layer fence

layer nThe fences around the different properties were mostly made out of pickets. A picket is a stick about 8 feet long, about three inches at the bottom and tapering to perhaps two inches at the top; but the kind of fence that intrigued me most was what was called a layer fence. This involved putting down two stakes and attaching three rails to these stakes, one at the bottom, one at the top and one in the centre. Then small trees (fir) were cut, about 1 1/2 inches at the base and 1/2 inch at the top, and trimmed. They would put one of these underneath the first rail, bring it around the the second rail, and lay it against the bottom rail. The process would be reversed with the second piece, and continue in this way until the whole (over) [reverse] section between the two stakes was filled in. For a length of fence about 17 or 18 feet, there would be possibly 150 of these small sticks interlaced around the rails. It was a LONG tiresome job, but they were excellent fences and there are not many of them to be seen in Newfoundland today.PRINTED ITEM DNE-cit G. M. Story JUN 1970 JH JUN 1970Used IUsed INot used[see 'wriggle-rod fences'] 'wrigilens' riddle n, withe-rodChecked by Jordyn Hughes on Tue 14 Jul 2015, reverse of card at L_1486