(;:j;:) THlE RESIDENCE OF S. EDWARDS TODD, LAKE RIDGE, TOMPKINS CO., N.Y. A man is known by the House he lives in, and by the Hat he wears. THE or " Ad 1 XA'S I IN{JA- h: DETAILING THE MANIPULATIONS OF THE FARM IN A PLAIN AND INTELLIGIBLE MANNER. WITH PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS FOR LAYING OUT A FARM, AND ERECTING BUILDINGS, FENCES, AND FARM GATES EMBRACING ALSO TH: YOUNG FARMER'S WORKSHOP: GIVING FULL DIRECTIONS FOR THE SELECTION OF GOOD FARM ANI) SIIOP TOOLS, TIHEIR USE AND MANUFACTURF, WITH NUMEROUS ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF FENCES, GATES, TOOLS, ETC., AND FOR PERFORMING NEARLY EVERY BRANCH OF FARMING OPERATIONS. I I BY S. EDWARDS TODD. NEW YORK: 0. M. SAXTON, BARKER & COMPANY. No. 25 PARK ROW. 1860. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by S. EDWARDS TODD, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Northern District of New York. EDWARD O. JENKINS, Printer and Stereotyper, No. 26 FRANKFORT STREET. I - t -I i s fi; PREFACE. "A useful book may live from age to age, And those unborn may read its printed page."-J. W. BARmm. THE chief object of this little volume is, to instruct the young farmer how to perform the various operations of the farm in a skillful, economical, and workmanlike manner. From my early boyhood I have been engaged in the cultivation of the soil, and I have always experienced a very great disadvantage and inconvenience in not having a text-book to assist me in putting tools and agricultural implements in proper order, and in handing them with skill and dexterity. Knowing well what difficulties and embarrassments a young farmer is sure to meet with, and understanding what instructions he will be most likely to need, it has been my aim to supply that knowledge which has for so long a time been called for 1)y the young farmers of America. I have not written for farmers of mature age and long experience, to whom the-contents of most of these paragraphs may appear too common-place, but for the sons of farmers, and those who are leaving the merchants' counters and the mechanics' shops to engage practically in that honest, honorable, and noble calling-the cultivation of the soil. I have come directly from the farnmer's workshop, from the (*) PREFACE. stercorary, from the ditch, and from following the plow, with towfrock, and overalls, and India-rubber boots on, all bespattered with mud, with callous hands and stiff fingers, to show young farmers how to work. Most writers on agricultural subjects have appeared to take it for granted, that every one already understands the practical operations in the various branches of business connected with the farm (see "Introduction"); therefore we have no elementary works in our agricultural libraries, and when young men commence practically in any branch of farming operations, they are at a great loss how to perform, in a workmanlike manner, many of the most common operations of the farm without an experienced foreman. It has been my aim to lay down most reliable directions in all my details; and the young farmer can carry this volume into his workshop or into the field, and learn from its pages how to perform every job in a workmanlike, easy, and most expeditious manner. I have endeavored to make use of simple and intelligible language, which none can fail to understand; and have numbered the paragraphs, so that when reference is made to a subject the reader may be able to turn at once to the paragraph, which will explain more particularly what he may desire to know. My manner of writing it has been to pen my own ideas, and then on any subject which might not seem very clear, to confer with such experienced and skillful farmers as Hon. David Crocker and Deacon Isaac Bower, who are known to be thorough-going farmers and producers of neat cattle, and to whose inspection I submitted my MS. for criticism. In regard to tools, and especially edged tools, I have conferred iv PREFACE. with many of our best mechanics, and I have not, as yet, been able to detect anything in this work which does not coincide with the most approved views and practices for manufacturing and for putting tools in order. The figures of tools and implements have been drawn with my own pencil, and I have penned nothing which has not been well tested, and have introduced no tools, or implements, which can be considered of doubtful utility. The reader will find about every tool which is represented in the following pages-and scores of others also-in my possession, which are in prime order. The chapter on fencing and fence tools, a portion of which has been re-written, was published in the volume of Trans. of the N. Y. State Agricultural Society for 1858; and it is a source of great chagrin to me that I did not have the proof-sheets in time to correct the numerous typographical errors, and to place some of the cuts right side up), and others in their appropriate places. Some of them were placed on the side, and some topsy turvy, while several of them, instead of being inserted where they were described, under their appropriate heads, were placed in another part of the chapter, where they were simply alluded to. I grin and bear it as well as any one ought to. Some of the cuts were not engraved like the original drawings, and have since been reengraved. Reference is frequently made to subjects in another volume, which will follow this in a succession of paragraphs and illustrations, which will relate more particularly to the cultivation of the soil and raising crops. There are ten ways of performing most of the operations of the farm; there is a right way, and a wtrong way; an easy Away, h:14: hlartc or very laborious way; a skillful, and an awkwIar(d v PREFACE. way; a neat, and a slovenly way; and an economical, and a very expensive way. As a general rule, tyros, and, many times, "old uns," too, are very liable to perform every job and handle every tool in one of these sinister ways. Now, one laudable object in this treatise is, to furnish plain directions, which, with the exercise of a little skill and common sense, will turn our awkward, unskillful farmer-boys into skillful, neat, and economical farmers. A copious index will be found at the end of the volume, by which the reader will be able to turn without any difficulty to any subject, or cut of tool or implement. The first column of figures refers to the paragraphs in which whatever is referred to may be found; and the second column refers to the page of the book. Reference is frequently made to paragraphs, in different parts of this book, where the subject under consideration is more fully explained, which should be looked out when reading. Stimulated by an ardent desire to give an efficient and skillful direction to the energies of the young American farmer, and elevate him to that high and noble standing which the Creator designed for him, I send forth this volume, hoping that my labors of love will be appreciated, not only by my contemnporaries, but by thousands yet unborn, when I am sleeping in the dust. S. E. T. LAKE RIDGE, TOMPKINS CO., N.Y., 1860. vi INTRODUCTION. "The sounds of active industry I love-I love them all: The banging of the hammer, the whirring of the plane, The crashing of the busy saw, the creaking of the crane."-ANON. THE age has passed in which the hard.fisted cultivator of the soil was looked upon as an illiterate plebeian, and the last beams of its twilight are dancing about us. Our worthy grandfathers taught their sons that, if they were able to read, intelligibly, the Bible and the "Babes in the Woods," which usually constituted their library, and could write a legible hand, and keep their debit and credit so that no one could cheat them, they would have all the education that would ever be of any practical advantage to them in agricultural pursuits. Our fathers allowed us to exceed the boundaries which restrained them, and permitted us to look into geography, natural philosophy, and chemistry, as applied to agriculture; and, after long importunity, allowed us to lay aside those old Bull Plows, with wooden mold-boards, and those clumsy, awkward, heavy, ill-shapen tools, for those which had been manlufactured of better materials and of forms more in accordance wAith the most approved mechanical and philosophical principles. Our forefathers were taught, and they inculcated the same precept, that if a boy or man happened to be so unaccountably stupid that he would not be likely to make a successful doctor,-or lawyer, or merchant, or mechanic, he must be a farmer; but we INTRODUCTION. have manfully broken off this tyrannical yoke of "old fogy" con ventionalism, and teach our sons that we need the most active, promnising, intelligent, and skillful men and boys, for farmers; and if a boy happens to be deficient in the attic story, he must learn a trade, and be a mechanic. Our forefathers brought up their sons to feel that farmers belonged to an inferior caste; and many of our fathers and fastidious mothers taught their children, that manual labor was dishonorable and degrading, and that, in order to be respected in the world, they must have a situation behind the merchant's counter, or study theology, or jurisprudence. But we, at the present day, teach those under our care, that there is a no more honorable, nor respectable, nor honest livelihood, than that of cultivating the soil, and its kindred arts and sciences. And we teach them also, that, in order to be a thorough-going, energetic, and successful farmer, a man must be educated; that he must have a good smattering of agricultural chemistry, natural philosophy, geology, mineralogy, botany, and a good peep into vegetable physiology, and arithmetic and geometry, &c.; and must have a good understanding, also, of the manufacture of agricultural implements, according to the most convenient and approved form and weight; and must know how to handle them with skill and dexterity. Therefore, A FARMER MUST BE A MAN OF THOUGHT AND INVESTIGATION. No man can reasonably expect to succeed in the thorough cultivation of the soil, and raise good crops on his farm from year to year, as long as he lives, and not Impoverish it, but leave it in as good, or even a better state of fertility at the end of his days, unless he is a man of thought, accustomed to devise the best and most practicable arrangements and systems of management, not only for producing, but for consuming the productions of the farm. (See How TO NIAKE A GOOD FARM\ BETTER, in next vol.) He must not always be "whistling along for want of thought," but he must think beforehand-not a year afterwards-what he can do practically to bring all his practices and farming operations to a Greater degree of perfection for the year to come, than they were 14 INTRODUCTION. the past season. Hle must make