As the charge is to be dissipated in the earth, it will be necessary to expose a considerable area of metal under ground. If a spring is near, the rod should be run to the vicinity of the spring and there soldered to the ground plate, which should be below the level of the surface of the spring. Moist soil is the only kind which will conduct electricity, hence the insistence on a moist place for the terminal of the rod. In case the plate must be planted some distance from water, either it must go quite deep or it may be placed in a barrel of charcoal or coke buried under the surface. These materials will hold whatever water they receive, and it is a simple matter to wet the soil above such a terminal from time to time. The plate itself should be of copper and of an area of at least 25 square feet, including both sides. An old copper boiler, flattened out, makes a cheap and effective ground plate.
There is no doubt that many buildings have been saved from destruction by means of properly installed lightning rods, and it is plain that they are not difficult nor expensive to install.
CHAPTER XXI
THE FIELDS
While it is the primary object of this book to discuss the lay-out of buildings and their accessories, it would be incomplete if something were not said of the general plan of the fields themselves.
FENCES
Some ten years since, someone estimated that for every dollar’s worth of live stock kept in New York another dollar was expended in fences to restrain it. It is probable that this estimate is below rather than above the facts. Be this as it may, the first cost of fences and their maintenance is a serious draft on the resources of the farmer.
Fig. 137. The old-time fence system on the right; the present condition on the left.
In the pioneer days, when even the best of fencing material was so abundant that it was burned to clear the land, there was great temptation to split the tender logs into great rails and construct fences with them. Each winter a few acres of land were cleared and each year’s clearing was surrounded by a great ten-rail fence, which served to discourage some of the larger wild animals from destroying the crops. It is easily seen why our ancestors in the wooded districts fenced the farm into small fields. In some cases the surface stones were so numerous on the land that the larger ones had to be removed to make way for the plow. Naturally they were used for constructing fences, for the most economical way to get rid of these too numerous stones was to make fences of them. The haul was short and the fences could be increased in width and height until storage room was provided for all the rocks which the farmer cared to remove. So here, too, the temptation was great to fence the farm into small fields. The following diagrams show the fields and the fences as they were on the old homestead, and also as they are at the present time ([Fig. 137]).
Changed agricultural conditions imply fewer fences and the adoption, in part at least, of the soiling system. Then, too, the introduction of the horn-fly makes a radical change imperative in the summering of the dairy. This worst of all dairy pests robs the cow of flesh and the owner of profit.