The New Fence
Not once or twice within the last week or two I have come upon that new form of fencing, the live wire. It is used on one famous farm, a place of frequent pilgrimage for farmers, to contain pigs. These animals are turned out on to rough land with the object of restoring it to fertility; and incidentally the results have been remarkable. These pigs are kept in by a mildly electric wire; and such is the intelligence of the animal that it usually avoids close proximity to the wire after experiencing a single shock. On another farm a single live wire is used to contain cattle and even bulls. It looks absurdly flimsy ; but the cattle, like the pigs, learn from one experience ; and the single wire proves not less effective than a regulation fence " horse high, bullock strong and pig proof." On a certain fruit farm such a wire is used round an orchard that is particularly exposed to the raid of tramps and others. They appear to be nearly as intelligent as the cattle and pigs in avoidance of the fence when once the quickness of the wire has been discovered.
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