note of his failures in every operation, and endeavor to have everything performed in the most seasonable time, and in the most economical and farmer-like manner. And A FARMER MUST BE A LABORING MAN. On the other side of the great water, the landlord, the farmer, and the laborer, exist in three distinct personages; but in America, for the most part, these three are united in one. The most successfil cultivators of the soil in America, whose opinions on agricultural subjects and whose practices are eagerly sought, and widely disseminated and adopted, are most generally men who are not ashamed nor mortified to be seen in a ditch, with a tow frock on, or holding the plow, or swinging the cradle. Reason and experience teach us that manual labor is by no means incompatible with the growth and vigor of our intellects. Philosophy and long experience have furnished us with the most indubitable demonstration that active, energetic, manual employment, imparts vigor to the corporeal system, and that vigor of the body invigorates the brain. Our systems are so constituted, that while our hands are engaged in manual operations, the head and the heart may be led on to knowledge. It injures no one to labor with his hands; and, although we were doomed to toil by the Creator, (Gen. 3: 19,) it is one of the greatest temporal blessings, in disguise, which mortals are permitted to enjoy. If a farmer's business should be so extensive that all his time is consumed in planning and in superintending, or if he is able to glide along through the world passively, still he ought to have a good understanding of manual operations, so as to be able to instruct those in his employ how to handle their tools with skill and efficiency. No man ever shortened his days by energetic, manual labor, alone; but bad habits have sent thousands to an untimely grave, whose demise was attributed to "hard work." Intellectual culture and manual labor must go hand in hand. The time is fast hastening on, when the hands of hard-fisted industry will sway tle destiny of the world. 15 INTRODUCTION. A FARMER SHOULD BE A GOOD MECHANIC, theoretically, if he is not practically. There are so many branches of mechanical operations connected with farming, such as making farm gates, and fences, harrows, field-rollers, and tools of every description, and repairing old ones, and putting edge tools in order, and such like, that he who must necessarily depend entirely on some one else to perform every little job, cannot expect to succeed in farming operations like him who will accustom himself to handle mechanical tools with dexterity. More than one-half of our country mechanics, who work at their trade for a livelihood, are incompetent to perform a difficult job, in a neat and workmanlike manner, without a foreman. For this reason, if for no other, a farmer should be a good mechanic, in order to give proper directions how a piece of work should be performed, or whether or not it is perfect or faulty after it is finished. A FARMER SHOULD BE A MACHINIST. Now that so many new machines are being manufactured and introduced for performing the labors of the farm, a farmer needs the skill and discernment of an ingenious machinist, in order to understand whether a machine has been manufactured according to the most approved mechanical principles or not, and to detect at a glance any imperfection in its construction (see FITTING UP MACHINERY, in the next vol.); and in case a machine fails in consequence of little imperfections inii its manufacture, to be able to repair it himself or to direct another to do it, in a workmanlike manner. A FARMER SHOULD BE A GOOD ENGINEER. Agriculture now is ranked among the arts and sciences of the first order. Indeed, the cultivation of the soil has been not improperly styled the " mother of arts." Perhaps in no other single art and science can there be found such a variety of simple and complex, cheap and expensive, tools and implements, as in-agriculture. Consequently, in order to be able to work, or manage, 16 INTRODUCTION. or handle with skill and efficiency, such a variety of implements and tools, a man needs an eye like a serpent, an ear like a roe, the perception of an elephant, and the skill and acumen of a honey-bee. He needs to have a good knowledge of the strength of materials-which lies at the very foundation of successfill engineering-that he may be able to determine, without hesitancy, whether the various parts of a tool are of the correct proportion, (see next vol.,) or whether one part of a machine is made four times lighter, or heavier, as the case may be, than is required, or is necessary. It is important for him to know whether, in erecting buildings, the stress on the different parts is so great, or so small, as to need a timber one foot square, or six inches square. He should have a perception so acute when running any kind of machinery as to determine, in an instant, by the sound and clatter, whether the motion is too high or too low, or uniform, or variable, or when anything is not in complete running order. He should be able to tell whether he is hauling with his team a number of hundred pounds of redundant mnaterial in a given machine; and whether his team moves, or the parts of machinery run, at the most effective velocity or not. (See VELOCITY OF SAWS.) A farmer should understand well the principles of draught, (see next vol.,) that he may not brealtk his tools unnecessarily, nor use up the energies of his team to no good purpose. These are but a very few of the qualifications which ought to be prominent characteristics of every successful cultivator of the soil; and besides these, it is of primary importance that a farmer should undersft,.(, well, THE PROPER APPROPRIATION OF THE FORCES OF THE FARM. "The prudent foreman now, with timely care, Forecasts his labors; gives to each his share. No force is misapplied: he keeps in view The faithful, trusty, and the idle, too, With plans well formed for every future day, His forces execute without delayo"- EDWARD Why does one farmer often accomplish as much, or even more 17 p INTROI)UCTION. labor with two workmen, than his neighbor does with four laborers of equal strength? Why do the operations on one farm move on most effectively in every respect, without any hurry, or bluster, or fretting, or worrying of teams, while on the next farm all is hurrv and excitement, and but little work done? The answers to these interrogations may all be expressed mn few words, which cannot be gainsayed: A want of wise plans, and an improper al]propriation of the forces of the farm. Every farmer, in order to be successful, must have well-digested plans for performing every operation connected with his business. He can never hope to be successful who goes to work at random. A successful farmer will be a thinking man; and all his plans will be so harmonious, that little, if any, of his available force will be improperly appropriated, under any circumstances. He will never send two laborers to perform a little job which one can do in about the same period of time. It cannot be denied that multitudes of pretty good farmers are most stupendously deficient on this point; and it is no uncommon occurrence to see them employ two, three, and even four laborers to do what one hand could perform very advantageously. There are very many operations on the farm which one hand cannot do to any good advantage; but when one man can perform a given piece of work alone by working four times as long as it would require four men to do it, as a general rule, in practice, it will be found to be most economical, on the score of expense, to employ but one hand at such a job. It cannot be expected that uninterested laborers will care but little how many of them are sent by their employer to perform a given job; therefore the skillful and successful farmer, whether he is a tyro or not, should always think a moment, whether more than one hand is really needed, and whether one will not perform a certain job about as quickly as two will do it. The practice of some farmers always is, if there is a job or two of labor at a distant part of the farm which one hand could do ill an hour or so most advantageously, to send three or four to do it, thinking that if one man can do it in two hours, two men will be able to do it in one hour; and four men can do it in half an hour. 18 INTRODUCTION. Did such reasoning hold good, there would be a loss of time by sending four hands. Suppose, for instance, the work is so far distant as to occupy ten minutes in going to it and ten minutes in returning. Now one laborer will go and do the job in two hours and twenty minutes, or in one hundred and forty minutes, when he will be ready for another job. But if four men are employed, each one consumes twenty minutes in going to and returning from the job, which will consume one hundred and ten minutes, providing they perform the job in thirty minutes. With good faithful laborers, those who will work faithfiilly when alone, there is almost always a loss of time, in proportion to the number employed. There will be some waiting, one for another, which cannot conveniently be avoided. And more than all, when a lot of men work together, it often seems at first sight that they are driving the job with great rapidity, when, if the labor performed were divided up into plots, so that each could see exactly how much he had accomplished, they would all be ashamed that they had done so little. But it is much the wisest policy, many times, to have a lot of hands work together, because some men do not like to work alone, and they cannot work alone; and if set to work alone, they cannot work, and they will not try. This is a weakness not uncommon to many pretty active men. They need the little stimulus of example; and many times, men who are good for nothing when alone will accomplish a large day's work if they can have only the company of another individual, whether hlie is an associate laborer or not. On this point the tyro must exercise all possible acumen; and if it is his misfortune to have in his employ a laborer not unlike the one just alluded to, he should have every plan wisely laid beforehand, so that when his workmen have finished one job, he will be ready to give orders, with promptness, who shall go to this piece of work, and who shall do that. There will be time enough consumed in going to and returning from labor on a large farm, when the plans are ever so well laid; but unless some forethought is exercised little will be accomplished. It is no uncommon occurrence on some farms to see two men 19 INTRODUCTION. sent to get one team, and go half a mile or more to get a load of rails, or wood, or stone, or such like. We will grant that they may work advantageously in loading and unloading; but if it consumes