set at such an angle as to prevent their moving sidewise along the top rail, which should be a strong one. These stakes and long riders are frequently used to raise the height of low stone walls. ”

“ Such a task may seem a formidable one to set to a young woman, but it is a feat easily accomplished in some parts of America. A rail fence lends itself readily to demolition. Margaret tossed a rail to the right, one to the left, and to the right again, until an open gap took the place of that part of the fence. The professor examined the young soldier in the meantime, and found his leg had been broken by a musket ball. ”

“ As these fences, from their serpentine course, occupy at least six times as much ground as a common post and rail fence, and require also a great deal more wood, they are mostly laid aside whenever land and timber become objects of importance, as they soon do in the neighbourhood of large towns. ”

“ As the little road had rail fences on both sides it was choked with snowdrifts, so it looked as if this manœuvre would work. They stopped, and the boy climbed over the fence ahead of them. In the meantime I drove along until I had passed the little road and took up a strategic position where I could head them off and start them towards home as the boy drove them back. Alas for the vanity of human wishes! The mail carrier had let down the fence a few rods down the little road so as to avoid the drifts by crossing through a field. Dolly saw the opening and took advantage of it at once. ”

“ It is much better, both for good looks and economy, to have the corners of a rail fence on each side in line with each other. This may be accomplished by means of a very simple implement, shown in figure 2. ”

“ Elsewhere on both sides there is only a rail fence. A portion of our sharp-shooters took position behind this wall, and erected traverses to protect them from a flanking fire, should the enemy attempt to move up the road from Gettysburg. These traverses are constructed at right angles to the wall, by making a 'crib' of fence-rails, two feet high and the same distance apart, and then filling the crib with dirt. ”

“ If the ‘ring’ crowds too near the fence, the men on that side would walk along the middle rail holding on the while by the ‘cap,’ or uppermost horizontal, always of rounded and not of split timber like the lower bars. If a bullock looks at any one ‘in that tone of voice,’ he receives an admonitory tap on the nose. But the blood of the ‘ragers’ is not yet hot enough for the desperate stage when they dare everything. ”

“ The enclosures are made of hurdles, of which all reading Americans have read, but not one in a thousand ever has seen. They are a kind of diminutive, portable, post-and-rail fence, of the New England pattern, made up in permanent lengths, so light that a stout man might carry two or three of them on his shoulders at once. ”

“ Rail fences are going out entirely because of the scarcity of timber, and board fences are going for the same reason. There are many kinds of wire fences on the market, all guaranteed to be horse-high and skunk-tight. Most of them are all right for a year or two and then they begin to sag and wires begin to break. Patching and stretching them when they begin to give out is no job for a man with a feverish temper. ”

“ Sometimes you'll see the fence shake and the splinters fly up from the rail.
All you can do is to hold him and just let him jump as he likes,
Give him his head at the fences, and hang on like death if he strikes ”

“ Railroads throughout the region where this species is found have laid chinquapin oak ties in their tracks for many years and they give long service, because they resist decay and are hard enough to stand the wear of the rails. In early times in the Ohio valley it helped to fence many a farm when the material for such fences was the old style fence rail, eleven feet long, mauled from the straightest, clearest timber afforded by the primeval forest. ”

“ The joints should always be “broken,” as is shown in the engraving, figure 25, so that in a four-board fence but two joints should come on each post. By this means more firmness and durability is secured, there being always two unbroken boards on each post to hold it in place, preventing sagging. On the face of the post immediately over where the rails have been nailed on, nail a flat piece of board the width of the post and extending from the upper part of the top rail to the ground. ”

“ Now to travel by fence-rail is a delightful method of passing time, as all liberally educated boys know, if one is bound for no where in particular, but when one is two, and both are boys, and are in quest of fish, and the middle of the day is approaching, in which fish do not bite, half a mile of rail fencing is a trip which consumes patience with great rapidity. ”

“ Here they came to a little double rail and a little quick-set hedge. A double rail is a nasty fence always if it has been made any way strong, and one which a man with a wife and a family is justified in avoiding. They mostly can be avoided, having gates ”

“ In the United States a piece of timber cleft, hewed, or sawed, rough or smooth, inserted in upright posts for fencing. The common rails among farmers are rough, being used as they are split from the chestnut or other trees. The rails used in fences of boards or pickets round gentlemen's houses and gardens are usually sawed scantling, and often dressed with the plane. 4. A series of posts connected with cross beams, by which a place is inclosed. Johnson. In New England we never call this series a rail, but by the general term railing. In a picket fence, the pales or pickets rise above the rails ”

