VOL. LIV.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., APRIL 15, 1899.
NO. 15
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LET US TALK  FENCES AGAIN.
What Kind  are you Building and Cost?
Kind of Posts, Steeples and Cost
Do you Llko Ratohets or
Wire Fences?
1st Premium.—The chief requisites of a farm
fence are that it will last, and not blow down, will
turn all kinds of stock, and occupy as little ground
as possible, and that it shall be cheap. To hare
these qualities it must have elasticity that it may
adjust itself to heat and cold.
After having studied this question for years, and
by my own experience and noticing the different
styles after a few years use, I am fully convinced
that no smooth wire or even barb wire will make
this ideal fence. These qualities are found only in
a hard coiled eteel spring wire. We have tried long
or 4 foot pickets and 80 inch pickets woven on the
farm. The latter are by far the best, but neither
give satisfaction. We have tried smooth soft wire
with pickets stapled on, which is a nuisance especially for hogs. Lastly we have tried nine strands
of barb wire, with posts two rods apart, and three
pickets lxlJi" inches stapled on between posts, this
makes by far the cheapest fence, if first cost Ib considered, that we have tried, but it haa its defects.
Every inch contracts or expands accord'ng to temperature, making it almoBt impossible to keep the
posts stationary or the wires taut, and while we do
not consider It necessarily dangerous one would
feel easier in case of a runaway, if the barbs were
not there, and then one snags holes in clothes so
much. We have also had experience with 40 rods
of Page fence which has stood the test so fa*r completely, giving perfect satisfaction every way. One
can climb it mid-way between the posts just like a
board fence; so that I am convinced that we must
either get the coiled steel spring wire and some
good machine to weave on the stays, such as the
Kokomo people make, or buy it already woven of
some good company of which there are several, if
we want a fence that will give perfect satisfaction
every way.
The next thing of importance is the end posts,
which must be of good material, such as cedar or
iron, and well anchored. One had better spend a
whole day on one end post thau to have it give the
least bit. The other poBta may be of any material
to suit ones fancy or purse, as they can be replaced
at any time without injury to the fence.
■Lapel. T. M. S.
2d premium —We have for several years been
putting up nothing but woven wire fencing, and
find it satisfactory for all kinds of stock. It may
be bought ready made in great variety, but we have
a machine which weaves the fence up to the posts,
and by getting wire at wholesale prices we get the
beat fence with the least lay out of money. For
general farm fencing we make a web 43 inches high
and then put a barbed wire two inches above it.
The posts we set 80 to 80 feet apart and use oak
stays M and 2 inches every 6 feet. If posts are
plenty and cheap they would be set 13 feet apart
and leave oil the stays. The stays will take the
Place of posts to some extent so that the cost of the
fence will be reduced that much. The cost of material in such a fence, not figuring the posts, is
about S3 cents per rod. Two men with the ma>
chine can complete an 80 rod line of fence in three
days after the posts are set. For posts we have
black locust,osage and mulberry, which grow here
on the farm, and then we buy some red cedar. We
have red cedar posts set 19 years, others 12 years
and 7 years, not one of which gives evidence of
weakness or decay. We think the locust and OBage
are equal to the cedar, and prefer any of these materials rather than iron. We have a few iron posts
and would trade them for good locust posts and
Rive some boot. Prices of fence materials have advanced thia year about 50 per cent due apparently
to trust power. Would it not be best for farmers to
curtail expenditure along that line for a while?
tlnion Co. O. p. IiArusK.
M Premium.—I recently put up a lot ot the Page
wire fence as follows: I sent to southern New
York for seven-foot red cedar posts, five inches at
small end The branches or limbs were to be left
on about six inches long. I set these posts «s feet
apart instead of 85, and put up 12 bar BS inch Page
woven wire fence, driving a staple over each wire
in every past. The dealer of course furnished the
tools and asaifted in stretching the fence on the
posts after they were set. In setting my line of
posts I dug the end holes first, then about XO feet
from the end post I set the brace post. If the end
posts are perpendicular there will be no trouble in
getting the fence put up straight. I fenced my entire farm at the following price:   12 bar, 58 inches,
60 cents per rod; staples per 100 pound keg, $1; posts
14 cents each; 86days labor, $88. When completed
I had one of the handsomest fences in the country,
as well as a fence that my grandchildren will not
live to see used up. S. M. N,
Dekalb Co. 	
