Between these rather expensive fences and the cheapest form that may be found efficient many grades may exist. In experiments to determine the efficiency of any form it is necessary to consider the familiarity of the animals with fences in general. In a new country a very simple fence might be ample at first to keep out wolves, but ultimately would prove insufficient.
Mr. T. T. Hoole, of Cape Colony, Africa, in the paper already quoted, gives the following experience in determining upon a jackal-proof fence:
My first importation of 2 foot 6 inch netting served its purpose for a year or more, when I found the jackals as troublesome as over. The addition of a single barbed wire assisted for a time: but after some years of experience and comparing notes. I found that nothing short of a 3-foot netting and four barbed wires would be effective. I have given the above particulars of my experience as a warning to the inexperienced, that half measures are simply a waste of money and that badly erected fences, although effective for a time, will end in disappointment and failure.
Mr. Hoole has 18 miles of the fence just described, while a neighboring stockman has 45 miles built. The cost, including labor, when built of the host material--sneezewood posts and kangaroo netting--was estimated at £106 per mile--about $500. This fence was designed for ostriches, cattle, springboks, and sheep: a fence intended for sheep alone could be built for less. Materials and labor are both much more expensive than in the United States. A fence similar to that described by Mr. Hoole could be built in most parts of the West for about $200 to $250 per mile.
A writer in the Nor' West Farmer states that when he first began sheep raising in Manitoba a 2-strand barbed wire fence was a complete barrier to the coyotes, but that in less than two years they became used to it and would go under or between the wires without hesitation. More strands were added without effect, until a woven wire fence was adopted, which proved satisfactory.
In South Africa three types of fence have been in use for protection against jackals, and each has advocates among the farmers. The cheapest is built of strands of barbed wire placed close together and stayed at intervals by light strips of wood fastened to the wires by staples. In the second form the staying is done by light, smooth wire woven in by machinery, involving more labor in the building. The third type is that recommended by Mr. Hoole. It is more expensive, but seems always to have stood the test of experience. The others have not always been satisfactory, but their advocates claim that the fault has been in construction and not in design. The jackals have entered the inclosures through openings at the ground.