“ This holds the post solid against the brace. A heart-rail, ten feet in length makes a good brace. Put one of the long posts every sixteen or twenty rods along the line of fence, as they help to strengthen it, and set lighter and shorter posts along the line about sixteen feet apart. After the posts are set, two or three furrows should be turned against them on each side, as it helps to keep stock from the wire. Such a fence should be built of a good height. It is better to buy an extra wire than have stock injured. There is no pulling over end-posts or sagging wire.
Page 51 ”

“ A modification of this combined fence is shown in figure 99. It is made of one rail along the top, and three wires below. After setting the posts plow a furrow two feet from the posts on each side, throwing the furrow slice towards the fence, and forming up the ridge neatly with a spade; then stretch the three wires, and nail a two by four scantling edgewise. To prevent an unpleasant sagging of the rails, the posts should be eight feet apart, and the rails sixteen feet long. For common fencing, good straight poles will answer well.
A BRACKETED FENCE.
Fig. ”

“ When the two or three lower rails, and also the stakes, are of wood, capable of resisting the effect of damp, such as cedar, black ash, &c., a well-made fence will last for an indefinite number of years, but otherwise seven or eight years suffice to rot the lower rails, and to make constant patching necessary, which is almost as bad as making a new fence, for, to get at one of the lower rails, the fence has to be taken down for many lengths on each side, and never can be relaid so well. ”

“ Road approaches to bridges over or under the line, or to public road level crossings, may be fenced in the same manner as the line proper. If quicks are adopted, it will be necessary to put up a light wooden fence also to protect the young plants until they are well grown. ”

“ In one corner of the woodland a primitive merry-go-round had already been set in place, and the first passenger train from the city deposited an enterprising hoky-poky man, a peanut and pop-corn vender, and a lank black-bearded man with an outfit for taking tin-types.
[141]
By ten o'clock the wood-lot fence was a hitching-place for all varieties of vehicles, from narrow sulkies to cavernous old carryalls. A haze of thick yellow dust, extending along the pike as far as one could see, was a constant accompaniment of fresh arrivals. ”

“ It is authoritatively stated that the building and maintenance of the farm fences in the United States have cost more than the construction of the farm buildings. Be this as it may, while large numbers of works have been written upon rural architecture we believe this is the first publication specially devoted to Fences, Gates and Bridges. It aims to be a practical work, showing the “evolution” of the fence from the road barrier of logs, brush or sods to the latest improved forms of barbed wire. ”

“ The wire fence on either side of the road keeps me company. It makes one think the land is fenced to keep the cattle in and you are expecting to see a great herd every minute; but the fence belongs to the railroad and is intended to keep cattle off the track. Think of a double line of wire fence three thousand miles long; yes, longer than that, for the Southern Pacific goes right on to Portland, Oregon, nearly eight hundred miles north and to Ogden, nearly a thousand miles east of San Francisco and the fences go with it. ”

“ For the fence shown in figure 119, two augur holes are bored a few inches apart, and small poles driven to serve as posts. Rails or round poles of the usual length are laid to the desired height, and the top of the posts tied together with wire. In situations where timber is less plentiful, a single stake is set into the base, as in figure 120, braced, and barbed or plain wire attached by staples. Besides the advantage of being easily moved, these fences can be prepared in winter, when there is little else to do, and rapidly set in place at any time when the ground is clear of snow. ”

“ Almost every farmer has a scheme of his own to make his old rails go as far as possible, and the results are sometimes absurd. To make a fence that is horse high and hog proof with insufficient material requires more than ordinary ingenuity.
Board fences were once quite the fashion, but they have practically passed out because of the price of lumber. Wire fences of infinite variety are now being put up, but, judging from the criticisms of the farmers, the ideal fence has not yet been invented. ”

“ As to wire fences, they are useful enough for keeping sheep in, and come in well for inner fences, being sufficiently cheap and easily set up. But they will not keep out wild pigs, and cattle, accustomed to force their way through the thickets of the bush, mistake wire fences for mere supple-jack, and walk straight through them. Wattles interlaced on stakes make first-rate protection, but they can only be used [Pg 192] with economy when the supply of them is close handy.
The fence most commonly seen on new farms, and that may fairly be termed the pioneer's mainstay, is a simple one of stakes. ”

“ Mother is careless enough to roll over, any baby that happens to be in danger of being crushed can escape under the fender. We used some old oak fence-rails, cutting them to fit snugly across from wall to wall, and bored large auger-holes seven inches from each end. Strong bolts and nuts were put through the corners, and blocks of wood six inches square are placed for it to rest on; being bolted together, they are easily taken apart and in and out of the pens, as they are not wanted after the little ones are a few days old. ”