The Rural Voice, 1993-05, Page 30Snake fences — a beautiful
link with farms of the past
by Carl L. Bedal
As a young lad on a southern -
Ontario farm in the '30s, I well
recall how snake fences regularly
provoked me. My frustration often
began with a telephone call on the
party line from a neighbour who
identified our straying cattle.
With my Collie dog in tow, my
assignment was to correct the
problem which meant walking cross
20 acres of wet pasture where I
inevitably found the top rails of our
snake fence had been pushed over,
presumably because the grass
looked greener on the other side.
Hector, our high-spirited
Percheron, was the usual culprit.
Our cows didn't seem to be as
ingenious, although once the fence
was reduced to step -over height,
they seemed willing to take
advantage of a good thing.
I soon learned on these
expeditions, which I took
reluctantly, that a couple of carrots
facilitated the return of Hector. Our
dog Fido, 1 assigned to retrieving
the cows. Miraculously, every one
of those wayward animals
acknowledged
their guilt and
returned, with
heads bowed,
through the gap
left in our snake
fence.
While replacing
the rails in their
original positions, an easy enough
job, I learned that cedar was a soft,
light and aromatic wood.
These fences, sometimes known
as zigzag fences, were made of split
rails, interlaced in zigzag fashion
and laid directly on the ground. In
its original version snake fences
required no post holes and no costly
nails or wire. Seemingly as simple
in construction as interlaced
toothpicks on a table top, they did,
as I've already illustrated, have their
limitations as cattle barriers.
Why then would our ancestors
opt for snake fences?
To answer this question, first let
us look at the forerunners of the
zigzag fence, the stake and brush
weirs used by Indians to snare
game, both fish and animal. These
traps were probably the first fences
used in this country.
Later, as land was cleared, brush
fences appeared, then stump and
stone fences. All these barriers had
disadvantages, including the labour
involved and their ineffectiveness in
restraining cattle. They did,
however, have one advantage in
common; they utilized readily
available materials which could be
dispensed with as land was cleared.
Where did the snake fence
originate?
While these fences were
probably employed in many regions,
the first recorded use of the snake
fence was in New England where as
early as 1685 it was called the
"worme fence".
It endured for at least a couple of
centuries wherever the raw material,
cedar, was available. In the 19th
century, the invention of iron, and
finally steel wire, made other kinds
of fences possible. Thereafter, wire
fences began to replace zigzag
fences. Finally, barbed wire, which
advertisers described as "horse high,
pig tight, and bull strong," made its
appearance.
The introduction of wire in the
261*IE RURAL VOICE