twenty minutes in going to, and twenty more in returning from their work, there is a loss of forty minutes with one laborer, which might have probably been appropriated to some good purpose. Now let forty minutes be taken from every two hours during the entire day, and one third of his time will amount to nothing. Allowing fifteen or twenty minutes for one man to put on a load of rails, or of wood, if two were able to do it in half that time, there would be a waste of time. In hauling dirt, gravel, peat, muck, or manure, two men, and many times three, are sent with one team and one cart, or wagon, to haul such substances the distance of one fourth of a mile, or even more. Suppose, after loading, it requires only five minutes to drive to the place for unloading, and five minutes to return. If two laborers are employed, and both go to unload, there will be a loss of time of one mar, of ten minutes each load; amounting to more than two hours lost time during the working hours of one day. In mowing grass with scythes, or cradling grain, one man usually, especially if he will work alone, will cut more than half as much as two; and as the number of hands are increased in one company at such work, the less labor will be performed in proportion to the number of workmen employed. Why? Because even when they are all faithful as possible, there will of necessity be a vast amount of waiting one for another. Suppose, for instance, there are five mowers, or cradlers. It will usually be seen that one who sets in first will work one or two minutes before there will be an opportunity for the last one to commence. Now, they will all work fifteen or twenty rods, and perhaps not half tlat distance, when there will be another halt until all come up even, when the scythes must be whet. Then there is a delay of one for the other all day; and it many times will amount to more than the working hours of one man in one day. Aif, besides, the labor performed will be most astonishingly less, in 20 INTRODUCT'IION. proportion to the number of hands employed, than if one or two laborers only worked together. And, furthermore, when a lot of hands are mowing, or cradling together, each one is prompted, by the recital of some nonsensical story or startling adventure, to relate something similar, in order to disclose his own indomitable perseverance, or prowess, or magnanimity: and if there be half a score, all must wait to hear it. The true remedy is, to set a few hands at work in one field, and a few in another field,when there will usually be a little ambition on the part of faithful workmen to perform quite as much, or a little more, and a little better, than the other party. It is no uncommon thing to see two men sent to the woods to split rails, stakes, or the like, with but one beetle, and as many wedges and glats, as one man only needs. Two laborers can work together very advantageously in splitting such materials only when each one has all the tools which one man requires. But when two men have but one beetle, and a corresponding number of wedges, if they are ever so faithful, there must neces sarily be a loss of time,-unless one hand confines himself closely to splitting, while the other chops off the cuts, and peals and piles whatever the other splits. But pealing, piling up, and cut ting the cuts, are usually much less than half the labor required, to make rails and stakes. The true and economical way, when two men are employed to split rails together, is, to furnish each one with a beetle, an axe, and as many wedges as he needs. And then let both work together, when opening the cuts, each one having a good handspike, especially when the cuts are large; and when a cut is separated, let each one take one half to split into rails; and they will not be in each other's way; and all their time and labor will be most economically appropriated. (See SPLITTING RAILS, par. 63.) In digging post-holes, two men are very frequently seen at work with but one set of tools. Under such circumstances, it is almost impossible for two laborers to dig in a day twice as many holes as one man alone will dig. When each one must of neos sity wait a few minutes when he wants to use a tool, for the 21 INTRODUCTION. other to finish using it, for the time there will be a loss of time; and in a few days, those lost, idle moments, when a laborer is receiving seventy-five cents or more per day, will soon amount to enough to purchase a set of tools. During the season of haying and harvesting in particular, the tyro should see to it that every plan is most wisely and economically laid, in disposing of the manual forces of the farm. Whether he leads the van in active labor, or only superintends, he should, as occasion requires, think what disposition he may make of his orces, in order to accomplish the greatest amount of labor in a given time. If, for example, it will be necessary to spread, or turn, or air a lot of hay, in some distant field, which one man will be able to do in half an hour or so, let one only go and do it. Let one hand only get a team, instead of sending two. When there are more than two hands in loading, let two pitch while one loads: because one man can load for two pitchers just as well as for one. When the distance is half a mile or more from the barn to the field, and it is convenient to have two teams to haul with, three hands will accomplish more at hauling hay and grain, by putting on two loads in the field and driving them to the place of unloading, and unloading both wagons, than they will to use only one wagon and one team: because there will be less time not appropriated to useful labor when there are two teams, than when but one is used. In hauling anything any considerable distance, in order to appropriate the working hours to the most economical purpose, each man should have a team, so that all his time may be consumed, if not in active labor, in something which consumes time, such as simply driving a team with a load. In hauling heavy logs or timber, where two or more hands are absolutely necessary in loading, in order to lose no time of workmen, each one should have a team; and then two, three, or more, as may be necessary, should load one team and then another; anrd then each man drive a team to the place of unloading, wren io time need be consumed to no purpose. I have been led to pen these thoughts in consequence of having 22 INTRODUCTION. seen so much injudicious and uneconomical appropriation of the manual forces of the farm; and by those, too, who were always grumbling, and complaining that their work was always behind; and that they were not able to get laborers to perform as much in a day for themselves, as when they were in the employ of some of their neighbors. I might expatiate upon the subject to four times its present length, with seeming propriety; but enough has been said to induce the tyro to think and plan for himself, and to appropriate his forces according to the circumstances of the occasion. It may be urged that hard-working laborers need rest; and that it seems rather like a disposition to overreach the limits of fairness and propriety. It is granted that they need rest; but there is no danger that they will not avail themselves of all the time, necessary or not, to reinvigorate their partially exhausted faculties. They will seldom consider any number of hours spent in idleness, in the light of rest; nor will they seldom feel willing to make any greater exertion, when they are in active labor, if half their time is consumed in idleness, than they do when they work during all the working hours of one or of many days. There are always rainy days, and portions of days, during the year, when laborers cannot labor at all advantageously; but they must receive the same wages that they do when they are earning, in a day, twice the sum which they receive per day. But, when the weather is fair, it is but just and right that all the forces should be brought into operation, in the most economical and effective manner. The tyro should plan work for his hands on the preceding day, so that each one, as soon as he rises in the morning, can start immediately to his business, without hanging around a half-hour or more, before he knows what to go about. Let one l. go and feed the teams; and another do this, and another ,. lo that job, until breakfast time, and in this way a long catalogue of little jobs will be performed, during the season, which otherwise would have gone undone. Another consideration of vast importance is, 23 24 INTRODUCTION. THE COOPERATION OF THE WIFE. " Good husband without it is needful there be: Good housewife within is as needful as he."-TuSSER. However judiciously and economically the plans for the operations of the farm may be laid, if a man and his wife do not harmonize, most completely, in prosecuting their labors, he had better at once dispose of his farm, and lay by the avails of it for decrepitude and old age, and work out by day's work. The housewife and her operations are the great regulator of the operations of the farm. There is too much truth in the old maxim, for fiction, that "i f a man would succeed well in his livelihood, he must ask his wife." A very great fault among many farmers is, they do not consult their wives in relation to matters with reference to which it is highly proper they should have a word or two to say. We commiserate the man who bears the reproach of a hen-pecked husband; and, when we see a wife ruling, and engineering in-doors and out of doors, we think that if she had a husband far superior to herself, she would be a woman of sterling worth. It cannot be denied that wives have often made, to their husbands, some most capital suggestions, in reference to the operations of the farm; and it must be acknowledged, that many women are far more capable of planning judiciously, and carrying on more economically the operations of the farm, than their husbands. But if a wife superintends and executes, in the best manner, the in-door operations, nothing more should be required of her. I know that very many men consider it a little beneath them to consult their wives with reference to any of their plans; and they will never suffer their wives to know, if they can prevent it, any thing about their income or expenditures, or their debit or credit. But it is a matter of doubt whether there ever was an instance in which a man habitually consulted his wife, when, as a consequence, it proved detrimental, or a disparagement to him in any repect. There can be no impropriety in the practice of some men, of allowing the housewife to know exactly all about the income and INTRODUCTION. expenditures, the debit and credit of the farm; and if these wise ones, who congratulate themselves that they have a most perfect knowledge of the best