The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Fences

NOW we go back to the log and stone fences, but with the addition of this new-fangled barbed wire. This means the fences can be lower as far as the logs are concerned, and then the barbed wire (which has now advanced to the more modern style) strung above it from stake to stake.

The upper drawing is of that log and stone type, with the stakes driven diagonally, whilst the other is of the kind that used transverse sleepers, but with the log and not the sleeper bored to take the stake.

A MAGNIFICENT fence, and surely bull-nay if ever there was one. Made from long, straight logs, bound with wire, and supported by sleepers and stakes and with barbed wire to top it all off. The telegraph pole gives a good indication of the size and length of the logs. It is needless to say that these drawings were not figments of the artist's imagination, but were of existing fences drawn to the most careful and precise detail.

THE upper shows a neat and effective wire garden fence, fastened to its round posts by staples. It was not a cheap fence, but it kept out smaller animals such as rabbits and ground hogs, which otherwise played hob with those cabbages and the lettuce and delicious green peas.

The lower drawing illustrates a barbed wire fence, where the lower strands are closer together than the upper ones. The base comprises an upright board, one foot in width, nailed to the posts and extending two posts, whilst a top board of a similar nature, slightly slanted, is nailed to the post tops, its joints occurring at two post intervals, alternative with the base board. This fence was expensive and took time and care to build.