The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 70, July 1966 - April, 1967 Page: 254
728 p. : maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
used fifty cedar cutters to clear land to sell for ranch purposes.
The cedar has come back, however, and is being eradicated again.
But some operators do not believe that cedar forest can ever
be depleted permanently. It may take forty years to grow
new post-size cedar where, after cutting, the brush has been
piled over the stumps and burned. But if twigs or switches
are left growing and if small trees are untouched, the cedar will
yield another crop of posts in less than ten years. And the cutters
prefer to leave the brush growing, not with an eye to the future,
but because the hardest work-with no return-is associated with
clearing the small brush. Mary Clarke, in her account for the
Cattleman in 1946, noted that: "Some of the old timers say the
cedar is playing out, but the average hacker knows different.
Hasn't he seen the mountainside grow up again and be ready for
a second cutting in eight or ten years? Sucks [sic], ther'll be enough
cedar for the average hacker and his sons to hack as long as the
hills stand in old Palo Pinto County."'32 In 1963 cedar still covered
those hills.
Cedar chopping, an occupation created in part by demands
for fencing materials, might be ended by a shift to some other
type of fencing. More permanent metal fencing has received some
use. Alkaline soils in parts of the state, however, corrode metal
posts so that they last no, better than wood. According to Marvin
Riggs, a cedar yard owner at San Saba, Texas, "There will always
be a need for cedar fence post," because it "will outlast iron." 3
Roger Conger states that "heavy cedar posts" with holes in them
for wire, that were erected on a ranch in 1851, "can still be found
in 1955 on this property."" Others claim that "Heart cedar
is almost rot proof,"'' adding that even the sap cedar which
may be only a few years old will make a more satisfactory fence
post than most other kinds of wood.
In the higher and drier counties the cedar is sparse and grows
slowly, but is valued as harder fence posts. In spite of regional
82Clarke, "Cedar Posts Fenced A Cattle Empire," The Cattleman, XXXII (March,
1946), 28.
"8Irene L. Gibson, "Last Cedar Yards Reminder of Once Flourishing Industry,"
Brownwood Bulletin, May 19, 1961.
8'Roger N. Conger, "Fencing in McLennan County, Texas," Southwestern His-
torical Quarterly, LIX, 217.
"SBennett, Kerr County, Texas: 1856-1956, p. 132.254
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 70, July 1966 - April, 1967, periodical, 1967; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101199/m1/272/: accessed May 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.