manner of performing the operations of the farm, would confer a little more with their wives, their wisdom would be greatly increased. "A man may spare and yet be bare, If his wife be naught-if his wife be naught! But a man may spend, and have cash to lend, If his wife be aught-if his wife be aught l" 25 I TH E' -TYNG FARMER'SA MANUA. CHAPTER I. SELECTING THE MOST SUITABLE LOCATION FOR THE BUILDINGS OF A FARM. " Be this our home-that ever hallowed spot, To plant a palace or a lowly cot." 1. THE first and very important consideration with a young farmer, as soon as he comes into possession of a farm, is, to have all his buildings situated in the most convenient location, with reference to each other and to the different fields of the farm. If a farm is broken up by gullies and deep ravines, if convenience of access to fields on both sides of them is any object, the young farmer should endeavor to have his buildings located at the most desirable point. If a farm is rather undulating, or nearly level, and its boundaries at nearly right angles, it is not attended with much difficulty to select a site for the farm buildings which shall prove most convenient in every respect. It is always most desirable to have every field as convenient of access from the barn as possible. This is desirable, not only for the sake of convenience, but for the sake of economy in the expenses of travelling, with or without loads, to and from the fields. Some people will select only a high spot of ground for locating farm buildings, and never even think of consulting convenience of (27) THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. access to the distant parts of a farm. Americans almost universally will erect their buildings along the highway, even when such a location would place them entirely on one side of their farm. When the boundaries of a farm are in the shape of a wedge, which is not unfrequently the case, and the barn is located on the small end, it makes a vast amount of unnecessary travel and labor in hauling the produce of distant fields to the barn, and in returning the manure to them. Streams of water and springs often influence the young farmer in choosing the most desirable and convenient location for buildings; but streams of water can be so easily turned from their natural course, and the water of springs can be brought in pipe or tube at so small an expense, and up hill, too, that these considerations should have but little weight in selecting the location for the buildings of a farm. When the farm is composed of only forty or fifty acres, and is located in a square compass, if the buildings are all located on one side of it the inconvenience is not so great as it is when the buildings are all on one side of a large farm. Convenience would dictate that the buildings should be located as near the middle of the farm as is practicable. 2. It is true that there are many advantages in having the buildings of the farm located on the borders of the highway; but it is a very rare instance in which the disadvantages attending the performance of the labors of the farm-if the farm is a large one-would not have a preponderating influence if they were fairly and impartially compared. There are some farmers who have torn away from the very common custom of building along the highway, and have located their buildings in the centre of the farm, and the result is, the most distant fields are situated nearer the barn, and much less time is spent in going to and from them. Should the centre of a farm be an undesirable location, on account of low, wet ground, it would be far better to locate a little at one side of the centre, than to be placed entirely at one side of the farm. 3. If I were to commence on a new farm of only fifty, Or of two hundred acres on which there were no streams or springs 28 THE YOITNG FARMER'S MANUAL. of water, I would dig a large, deep well in the centre of the farm, and erect a wind wheel for pumping the water; and here I would locate the buildings, and would lay out a lane each way from the centre of the farm, north, south, east, and west, so that cattle could go to and come from any field to the water without crossing another field. The land appropriated to lanes would produce pasture, and therefore would not be useless. If it were only "the fashion" to have the buildings of a farm located near the centre of it, the inconveniences arising from having the buildings located entirely at one side of it would seem almost intolerable. It will require no more land for the sites of buildings, and for pleasure grounds and yards, in the centre of a farm, than would be occupied near the borders of the highway. 4. For the arrangement and disposition of buildings, and for plans of dwelling-houses, and plans of out-buildings-as a chapter of proper length on that subject would swell this Treatise far beyond its prescribed limits-young farmers who are interested in this subject, will find all that the most fastidious can desire on this subject, in works devoted to that subject. PLOTTING THE FARM AND LAYING OUT THE FIELDS. 5. Every farmer should draw a Plan of his farm on a large sheet of drawing-paper, which may be inclosed in a wooden frame, or it may be delineated on a large board, neatly planed. Let the Deed of a farm be taken to a good surveyor, who has the proper instruments, and he will be able to delineate the shape of any farm, with the different distances of a proper proportion to each other, with the outside lines running at the same angle in the plan that they do on the farm. The larger the plan is, the better it will be. The next step will be, to lay out the farm into fields of the most convenient shape and size. If the farm is a large one, the fields may be proportionately large; but if the farm is small, and the proprietor designs to keep a limited number of cattle, or animals of any kind, the fields must be small. It should always be the aim, in dividing a farm into fields, by fences, to have the boundaries of each field run about at right 29 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. angles. But when a farm is cut up with highways, railroads, and deep gullies, which do not run parallel with the outside boundaries, the young farmer must exercise a little judgment and skill in giving them a shape that will be most convenient of access from the barn. If the buildings are so located that the fields must necessarily be all on one side of a lane, leading to the barn, it would be more convenient to have the fields eighty or one hundred rods long, and of a narrow width, and let them extend from the farther boundary of the farm to the lane, than to have the fields square and be obliged to cross one or two fields in order to reach a distant field. Sometimes it seems desirable to make the fields of an irregular shape, in order to allow animals in each field to have access to water. But it is not always advisable to give a field an irregular shape for the sake of a stream of water, when it can be brought to that field for a small expense. It is always desirable to have the fields of a uniform size, especially when one adopts, in raising crops, a rotation system. 6. The first settlers of our country were accustomed to locate their buildings almost anywhere; and to clear and cultivate the best and dryest land first; and to fence around those parts of the farm which were too wet to plow, and to keep them for pasture only. The result was, that the fields of many farms were as irregular in shape as a shapeless rock. When the location is such that such places can be drained, the fences should be made in the desired places, and all wet places and corners made dry by ditching. Having decided upon the form and size of each field, let marks be delineated in the plan to represent the fences. Let each field be designated in the plan by some name, or title, or by some tree, or rock, or pool, or they may be designated as the fields A, B, C, &c. This plan, or map, should be placed where every one connected with the farm could see it often, and under stand the location of every field, and woods, and yard, and build ing, from the map. Now, if there are little streams running across the farm, let them be represented by dotted lines, running at about the same angle in the map that they do on thefarm. When under-drains are made in any field, dotted lines should be 30 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. made on the map to represent them. The distances should be accurately measured in the field,-how many rods from a given corner a certain ditch crosses the boundary of such a field, and how many rods it runs in a given direction, and how many rods from a certain corner it crosses the fence towards the outlet. Should there be branches in a main ditch, let the distance from a given side of the field be accurately measured, in rods or feet, and noted down with the dotted lines on the map. All this will not require as much time, if everything is performed systematically, as I have consumed in penning these few thoughts. If the ditches are filled with tile, stone, or wood, in any form, let it be noted on the map, and also the time when the ditches were made. 7. The advantage to be derived from knowing exactly, to one foot or less, where an under-drain is located, may often be of more or less pecuniary profit, in case a certain ditch should fail to discharge the surplus water where it is located, in consequence of some little obstruction, which could be readily found if the exact location of the drain were known. (See DRAINING, 395.) 8. If a young farmer should happen to settle on a farm where all the necessary buildings are erected and the fields laid out, he may frequently obviate many very great inconveniences, by altering the shape of his fields, and by removing the out.buildings to a more desirable and convenient location. GENERAL REMARKS AND SUGGESTIONS IN REFERENCE TO ERECTING FARM BUILDINGS. 9. Every man who has a lot of farm buildings to erect, needs all the forethought and experience of him who has had the supervision of erecting the necessary buildings of a large farm, in order that he may be able to plan everything judiciously, and see that every part of a job is executed economically and substantially. Erecting buildings is a piece of labor which is not to be performed every year of a man's life; and it is almost always quite impracticable to undo, and perform correctly, a job in building that has been done amiss. Not one in fifty knows how to take advantage of common circumstances in erecting his build 2 31 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. ings; and but few know really what materials are actually necessary, or know how to obtain them in the most economical and expeditious manner. A few practical suggestions on this subject may be of almost incalculable advantage to the young farmer. 