This is a hedge apple trunk (maclura pomifera), also called Osage orange, once a stout and strong natural fence around the edge of farm fields throughout the Midwest. In the fall after harvest, cattle were turned out in the fields to clean up what ears of corn escaped the harvester. When pruned, the hedge apple sprouted abundant shoots from its base; as these shoots grew, they became interwoven and formed a dense, thorny barrier.
Hedge apple was replaced by the invention of barbed wire, and today fences are being taken out everywhere, as farms no longer have cattle or hogs. Hedge is so tough that it takes a bulldozer to remove it.
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