TREE FENCES AND OX CARTS
But we did see sights I never knew existed. I'll tell you how
they built fences 50 to 75 years ago. The country was full of big
timber. They wanted less timber and more fences. They cut the
trees into 9 to 10 foot lengths, split the timber into 9 inches
to a foot for thickness, squared the sides, dug long trenches
three to four feet deep, and set these timbers side by side,
close and tight, and then filled in and there was your fence,
horse high, bull strong and pig, yes, chicken-tight, unless they
flew. There are thousands of miles of that kind of fence still
down there, old and moss-covered but still pretty sound and
serviceable. Think of the work and loss of timber that involved.
Another big sight is the oxen and their carts. On this trip most
of them were hauling timber of one sort or another, logs or sawed
stuff. We saw hundreds of oxcarts and oxen. Some carts had
spokes, steel tires, steel axles and metal fellers, or whatever
it is the axles fit into. Many of them had wheels made of round
logs with no metal tires or other metal about them. The axles ran
through holes in the bare wood. They were the primitive kind, but
there were hundreds of them.
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