HOW TO SET BARB WIRE FENCE.
Fig. 75.—Well-braced Barb-wire Fence.
The timber for posts should be cut when the sap is dormant. Midwinter or August is a good time to cut post timber. They should be split and the bark taken off as soon as possible after cutting the timber. For end posts, select some of the best trees, about sixteen inches in diameter, from which take cuts eight and a half feet in length, splitting them in quarters for brace posts. They should be set three feet in the ground, which is easily done with a post-hole digger. When setting the brace posts, take a stone eighteen inches to two feet long, twelve inches wide, and six inches thick, which is put down against the post edgewise, on the opposite side to the brace, as seen in [figure 75], putting it down about even with the surface of the ground. 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.
Fig. 76.—A Wire Fence Well Braced.
To make an extra solid wire fence, brace the posts, as shown in [figure 76], on both sides, in order to resist the tension in either direction. Every eighth post should be thus braced, and it makes a mark for measuring the length of the fence, for eight posts set one rod apart, make eight rods, or a fortieth of a mile for each braced post. The braces are notched into the top of the posts, just below the top wire, and a spike is driven through both the brace and the post. The braces abut upon large stones which give them great firmness.