HARVESTING FENCE POSTS
One winter in the early 1940s, my father decided that an 80-rod hedge row needed “harvesting” for fence posts and firewood. The fence row was located 5 miles east of our farm. Daily trips with a team of horses and a steelwheeled hay wagon were made on a gravel road. (Yes, steel wheels “sing” as they roll on the gravel.) Let’s examine more thoroughly what was facing us in the hedge row.
The Osage Orange tree, , is often called a “hedge” tree. In the Midwest, a hedge tree can grow 30 to 40 feet tall. Its sap is milky and sticky. The tree produces “hedge balls” (actually balls of seed) which are 4 to
