Worm Fencing

In Joseph Smith's day and on the Smith Family Farm, they used "Worm Fencing".  It was and is made from the limbs of trees.  First they make an "X" using the limbs.  The "X"s become the posts.  They place the "X" on rocks instead of directly on the dirt..  This is to keep the wood off of the dirt and thus preserve the wood longer by keeping in free from rotting.  Then they carefully place other limbs between the "X" posts making a fence.

To preserve the feel of 1800, we still use the worm fencing today.  This fencing needs to be readjusted twice a year, once in the spring and again in the fall.  Here you see pictures of the worm fence and pictures of us doing the fall adjusting. 

As you might imagine, these fences have a tendancy to move about.  This stretch of fence sits on a gently sloping hill and tends to "walk" down the hill during the winter.  The women help too by holding the lever while the men adjust the limbs.

Elder Poulson working on the fence

Sisters helping with the fence

This is the same type of fencing that Joseph talked about in Joseph Smith History 1:48.  After spending an entire night receiving instruction from the Prophet Moroni, he said, “ My father, who was laboring along with me, discovered something to be wrong with me, and told me to go home.  I started with the intention of going to the house; but, in attempting to cross the fence out of the field where we were, my strength entirely failed me, and I fell helpless on the ground, and for a time was quite unconscious of anything.”