REVIEW.
Many think the ideal fence machine has not yet
been made. Itis not a mile from Carmel that
stock rubbed a hole through a Page woven fence.
Yet our farmers think it one of the best fences.
Borne claim it looks weak. That the same amount
of wire would be better if in fewer larger wires.
Some are using it and putting one barb wire at the
bottom and one say three feet from the ground.
This makes it expensive. The Kokomo fence machine makes four and a half inch meshes all the
way down Some fear that the openings near the
bottom will allow pigs to start to getting through,
the wire all being smooth. Personally I like it very
much if it could make three inch meshes near the
bottom. The Cyclone fence machine makes any
sized mesh you want, but its wire pickets are objectionable. They get bent and remain bent or
break. Not two miles from here a calf ran clear
through it. It stretched the cables and broke the
pailing all to flinders I have an interest in one of
these and mostly we like it right well
Mr. P. O. S. uses wooden stays, so do others. But
they have been a nuisance around here. Mr. Newby
near here used poplar. It didn't split and painted
nice. It also laBts well as to rot. But cattle broke
it in many places till lt is badly wrecked. This reminds me of what T. M, S. says about noticing different styles after a few years ubo. So many fences
seem good at first. I notice this most common with
any kind of wood and wire. Such a fence looks
strong at first, but the weather soon loosens it or it
decays or gets broken.
Am I right in saying that the ideal fence will
have no wood about it, but red cedar posts? The
weakness of too many small wires may be overcome in a few stiff stays of steel scattered among
lighter stays. My own fancy would be to weave in
a barbed wire at the bottom, one about mid way
and on top This is surely a safe way to use barbed
wire. The stays should bend rather than break,
but should not bend easily.
A good way to test a fence in advance is to imagine it 40 years old and think what it will be like.
Mrs. Meredith once showed me a wire fence on her
farm that she said had not cost one cent in several
years, and it seems just as good as new now. This
has been up some eight years. One tree had fallen
across it. But on cutting it off the fence sprang to
its place without any help.   I forget the name of it.
Mr. P. O. S. says oak posts cost slight. Other
writers say oak iB plenty. This was a valid excuse
when there was no market for oak and no cedar to
be had. Farmers do not appreciate the new situation.
No man can afford to put in oak if it were given
to him. Lets figure a little. A 7 foot 4x5 post is
about 12 feet of lumber, worth 12 cents, sawing fi
cents, makes it 17 cents. Mr. S. M. N. says his
New York red cedar cost 14 cents apiece. Suppose
you split your posts at IS cents each, can you afford to use them? I am putting in red cedar everywhere. Some claim that top oak is as good as any.
The microbe that rots wood especially flourishes
when wood contains lots of starchy matter, and the
softer wood and sappier contains more of it and decays quickly. In clearing an 83 since '92 1 have
fenced with posts from top logs and they are being
replaced now.
I pushed an 8x8 corner post yesterday and it was
rotted off. It had been coated with gas tar. The
reason I insiBt on this is that these thlngB were not
generally known 10 years ago, and Icinnot help
thinking how much it would have been worth to
me to have sold the oak and bought cedar at about
the same cost.
I noticed the other day several fences. One was
woven plasterlath. Of course it was a wreck. lint
wc had to learn it. Another was one by three pickets, the wind had rocked them back and forth till
the wire had broken in several places and the oak
posts were rotted or broken off. Another swayed
down and out like a snake, and looked tired. A
barbed wire fence also looked swaybacked and
needed better posts and tightening. A wire fence
with gas pipe posts was laid down here and there
because the post had rusted off in five years.
