Snake rail fence

The snake rail fence is a free standing fence which is excellent where soil depth is shallow is known to be as snake rail. One enormous benefit of the snake fence is that it can be built with little more than an axe. You simply tear a ten-foot length of log into rails and lay them interweave on the ground-no postholes to dig or joints to cut. Since it has no stable relation with the ground, the fence can be moved about at will or an opening made at any point. It is best to raise each intersection up on a rock. The simple snake fence becomes unbalanced after it reaches about ten rails high, but can still be raised higher by using crossed rails and riders at every junction, or "lock." These add enough tallness to keep horses from jumping the barrier.

Economy and snake fence

Snake rail fence is not just for show. One of the earliest encounters of many people with principles of rural economy involved the snake fence. A person while passing a zigzag rail fence near Clifton Forge, Virginia, obviously echoing the words of his father, remarked, "Snake fences waste land." In one way you can guess it is true: It's difficult to plow and plant in the zigs and zags. Though, the grazing animals get in there just fine, and the side away from the animals, which cannot be cut, becomes an asylum for wildflowers and birds. Even if the corners can't be refined, some stray seed is bound to take hold there. The best corn and the best tobacco was that which had to be handpicked because it grew in the jamb of the fence.

Unconventional frame

As appropriate as the snake fence was to a new world, it was actually and initially like the log house which is something new and unfamiliar to the English mind. If someone think about it, a snake fence is simply a log house that has been stretched out. For an average Englishman the more recognizable manner of house building was to use upright posts with holes cut through them to receive the horizontal beams. This is the way English people built houses, doors, and windows, and it is how they built fences.

Related posts:

1. Stacked rail fence - The stacked rails vary in a number ways – thick, thin, flat, square, twisted, tapered, etc. I usually start with...
2. Pole rail fence - Mostly pole rail fences are used in farm places, bungalows. These pole fences are used in horse fencing. Pole fencing...
3. Rail Fence - Why rail fence? Rail fence is one of the most attractive fences that can be built on any property and...
4. Fence Rail Cut-out – Fence, Rail… Cut! - Fencing the house can be very tedious task involving great amount of hard work and skill in it. For any...
5. Installing split rail fence - The Split Rail has proven more weather-resistant than Pine, Spruce, and Hemlock. Cedar also resists insect infestation. Western red cedar...