10. When a man of little experience is about to commence building, he should make a most vigorous effort to ascertain -what kind of buildings how large or how small, whether of wvood, brick, or stone-he really needs. It may save him several hundreds of dollars, to first procure the excellent periodicals publishled on this subject; as in them he will find an almost unlimited variety of ground plans and elevations of buildings. In order to build most economically, the stone and sand should all be hauled in the winter, when the labors of the farm are not on hand; and boards and plank should be well-seasoned, not less than one year, before they are worked up. In the meantime, the beginnier should confer with those who have had experience in planning buildings; and endeavor to have every plan arranged in the most complete and economical manner. Always, if possible, commence building ta the spring; because the weather is usually more favorable, and the days are longer, and workmen will perform full one quarter or one third more, than they will be able to do in the short, unfavorable, and cold days of autumn. We will commence with THE DWELLING-HOUSE. 11. Every dwelling-house needs a good cellar beneath it. And in order to have it cool in summer, and dry and warm in winter, the foundation walls should be built not less than twenty inches above the level of the ground, after the ground has been levelled off, in order to furnish sufficient space for the cellar windows. The surface of the ground should always descend a little from the house in order to carry off the surface water. Before the cellar walls are laid, a good drain should be cut not less than six inches deeper than the bottom of the cellar, and a little trench dug entirely around the bottom of the cellar leading ine the main ditch. Now, let water be poured into the trench to ascer 32 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. tain whether it will flow out freely into the main ditch. If water will run out of the trench into the main ditch, lay pipe or sole tile, having not less than an inch and a half calibre, in this trench entirely around the cellar, and cover them with hard dirt, well tramped down on the tile. These tile will carry off all water that would find its way into the cellar. Let tile be laid in the main drain. Two inch tile is sufficiently large. Never trust to a drain filled with stone about a cellar, or beneath any building; because they will be filled with some obstruction in a few years. Let the main drain extend into the cellar a foot or two. Let the bottom of the cellar be a few inches highest in the centre. If it is convenient, let a lead pipe extend from the bottom of the rainwater cistern through the foundation of the cellar, having a faucet or plug in the end, so that when the cistern needs to be emptied, or the cellar-bottom needs cleaning, water may be let out of the cistern on the cellar bottom, and allowed to escape through a hole in a fiat stone into the drain. All the surplus water of the cistern, during heavy rains, should pass off through the tile for the purpose of keeping the passage clear. Never build a dry wall around a cellar under any building; because you will wish a thousand times in less than five years, chat the stone had been laid up in good mortar. (Read paragraph 187, to learn the best manner of laying stone walls.) Remember that roots and fruit will freeze much sooner in a damp cellar than they will in a dry one. Make calculations to have sufficient space in the cellar to allow a tall man to walk erect in it, and carry a basket of potatoes on his shoulder. If a building is large and heavy, the foundation stone should be sunk six inches below the bottom of the cellar; and the stone walls should in no case be less than twenty inches in thickness. Thirty inches thick would be far better. 12. In hauling the stone for the cellar wall, the young farmer should endeavor to select those first which have a good face side, and reject all ill-shapen ones; and when unloading them, let them be well spread out, with the face side up, and corner-stones 33 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. by themselves, so that a stone-mason will be able to select readily such as he needs, first or last. WATER LIME CELLARS. 13. In localities where building-stone is very scarce, and the subsoil is very compact and hard, the cellar walls may be built with a small amount of stone, after the manner of building in this region. Excavate the ground of the size of the cellar, about one foot deep, and build the foundation wall two feet high, making calculations to grade up on the outside nearly one foot high. Let the wall above the ground be carried up with square timber to the desired height. There should be a narrow space between the timbers, as frost will not pass timbers of the same thickness, when there is a space between them, as soon as it will one solid stick: and so with stone foundations. If a wall is built of two courses of stone, the frost will be excluded from the cellar much longer than it will if the stones extend entirely across the wall. Now, let the cellar be dug about three and a half feet below the bottom of the walls, leaving a square shoulder of earth, not less than two feet wide, entirely around the cellar; and let this shoulder of earth be well plastered with water-lime mortar, both on the side and on the top. This shoulder will be found a very convenient shelf to place barrels on in the winter. I know of cellars that have been built in this manner fifteen years, and are now as good as when they were first built. But the frost must be kept out of such cellars, or it will injure such plastering, and make it peel off. The middle of such cellars should be the highest, and a gutter made around the outside to carry off the water. My own cellar is built in this manner; and although it has been built ten years, and has been injured by the frost only a little in two places, still I regret that the walls were not built from the bottom of the cellar with good stone. These consider ations with reference to the foundation wall, are equally applicable to the foundation of a barn or other out-buildings. Every building should have a good stone wall under it, laid up in lime molar. 34 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 14. In building the superstructure, as a general rule, timber is made use of which is nearly twice as large as is necessary. It is better to have the frame timber too large than too small. Sills, one foot square, lying on a good stone wall, are more than twice as large as is necessary. And, besides, such large timber is very liable to be affected with the "dry rot." Sills, six by eight, or ten inches square, are sufficiently large for any building that is erected on a wall, whether dwelling-house or barn.* For small building, sills that are six inches square are infinitely better than if they were four times as large. When a tree is a large one, of which it is desirable to mnake a sill or other timber, let it be slit at the sawv-mill of the desired size. A tree will often turn out four good sticks of timber when sawed, besides some boards or plank; whereas, if it was scored and hewed only one stick could be obtained. Where the plates of a building are supported by studs between the posts, if they are five by eight inches square, they will be sufficiently strong for the roof of any ordinary building. As most kinds of timber, with the heart of the tree in the middle of the stick, is liable to check and crack open, often to its great injury, if a tree is slit through the middle for a couple of plates, they will not check. If there is a large seam in the middle of the tree, a plank or two may be sawed out of the middle, and the plates cut out of the soundest wood. 15. The Roofs of buildings are often made too fiat for profit. A fiat roof, whatever the materials are of which it is made, is far more liable to leak than a steep roof, and it will leak much sooner than if it were steeper; and the same roof will be serviceable full ten years longer if built with a half pitch, than it will if built with a quarter pitch.t A roof looks far better, and is more * A large church was recently taken down in this town, the sills of which were of the best of white oak, one foot square, and although the outside was as sound and tough as good spoke timber, about one-third of the middle of the sills was nothing but a mass of "dry rot." The rationale is, that the sills could not season only in part, because they were so large. t When a building is sixteen feet wide, and the ridge of the roof is four feet higher than_ the top of the plates, the roof is said to have a quarter, or onefourth pitch. When the ridge of the roof is eight feet higher than the top of the plates, and the building sixteen feet wide, it is said to have a half-pfitch. 35 TTHE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. durable, when it has about one-third pitch, than if it is built flatter. When a roof, covered with wooden shingles, has one-half pitch, the shingles may be completely worn out before that roof will leak. And another consideration of great importance is, in countries like this, where snow falls deep, the roofs of buildings should have not less than one-third pitch, because the steeper the roof is, the less liable a body of snow is to lodge on it; and a body of snow that would thrust the plates apart, or injure the roof, if it had but a fourth pitch, would not remain on a steep roof. When heated air from any of the rooms below the roof melts the snow on the roof in cold weather, the water thus formed will run down to the eaves, and freeze before it falls into the eaves-troughs; and if there is much snow on the roof, and the roof has less than one-third pitch, ice will contiuue to form at the eaves, until it becomes so thick that the water will flow back under the shingles, and fall down on the walls in the upper rooms. This is of very common occurrence in this region, and many costly walls in elegant dwellings have been seriously damaged in this way. 16. The remedy is, steeper roofs, with the eaves projecting beyond the sides of the building, not less than two feet, measuring horizontally. If the roof projects two feet or more, and is rather steep, there will not be as much water and ice; and should it freeze at the eaves, there will not be enough on the roof to cause the water to flow back under the shingles above the plates. 