Where will Benjamin Williams* three plank
fence be in ten years? The lumber in those posts
(four times as many as a better fence needs) would
buy cedar or locust poBta grown right near him on
the Ohio river, and pay something on the wire.
We should remember fences are clear out of
doors and usually not even protected with paint.
They rot near the ground, cattle fight over them
and get scared through them.
We were a sew nation and had to use the best
thing at hand, but invention has provided material
for permanent improvements at a practical price*
and we Bhould quit our slipshod  transient ways
and be good.
No. 163, April 22.—Give criticisms on
thla department. Also state how writers may
improve and shorten   copy.
No. 1G4, April 29, How do you treat cows
from drying off to calving? How avoid milk
fever?
No. 1G5, May G.—Does it pay to spray fruit?
What fluids do you use? What sprayer? When?
How often?
No. 1GG, May 13.~Experience in melon culture.   Soil, planting, bug?, marketing.
No. 167, May 20.—Givo your best variety of
pota\oes. How do you secure vitality and a
good stand, and prevent blight and bugs?
No. 168, May 27.—A friend has a living room
in tbe S. E. front of a two story house. It has
a bay window and oilo other large window,
and measures 16x18x10 feet. How can Bhe
paper It and furnish it, carpet, pictures and
all the rest? (Other rooms will match it later.)
The cost should suit a 1G0 acre farm.
No, 169, June 3.—Name popular mistakes in
corn culture. Does it pay to detaseel barren
stalks? Or to plant a few late rows for pollen?
No. 170, June 10,—Tell us abouta nice farm-
era' picnic.   How make it lively and restful?
No. 171, June 17.—Experience in sowing rye,
, beans, clover, or other feed crops in corn.
No. 172, June 24a—How best clean rooms in
daily housework, floors, furniture, brass, pictures and the like.
No. 173, July 1.—The effect of the policy of
political expansion on American agricultural
interests. 	
Premiums of $1 75 cents and 50 centa will be
given to 1st, 2d and 3d best articles each week.
Let copy be aa practicable as possible and forwarded 10 days before publication to
Carmel. E. H. Oorxiws.
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<L\KZXX\ VLWd &VSW&K.
A Reader, Tipton Co.—Write the State Librarian, this city and state your case.
Our Hendricks Oo. Subscriber would not be
justified in paying the prices asked by the
agent he refers to. He can get as good stock
at much better prices in our opinion.
When is the best timo to sow blue grass
seed, spring or fa}]? L. E.
Olay Oo.
Sow in the spring if possible, but if you
should fall to get a fair stand then try sowing
again the next fall. You are much the more
likely to succeed in the epring, however, especially If rainy like this one.
The family of J. N. Wheeler, of Fairmount, were
alarmingly prostrated, the result of eating dried
beef purchased at a neighboring shop.   '
Street Commissioner Whiteman of Portland
found a number of half grown grasshoppers infesting his residence and feasting on hi* lace curtains,
having already eaten several large holes. A search
was made, and twenty little "hoppers" met an untimely fate. It is suppoBed they were hatched out
in the room among a lot of flowers.
While the prospects for a big wheat crop in eastern Indiana are not entirely blighted, farmers say
that more real damage has b«en done to the cereal
within the past ten days than during the entire
winter previously. Freezes and thaws coming in
rapid -succession are at fault.
Many acres of land ln the vicinity of Magnolia,
Crawford county, arc said to be slowly sinking, and
there is much alarm in that neighborhood, a number of families moving elsewhere.
Edna Cox, ot Evansville fourteen years old, married John Garrett, forty years old, fn this city last
night, and the bride abandoned her husband one
hour after the ceremony. She returned to the
home of her parents, but they refused to receive
her. The child bride says that she married Garrett
to please her parents, bat she wiU not live with
him.
For several months George Crumrine's little girl,
three years old, haB been suffering from an unceasing pain in her hip, and all efforts to alleviate
it proved unavailing. The child was brought to
Portland the other afternoon, and a needle was extracted from her hip. When the piece of steel entered the child's body, or how it got there is unknown.
