Everlasting Fence Posts
I discovered many years ago that wood could
be made to last longer than iron in the ground, but thought the process
so simple and inexpensive that it was not worth while to make any stir
about it. I would as soon have poplar, basswood, or quaking ash as any
other kind of timber for fence posts. I have taken out basswood posts
after having been set seven years, which were as sound when taken out
as when they were first put in the ground. Time and weather seem to
have no effect on them. The posts can be prepared for less than two
cents apiece. This is the recipe: Take boiled Linseed Oil and stir it
in pulverized Charcoal to the consistency of paint. Put a coat of this
over the timber, and there is not a man that will live to see it rot.