17. The beginner should be careful to see that when a house or any other building is framed, sonme means is devised to pre vent the middle of the building from spreading. Jobbers are not particular on this point, and many times the plates at the middle of the building will be thrust apart several inches, to the great injury of the building. Sometimes a scantling bolted from near the foot of one rafter to the other, called a collar, on each of the rafters, will be sufficient. In large buildings, if the roof is not supported by purline plates and posts, the foot of the rafters shoul be secured by means of a truss, or a tie and king-post and struts. Sometimes this may be most effectually prevented, as in a hay 36 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. barn, where a beam would be very much in the way, by fitting a brace, without mortises, and bolting one end of it to the middle post just below the plate, and the other end to the upper side of the beam which supports the floor. Braces in such places, when put in with tenon and mortise, almost always give way, and it is not safe to rely upon them. 18. When a roof is covered with wooden shingles, a litde care should be exercised in having the shingles three courses thickc. The distance which one course of shingles is laid above the other, is called laying to the weather. If shingles are laid six inches to the weather, and the greater part of them are a little less than eighteen inches in length, the shingles will not be of three thickness over the entire roof; but there will be many places at the butts of each course, where the top end of the under course does not extend far enough up the roof to receive the water as it falls from the butts of the outside course. A new roof often will leak because the shingles are laid more than onethird of their length to the weather; whereas, the courses should be laid a little less than one-third the length of the shortest shingles. OUT-BUILDINGS. 19. Many farmers seem to prefer a lot of small detached barns to one large one. But those who have ever had a cluster of small barns, and afterwards came in possession of one larger one, greatly prefer a large one to a lot of small ones. On the score of economy, one large barn that will contain as much as three or foui small ones, will cost nearly one half less to erect it; and a number of small ones are never as convenient as one large one. The young farmer, as a general rule, need have no apprehensions that he will erect a barn larger than is necessary, for the complaint almost always is a want of barn room. Barn room usually is all occupied; and in most instances it pays a good interest; but so much redundant house room as is too frequently met with, is a decided disadvantage to a farmer. A few years ag,o barn] were built with posts only twelve and fourteen feet in length; because it was so laborious and expensive pitching hay or grain 37 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. to the top of them. But now that we have very efficient horse elevators, out-buildings should be made much higher than they formerly were. It costs but a trifle more to frame a post twentyfour feet long than it costs to frame one fourteen feet long; and it requires no more rafters, and roof boards, and shingles, to cover a high building than a low one. The posts of a large barn may just as well be, and ought to be, twenty-four feet long, as to be shorter. If such posts are eight inches square no one need have any fears that they would ever prove too small; providing every one is well braced. Every additional brace gives additional stiffness to a building; and the young farmer should insist on having the foot of every post braced, where they will not be in the way, with as long braces as there is room for receiving; and each end should be well pinned. One brace at the foot of a post, is more effectual in rendering a high building stiff, than two braces at the top of it. The braces in a barn frame may face with the inside of the posts; and then they can cross the girts; and braces as long as can be received between the posts can be used without interfering with the girts or studs. 20. Jobbers will usually mutter and grumble when requested to put in long braces on the inside of posts; and will deny the importance of having long braces, and of having the ends of them well pinned. But these ideas have not been penned without knowing from experience how a building should be braced, in order to render it as stiff as possible with a given quality and form of materials. It is by no means the largest timbers that can be worked into a building, which impart the greatest strength and stiffness to the frame; but it is the manner in which the framing is performed. Every tenon, where it is possible, should pass entirely through a sill or post; and be well pinned with very tough pins. The girts-or girders-should never be placed more than four feet apart. If they are much farther apart, the outside boards, which are nailed to them, will not be as firm as they should be. The main beams should be not less than fourteen feet from the floor; so as to allow sufficient room for a load of hay or grain to pass under them. If such beams are eight by 38 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. ten inches square, and supported at proper distances with middle posts, they will be large enough for any barn. The beginner should, at the commencement of a job, give the foreman directions to let the ends of every beam into the posts not less than half an inch, so that the superincumbent pressure will not all rest on the tenons. 21. The sleepers or joists of the principal floor should be stiff enough to sustain any team and load without bending; and they never should be placed more than three feet apart from centre to centre, even when two inch plank is used for the floor. Two inch basswood plank, thoroughly seasoned, with the edges plowed with a half-inch plow, a half-inch deep, and a tongue neatly fitted, like Fig. 1, will make as neat a barn floor as any FIG. 1. W~~X~~~/~~7 ~'~~~~~~ OF UITrING IBARN-FLOOR PLANKI one can desire. Fig. 2 represents the best manner of uniting the FIG. 2. ! AN- O -, i ANN'E O N MAN-'NER OF MAKIN~G E-ND JOINTS TO FLOORING;. ends of plank or floor boards. In the absence of good plank, a double floor of inch boards will subserve a good purpose. In this case, a good coating of tar, or lime and tar, should be laid between them for the purpose of excluding wire-worms and all other insects, and for rendering the floor tight and firm. 22. When there are a number of different kinds of timber in the frame, such as soft and hard wood, the proprietor should see that the workmen have three or four different sizes of nails in their boxes. Every good joiner knows that it is not always practicable to drive ten or twelvepenny nails into seasoned, hard 2* 39 11 11 T HE YOUNG FARMERt'S MANUAL. w-ood. In nailing on siding or inch boards, if the timber is hard wood, nails of a smaller size should be used. Let a workman attempt to nail on a half-inch board with tenpenny nails driven into a stud of sugar maple, thoroughly seasoned; and after the nail has entered about one inch it will bend or break; and the siding will most assuredly be split. Let sixpenny nails be used for nailing into hard wood, and eights and tens-according to the thickness of the boards-when the studs, posts, or girders are of soft wood. 23. In order to keep the large beams from springing outwards or in either direction, two or three of the middle joists should be let in with a dove-tail. 24. Rafters should be firmly spiked-not pinned with wooden pins-to the plates; because wooden pins are very liable to shrink and become loose; and if the roof should project as far as it ought to in order to appear well, a violent gale of wind would lift the roof from the plates. But fortypenny nails will hold it in place. 25. Reference should be had, in erecting a large barn, to the most proper and economical disposition of the room. The joists, which extend from one large beam to another, should be loose, so that they can be removed until the mow is filled up to them, when they should be put in their places, and a few loose boards laid on them. Now the lower part of the mow may be threshed out; and then the upper part can be threshed, and the straw deposited in the lower part of the mow. Should miore room be needed, the horse fork may be used to pitch a lot of straw into the upper part of the mow. 26. Every good barn should have a basement story, and a water channel of tile should be laid around the entire foundation, as recommended for a cellar, paragraph 11, in order to render it as dry as possible; and the barnyard should be so constructed that no manure will be wasted. 27. Eaves-troughlis should conduct all surplus water into the tile, for the purpose of keeping them open. Basement and Cellar walls are often ruined by allowing the water to fall from the eaves and soak into the ground along the walls. 40 THE YOUNG FARMEIR'S MANUAL. 28. When a carriage-house, hay-barn and stable are erected under one roof, the posts may be eighteen or twenty feet high, just as well as ten or twelve feet to the roof. When the posts are short there is but little room for hay. It will cost but a few dollars more to erect a carriage-house with twenty-feet posts than with twelve-feet posts. 29. I have erected a carriage-house the past summer with eighteen-feet posts; and I regret they were not twenty feet long. The roof is one-third pitch, and on the top, at the middle of the ridge, is a hole five and a half feet square; and a square cupola, with a door five and a half feet square on one side of it, is erected over it, into which hay is pitched with a horse-fork. The highest pulley is attached in the top of the cupola. With such an arrangement the loft can be filled with hay to the peak with no inconvenience. 30. As tie beams are always very much in the way in a haybarn, in my carriage-house loft, braces, made of iron-wood poles six inches in diameter and seven feet long, were neatly fitted, without tenons, and bolted to the middle posts below the plats, and to the upper side of the middle beamn with iron bolts three-fourtlis of an inch in diameter, as represented by Fig. 3. Such braces keep the FIG. 3. I beam from sagging, aid the plates from spreading apart. SCARFING TIMBERS. / K!.... K... L-, ]fagEo OF BOLT-NG A nE BRACE T3 BEAM AND POST. 31. It is often very difficult to procure timber of a given length.l For sills and beams that are well sustained with middle posts or studs, they subserve about as good purpose if they are neatly scarfed together, and keyed, or well bolted. 