A horse driven by Mrs. Garling, who lives in the
country near Liberty, ran away Saturday, April
1st, continuing his flight for four miles, Mrs. Gar-
ling holding him firmly in the road, although Bhe
was encumbered by the care of two children. The
horse then began kicking, breaking the vehicle
badly and throwing the woman and children into a
mud hole. The children escaped material hurt,
but the mother Buffered a dislocated arm and a
broken leg. The horse tore one of his hoofs off
while kicking and also broke a ieg, and he was
shot.
POSTAL CARD CORRESPONDENCE.
Montgomery Co.—A large per cent of the wheat
in this locality is looking very badly.   Many acrea
killed; farmera  are late with  their apring work;
eome farmera are plowing sod; oata Bowing late.
  J. H.
LaPortk Co . April 6.—Many snow drifts along
the roads and in aight yet and roads bad. Wheat
looks better on good land, but on hills and poor
land it is badly killed. Bather cold so far, no farm
work done; sugar making itill going and sap and
sngar firBt class. Butter 15 cents; eggs 12>s. Stock
has wintered welL Mrs. B. A. Davis,
Carrol.". Co., April 5.—The growing wheat does
not improve any in the last two weeks. I think the
wheat 1, badly winter killed, but can not tell how
much it is damaged. No plowing done yet; freezes
nearly every night. Wheat 68 cents; corn 29 cents
per buBhel; hay from $4 to 17 per ton. The weather
of March was harJ on little pigs. Some snow here
yet: weather changeable. J. L. B.
The good time coming le attempted to be
pictured ln a booklet, entitled ''Uncle Sam in
Business," issued by Charles H. Kerr & Co.,
Chicago, publishers. One Daniel Bond, Is
the author, and his Idea is that when the people decide to transact all business by the Government, using certificates instead of money
in making transfers, that everybody will have
value received for his labor, products or
goods of any kind, and all will be happy. It
is nuch a very long time before such a plan is
likely to be Inaugurated that we feel no interest In tbe subject. The theory is an ingenious one, and the scheme no doubt interests
many readers, tho how they would be profited
we fail to understand.
<5z\uxixX Mzxos.
Chan Chin, a well known Chinaman of Terre
Haute, has been baptized and received into the
Baptist church.
When first known to the Romans, silk was so
dear that it was sold weight for weight with gold.
Ex-Senator M. W. Hansom has become the larg.
est cotton raiser in North Carolina
Joshua Heed, of Burlington, Vt., who will be 98
years old in a few days, has lived in the same house
for 65 years.
Berlin booksellers are strictly forbidden to Bell to
school children books stitched with wire as several
cases of blood poisoning have been traced to
scratches from rusty wire.
The turkey was first discovered in America, and
was taken to England in the early part of the Mth
century. Since then it has been acclimated in
nearly all parts of the world.
One of the new things to be shown at Paris next
year is a model Vesuvius, 880 feet high and 4!»5 feet
in diameter, built of iron, steel, cement and turf
A spiral path, bordered with cafes, will wind up the"
volscano. Inside is to be represented Dante's heaven and hell.
lizards crawl along the walls of the habitations
in the Philippines, disregarded by the human occupants, and make them selves useful by catching flies
ann mosquitoes.
Of every ICO Portuguese peasants only 20 canread
and write.
To learn to breathe properly, inflate the lungs
and walk for five paces, keeping the mouth shut
and breathing through the nose, increasing the Ave
paces to 10, and then to 15 or more. Follow this up
by taking several long breaths after getting up in
the morning, and again before retiring.
.Lyons is trying a new street pavement made of
blocks of glass.
Chinese scholars claim that iron swords were in
use in their country 4,000 years ago.
Whales' teeth fcrm the currency of the Fill islands. They are painted white snd red to represent
different values. The natives carry their wealth
around their necks.
It has been stated tbat John Walter, of the London Times, left as a legacy to his daughter one of
the advertising columns of the Thunderer. I*
brought the lady a steady income of |150 a day.