Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/268

 252

��Popular Science Monthly

��Another Use for Tree Roots. Make a Fence of Them

WHAT shall be done with tree roots after they have been dug or dyna- mited from the soil to prepare it for the plow? The an- swer is given by a farmer who lives in a western state where the barbed- wire fence is in gen- eral use. Gath- ering several hundred tree roots, he trans- ported them to his farm and

���(Q) Brown & Dawson

Roots of trees arranged answer most of the

��there arranged them to take the place of the usual vAre fence.

There are hundreds of miles of fences in the far West which serve merely to indi- cate the dividing lines between adjacent ranches. Discarded tree roots answer the purpose as well as wire. As a rule they are never used for fire wood, principally . because they are hard to saw into stove lengths. Furthermore, they require a long time to dry.

When arranged in a straight line to serve as a fence, the trunk ends of the roots are placed facing the direc- tion of the strongest prevailing winds. In this position the roots rest most securely on the ground and* the prongs act as efficient anchors.

��gate or opening is set to spread the stone uniformly over any desired width, obviating the necessity of hauling stone from one point to another, either to trim off the high spots or to fill in the de- pressions. The spreader consists of a box

with slanting sides and a rear gate set to any desired open- ing. The box is attached to the rear end of a wagon or truck, as shown below. By varying the speed of the vehicle and the size of the opening in the gate, any desired depth of stone is spread automatically without any hand labor.

Where the roadway is so narrow that the stone can be spread while the vehicle is running in one direction only, a V- shaped spreader-board may be employed, as shown, to distribute the stone evenly over the entire width of the roadway. When a second and narrower layer of fine stone is wanted on a road already covered with a coarse layer, the V-shaped spreader-board is used. It not only does the work better than it could be done by laborers but it saves much time and expense.

��to serve as a fence. They purposes of barbed wire

��Cost of Placing Road- way Stone Reduced by Simple Spreader

IT'S expensive to distribute crushed stone for road construction work. That's why the simple box-spreader shown in the photograph was invented.

The spreader is attached to any type of wagon or motor truck. The rear

���In circle: Hnw the stone is spread uniformly. Above: The spreader used in connection with a motor truck

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