32. There are several different modes of scarfing, or ('splicing,' timbers; but some are very in, efficient, while some others will render a stick almost as strong as 4 41 ---- I TIHE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. a whole stick. Fig. 4 represents the best and strongest manner FIG. 4. STRONGEST MANNER OF SCARFING POSTS AND BEAS. of scarfing timbers. This style requires more skill to make good joints than either of the other figures. This style is calculated more particularly for beams and posts. When timber is scarfed like Fig. 4, iron bolts should be put through both ways, and the feather-edged ends well nailed. When two timbers are scarfed like Fig. 5, if they are well pinned with wooden pins iron bolts FIG. 5. MANNER OF SCARFING SILLS. will not be necessary. The square hole in the middle of the scarf or splice should be laid out with about one-eighth of an inch draw; so that when a wooden key is driven firmly in, the pieces will be brought to a close joint. CAUSE OF DECAY OF THE TIMBERS OF A BUILDING. 33. If the timbers of a building should be kept dry, they would remain sound and serviceable during all tinme, even if they were not made of the most durable kinds of wood. When mortises for studs, or anything else, are made in the upper side of a sill, or any other part of the frame; or when there are large checks in the upper side of a stick, a hole should be bored in the side of the stick, so as to intersect the bottom of mortises or checks, for the purpose of affording a passage for any water to escape that might find its way into such cavities. I know it is argued tat when a house is erected it should be so well inclosed that no water can ever find its way into cavities in the timber. But i v 42 THE YOUNG FARMERS MANUAL. sometimes a driving storm will force the water through small cracks, so that it will be very difficult to determine from what source it comes. And may times, in cleaning house, some domestics will have every floor in the house completely deluged with water, which flows into mortises and checks, and soon causes decay. When my dwelling-house was erected, a hole was bored with a large bit in the side of the timber at the bottom of every mnortice, and other cavities in the frame. 34. As there are so many nianufactories throughout the country of window blinds, sash, and panel doors, the beginner will find it most economical usually to purchase such articles ready made; because all such things when made by machinery are neater and truer than the majority of mechanics will make them, even if they have ability to do it as well. Panel doors should be allowed to season nearly a year before they are pinned together, and then they will not shrink after they have been hung. VALUE OF BASSWOOD. 35. Whenever a man is located where pine lumber is scarce, and very costly, and other timber is abundant, such as basswood, whitewood, butternut, chestnut, and some other kinds of wood, they may be used instead- of pine. For inside panel doors, basswood, for both stiles and panels, is equally as good as pine. When I built my house I used basswood for many jamb casings, and for the face casings, and for outside doors as well as inside. Basswood is better to paint on than good pine; and will be as durable as pine if it is kept well painted. Some of the face casings in my parlor are basswood, some butternut, and some pine. They are painted white; and nearly every stick of pine can be selected, because the coloring matter in the pine has struck through the paint, notwithstanding it has been well painted four times. Basswood siding is now coming into very extensive use; and if I were to build a house, or any other building, and had good basswood on my own land, I would not hesitate to use it fg siding, doors, and all kinds of casings, and for floors. 36. Basswood Shingles.-In localities where pine and hemlock 43 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. are scarce, and basswood is abundant, the beginner need not hesitate to use basswood shingles, providing they are well coated with coal tar once in two or three years. They may be sawed, cut, or shaved. I have laid several thousands of sawed basswood shingles during the past season, and I have great confidence in them. It is necessary to use nearly twice as many nails in nailing them on as is necessary for pine and hemlock. If basswood shingles are from eight to ten inches wide, each shingle should be nailed with at least five nails; otherwise, when they become a little wet, they will expand, and the middles, or edges, will rise or "bulge up." If well nailed they will make a neat roof; and if kept well coated with tar, will be serviceable a hundred years. (See PAINTING ROOFS, next Vol.) WALLS A~D LATH. 37. When the sides of a room or that part overhead are lathed with lath of ordinary length, wherever the lath break joint for a foot or two, there will be a crack in the wall. In order to remedy this cracking of the walls, the strips of lath should extend entirely across the room. When a house is lathed in this manner, there will be no cracks in the plastering across the lath. 38. The lath for my house were all sawed with a two-horse railway power, with a circular saw one foot in diameter, out of basswood plank, which was about an inch and a quarter thick. The lath were sawed, about three-eighths of an inch thick, very true; and there is not a place in the entire house where the lath break joint; and, consequently, not a crack to be found across the lath. This is a very economical way to procure lath; and they are usually much better than those that are purchased. Have the logs sawed into plank an inch and one-fourth thick, as long as the width of the widest room; and let them be sawed up into lath before they are seasoned, as they will not saw so hard. Such work should be performed when the business of the farm does not demand attention. 39. Mortar.-No one can reasonably expect to have good walls unless they are made of the best of mortar; and good mortar 44 THE YOUNG FARMIER'S MANUAL. cannot be obtained, however good the materials may be of which it is made, unless it is most thoroughly worked over and over again for a number of successive months, before it is laid on the lath. It is a very laborious job to work over the mortar for a large house, when it is performed by hand labor. When lime and sand are mingled together, and in a few days laid on the lath, the plaster will shrink and the wall will be covered with cracks, and the plaster will soon crumble off. But if about two bushels of clean, sharp sand is mixed with one bushel of unslacked lime, and the mass is worked over once in two or three weeks for a few months, a wall that is made of it will appear like slate; and will not crack unless the building or some parts of it change their position, as is frequently the case by seasoning. In order to have good mortar, that may be spread like good butter, it must be mixed and worked over often enough to have the lime slack most thoroughly, and "to work the shrinkage out." If mortar should be worked over once in ten days for a year, it would be all the better for it, and would make a better wall. 40. To facilitate the labor of mixing mortar so frequently as is desirable, when my house was erected I constructed a rude FIG. 6. - MACHIN\E FOR MIXING MORTAR. machine for mixing it with horses, which subserved an excellent purpose, and which is represented by Fig. 6. It is a very cheap concern, and will pay for itself in one day. It consists of a post, a, about six inches in diameter, very firmly set in the ground, 45 ip 0 11.. il. B THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. not less than three feet deep, and about two feet high. Put an iron band on the top to keep it from splitting. An iron bar, b, (a small crowbar will answer,) passes loosely through the sweep, c, into the centre post, a. Next, lay a floor-water level-on the ground, and nail the side boards, which should be sixteen or twenty inches wide, to stakes driven into the ground. The side boards should be placed in an octagonal form, as shown in the figure, although if the sides were circular it would be preferable. The floor should be about fourteen or sixteen feet in the clear. The sweep, c, should be six inches square in the middle, twenty feet long, and the ends may be made smaller or not. The paddles, or legs, should be made of hard wood, two by four inches square, firmly inserted in the sweep, c, with a two inch tenon, about six inches apart, and so disposed that those on one side will not traverse in the tracks of those on the opposite side, but between them. - The form of the legs is shown at E. They are made similar to the wings of a wind wheel, with the two corners, which are in a diagonal direction from each other, dressed off smoothly, so that each knife-like leg will work the mortar towards the centre. They should be not less than three-fourths of an inch thick after they are dressed out. If they are too thin they will break in mixing stiff mortar. 41. Let the lime and sand be put in, and hitch a horse at each end of the sweep, and commence mixing as the water is poured in, until it is so soft that it will flow slowly, and the surface become level. Shovel the mortar from the corners into the middle every time it is worked out. When a large quantity of mortar is necessary, two or more places may be made, and the same sweep used for all of them. When the sun shines, the mortar should be covered with boards. Keep the surface of the mortar covered with water, when not working it; and if there should be too much water when it is to be worked over again, let it be dipped off. It should be worked over at least once in ten days, and should never be allowed "to set" or become so hard that it cannot be readily worked over with a trowel. It is better to have a horse at each end, because the strain will not be 46 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. as hard on the post in the centre, as it would be if the power is all applied at one end. Let the mortar be first mixed in the spring, and keep it well worked all summer; and if there is as much lime in it as there should be, it will spread like butter, and make walls as smooth and hard as stone. These directions were followed, to the letter, in mixing the mortar for my present dwelling-house; and some of it was worked over, once in ten or twelve days, for more than six months before it was used; and my masons affirmed that they had never before handled mortar that spread so neatly, and made such firm walls. 42. The hair should never be put in until a few days before the mortar is to be used, because the lime will destroy it. In separating the bunches of hair, some prefer to put it in a large tub, and allow it to soak for a few days, and then have it well stirred until there are no bunches; and some prefer laying it on a floor and whip it to pieces with an elastic whip. MOVING BUILDINGS. 