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Our Visit to a Line Pole Farm

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    Our Visit to a Line Pole Farm

    Last Sunday, my family and I visited some friends who live near Chester, NJ. On the way home we decided to take a different route to add variety to our trip. Since the return route passes alongside one of the largest Line Pole and Telephone Pole farms in the county, we decided to stop and take a look. Most of you may not know that after tomatos and corn, line poles are NJ's third largest crop. Apparently, there's something unique about the nature of the soil here that promotes the growth of straight, strong poles. Of the five types of wood that are used for this purpose, here in NJ we can grow Southern Yellow Pine, Western Red Cedar and Douglas Fir. Only Western Larch, used primarily in the western states, and Jack Pine, used extensively in Canada, do not do well in our NJ soils.
    Reference:
    The Lineman's and Cableman's Handbook, Ninth Edition, by Edward Kurtz, Thomas Shoemaker and James Mack; Section 7, Wood Pole Structures.

    This is one of the larger pole farms in NJ, operated by Lucent Technology, and due to the employment of modern farming techniques, has one of the highest crop yields of any pole farm in the state. These large corporate pole farms grow poles as long as 100’. Of course, shorter lengths are grown, too, depending on the need. The smaller family pole farms typically grow poles no longer than 65’. Also, the shorter, smaller diameter telephone poles tend to come from the family farms. It takes about 8 years from the time it’s a seedling to grow an 85’ pole. We’d actually been here several years before when my son was a young boy as we thought it would be a good educational experience for him. And it was; he loved it. Overall, however, there are fewer pole farms today than in the past as housing development encroaches on farmland in our state.

    For those of you who might be interested in visiting a pole farm, the Fall season is an especially good time because that’s when the pole harvest takes place. Anyone who hasn’t seen a pole harvest is missing a treat. Giant combine pole harvesters move in, cut down the poles, bundle them into stacks and load them onto large flatbed trucks running alongside. Impressive. We're hoping to get back there this Autumn to watch some of that operation again.

    The farm is located on NJ Secondary Route 513, near Ironia, between State Routes 10 and 24.

    A friend of mine who’s a lineman for one of our local power companies, Jersey Central Power and Light, says that he always feels secure when he sinks his climbing irons into a pole grown in NJ because he knows the pole won’t break and throw him to the ground. As a resident, it makes me feel proud to know that NJ grows some of the finest line poles in the country.

    Well, the visit to the farm was the perfect end to a perfect day; an interesting and educational experience. Naturally, the Protege behaved flawlessly

    Happy Motoring!.

    For those of you unaware of their existence, I thought some views of the pole farm we visited might be interesting. Enjoy.
    Attached Files
    Last edited by goldstar; 04-18-2010, 07:09 PM.
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    #2
    Lol! Now that's pretty funny. Jerz rEPRzeNt!
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