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

Fences

THE old frame Meeting-House of the early nineteenth century in the village of York, which later became Toronto. Picket fences and rough plank sidewalks were in vogue then, and the roads were—well, just nice old mud, dirt and dust roads.

AFTER the brush and root fences came the log fences fresh from the forests cleared to supply the land for plough and seed. The logs were sixty feet long, as shown in the upper drawing, by two and a half feet thick at their butts supported on transverse sleepers, held together by stout caps and stakes, and alternating heavy and light ends. Boulders under the bottom logs kept them off the ground and dry, thus slowing decay. The lower illustration gives a different treatment, with uniform, cut logs of only sixteen feet, and with a straight run, one upon another, with two stakes about five feet high driven well down on either side, where these light logs overlapped. As time passed, the panel, or length, was reduced from sixteen to twelve feet, as being an easier length for one man to handle. Without caps or wire the stakes, no matter how well driven were almost sure to spread at the top given time and the impulsive cow.

HERE is a case of sixty-foot logs simply being placed skilfully one on top of the other, regardless of their not being entirely straight, and forming a formidable fence. The great weight of such logs played the determining factor in their usefulness and success.

The lower drawing shows a log barrier that is defective because the material is too warped and crooked. Such fences encourage livestock to put their heads through the openings to graze on the other side, which leads to their throwing off the top log and then proceeding over the fence followed by the entire herd. Many a good pioneer squabble has arisen through such circumstances.