Every year there is more and more fencing of one sort and another done – some well done, much poorly done.
Fences are erected around the outside of the farm in order to protect the fields and crops and animals from marauding animals. Stray domestic animals damage crops and roving entire animals are a menace to the breeder’s prospects. By fencing against coyotes and dogs, sheep raising may be safely engaged in. Many weeds that tumble about ahead of the wind and scatter their seeds as they go are stopped by a well built outside fence. Inside fences are neccessary in order to inclose pastures for different classes of stock and to make roadways and lanes from buildings to fields. Properly constructed fences add to the appearance of the farm and the farmstead. They enable the farm owner to diversify in crops and live stock and thus make possible the maintenance of fertility, the keeping down of weeds, the raising of bigger and better crops, all in order that farming may be conducted as a better paying business.
The farmer will decide for himself as to what fencing is required. It may be that he will wish to surround a quarter or half section for reasons which he himself knows best – weeds, coyotes, cattle etc. – or it may be that a forty or eighty acre pasture is required for horses or cattle convenient to the farmstead. Perhaps it is the farmstead itself that he wishes to protect. Before commencing such an important piece of work, he should make a plan of his farm and lay out the boundary and cross fences that should be built on it during the next 10 to 20 years. If this is carefully done the first fence can be built and others added with little additional expense and fences will not have to be torn down because of ill-conceived plans.
Important Considerations
When plans are completed the kind of fence will have to be decided upon. It will very likely be either barbed or woven wire. If only cattle or horses are to be limited by the fence and if one is not prepared to make an outlsy sufficient to cover cost of woven wire then three or four strands of barbed wire may be used. This can later be made effective for pigs and sheep by placing beneath it a seven strand, 25 inch, woven wire fabric. If one has in mind a fence that will turn horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, coyotes and dogs, then an eleven strand, 55 inch fence with close horizontal bars at the bottom will fill the requirements well.