Abstract
The problems on pasture fences constructed in the highland were pointed out by investigating the actual conditions. The results are summarized as follows ; 1) Steel line posts tipped, dug up or sunk into the ground, and small hooks sheared were observed at the corner of the pastures, along the small valleys, on the uneven places and beside the heaped stumps (Fig.3). The rate of the defects was 6% of all the line posts. These defects caused the wire to loosen or fall off from the posts, and might be one of the factors that the cattle escaped through the fences. 2) Many corner posts were tipped forward or backward, although they were fixed with the props. It is supposed that the depth of the corner posts driven into the ground was shallow and the point of driving props was wrong. 3) The barbed wire was fixed to the line posts with T-shaped plates at the time of fence construction (Fig.2). However, when the fences needed to repair after wintering, repairs were made mainly by tying with short wire or hanging the wire on the small hooks of posts, instead of using plates. 4) The rate of wire covered with soil or dead grass material and touched on the ground was 32% of all the lower wire. These occurred mainly on the wire loosened or fallen off from the posts. 5) From these surveys, the snow damage and the lack of soil bearing capacity seemed to cause the results mentioned above and their damage differed according to places where the fences were installed. It is necessary for planning the fence constrution to adopt a method corresponded to the topographical conditions.
