DCHP-3

snake fence

DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

a kind of rail fence in which the rails, often of split cedar, in panels of six or eight, interlock with each other in a zigzag pattern, being sometimes supported by crossed-rail uprights.

Quotations

1844
. . . a herd of cattle were grazing on a portion of the cleared land; the other was divided off by a snake-fence, as it is termed, and was under cultivation.
1904
He had just come out of the woods and up to the snake fence of split rails which bounded the pasture.
1962
Even the disappearance of the old wooden "snake fences" on the farms, and their replacement by wire or electric fences, is an example of man's "progress" in the destruction of bird life.