43. Buildings are very frequently located very inconveniently, both in regard to each other and to the fields of the farm, and removing them to a more desirable location, and arranging them more conveniently, appears, to most men, almost as impracticable as removing a mountain. I have known instances in which the task of removing a certain building, or cluster of buildings, seemed to the proprietor such a vast and expensive undertaking, that he has been almost ready to offer four times as much to have the job well performed, as the actual cost would be. When outbuildings are scattered here and there, if they are not erected on a substantial wall, the arrangement would suit the fancy of most men to have them conveniently arranged in a cluster, on substantial foundations. 44. The machinery for moving buildings has become so well perfected at the present day, that it costs comparatively but a few dollars to load a large building, and haul it fifty or a hundred rods, up hill or down, without injuring it in the least. If the sills aie sound, a building can be loaded in a few hours; and if the 47 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. ground is firm and smooth, it can be hauled along with all desirable rapidity. When a building is so long that it would sag down in the middle when loaded, it can be cut in two, and the parts moved separately and placed together on the foundation. Many times when a building was not erected in one part, but in two or three united together, by putting timbers under the sills, and by balancing it correctly when loading it on the trucks, it may be removed with ease and safety. 45. Proprietors of moving machines usually ask from four to six dollars per day for the machine, and one hand to work it. But they often work by the job; and if the owner of a movingmachine is a faithful laborer, and a man of honest principles, it will always be the cheapest to employ him by the day. When a man has buildings to move, and he is not at all posted with regard to the time and expense of moving a certain building, unprincipled fellows will often ask four times as much as would be a fair and honest price for a given job. 46. I once built a good machine for moving buildings, and worked it a few years very successfully; and with four good hands and one horse, could load a large barn and move it eight or ten rods in one day. But small buildings can be moved with much greater facility. When a man has buildings of any kind to move, he should do it when the ground is dry and hard, as it costs nearly twice as much to move them when the ground is soft. If there is any manure around a building, it should all be removed; and the ground over which the building is to be moved, should be levelled. One or two day's work in preparing the way and clearing up the rubbish, will often save a man ten dollars in moving one building. I have known some farmers to move their barns when all the manure which they had made in two years remained about them, which always proved a great obstruction in moving the buildings, and cost three times more than it would have cost had the manure been first removed. 47. The art of moving buildings of all kinds has been soper fected, that in most of our large cities there are those who possess sufficient skill and machinery to move with safety, not only the 48 THE YOUNG FA-PMiER'S MANUAL. heaviest wooden buildings, but tlhise that are built of brick, and which are computed to weigh three Iaundred tonbs. MANNER OF FRAMING THIE MIDDLE BENTS OF A LARGE BARN. 48. The importance of having large buildings framed in such a manner that the sides will not be thrust laterally by the rafters, has already been alluded to in par. 17. Fig. 7 represents a style of framing t h e m i d d 1 e bents, which is very convenient and efficient; and I have never seen it laid down in any treatise on architecture. As purline beams are many times very much in the way, they may be dispensed FIG. 7. very muc in the w-ay, 1~w.AER OF FR.A3I-NG THE MIDDLE BETS OF A LARGE BARN. they may be dispensed with entirely. The girts which connect the tops of the middle post to the purline posts, should be of strong timber; and the tenons should extend through each post; and one edge of the tenons be fitted to a dove-tail mortise, and keyed tight instead of being pinned. The braces a a, at the foot of the purline posts, should be nearly as large as the purline posts; and should face on the opposite sides from the girts. Should the purline posts be not less than twelve feet long, a beam might be framed in; and there would be sufficient room to pitch with a horse pitch-fork, both under and over the purline beam. If the doors are so arranged that teams are driven length ways of the barn or across it, the framing will be nearly the same in both cases. Very large buildings may be framed in this manner; and if the work is well performed the sides will not spread one-fourth 49 -X.. !\\\\ Z/ I I \\\ Z/' I THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. all be shovelled on the second floor; and the best corn thrown into the cribs from above. The most convenient way to get the corn out of the cribs is, to have a little door at the bottom of the cribs, on the inside, when the ears will come out as fast as they are shovelled away; and not more than two or three bushels will come out at one time. In dry weather, let the doors be kept open for the purpose of drying the corn. The frame may stand on a smoothly-built stone wall, or on stone pillars, or on pillars built of brick, or on wooden posts, covered with tin or zinc, to prevent the rats and mice climbing up the posts. Rats will jump sometimes three feet high; and if there is nothing but stone, or zinc, or tin, for them to ascend upon, they will not be able to enter a building. A,Vhen an abutment is made at either or both of the doors, it should be at least four feet from the building; and a plank bridge, hung on hinges on one side, and the other side kept turned up against the building by a weight attached to one end of a rope, which passes over a pulley, and the other end attached to the bridge. The lower end of a flight of stairs may be kept up in the same manner. BALLOON FRAMES. 50. In localities where hewn timber is scarce, every expedient must be resorted to in erecting buildings, in order to save unnecessary expense. Necessity and economy are the ostensible authors of the well-tested principle (which is no longer looked upon as an experiment which will most certainly fail) which has been for a score or more of years, successfully applied in erecting buildings of every description, which have received the sarcastic and technical appellation of "balloon frames." They are erected without a stick of frame timber, or posts, or beams; without mortises, or tenons, or braces; and if erected in a workmanlike manner, the' most incredulous need not hesitate to adopt this mode of building a most elegant house; for they will stand as firmlv in a violent tornado as any framed building; and could be 51 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. moved from one place to another, or turned up on one side, without any more danger of injuring them than there would be if they were framed. I am aware that those-even good mechanics-who have always been accustomed to nothing but heavy frame timber, will scout at such a building, and, without any hesitancy, prognosticate that it would go to the winds before it could be half finished. But any good engineer who is at all acquainted with the strength of materials-if he has never before heard of such a mode of building, will unhesitatingly pronounce it a most complete triumph over the costly manner of building with heavy frame-timber; and that such buildings may be safely "taken up by the hair," and tumbled about like a huge box. 51. Such buildings require just as much siding, and lath, and roofing materials, and joists, and it will cost just as much to inclose them, and finish them off; but any mechanic who can make a window frame and hang a door, and nail two pieces of timber together at right angles, can erect such a building without the assistance of a boss. 52. The lumber for a balloon frame may be sawed of any desired dimensions; but for an ordinary building, the studs should never be less than four inches wide; and the joists should be not less than eight inches wide if sixteen feet long; and for twelve-feet joists seven inches wide is sufficient; and for rooms eight feet wide joists six inches wide will be sufficiently wide. The foundation must be as permanent and substantial as for a brick building. Now, lay a joist on the foundation walls on every side for the sills, and halve the corners together, and nail them well. Joists two inches by eight will be sufficiently large, although there can be no objection to using sills of timber or larger joists. Now, if the rooms are to be nine feet between joints, and the upper and lower joists eight inches wide, and the building is to be two stories or more high, make a pattern for the studs of a half-inch board, just ten feet and four inches long, with a gain cut in it, just at the under side of the upper joists, an inch deep and four inches wide. If the building is t be covered with vertical siding, gains must be cut in the outside of 52 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. the studs an inch deep and four inches wide. Fig. 9 represents a stud pattern with two gains in the outside and FIGro. 9. one in the inside of it. Now, mark off all the studs like the pattern, marking the ends with a right angle or square mark. Now, with a horse saw saw off the ends square, and saw the gains, l and split out the blocks, and saw the joists of a given length. Now, take two studs and two joists-one joist for the lower floor and one for i"1the upper floor-and nail the studs and joists together at right angles. Now, raise it as a bent of a framed building is raised. Plumb it and li "stale-aft " it, so that it will keep in a perpendicu- i lar position. One man and a boy is all that is needed. Now, nail two more joists and two I studs together, and set them up about one foot apart in the clear. See that the studs stand plumb both ways, before they are nailed; and be t careful to have the edges of the joists exactly, even with the ends of the studs, and the upper end of the inside gains even with the under edge s ArRFOR ZD) A STUD PASTERN ]OR of the joists over head. After the studs and BALLOON HOUSES. joists have been set up, fit ribs in the gains on the outside for the purpose of nailing the siding to, and on the inside for sustaining the joists of the upper floor. The ends of the lower joists will rest on the top of the foundation sticks, into which nails should be driven diagonally through the corners of both studs and joists. If a building is to be but one story and a half high, the studs may extend to the roof, and the joists be nailed to the sides of them, as before. Now, nail a joist on the top ends of the studs for a plate, and put up the rafters, being careful to have the rafters rest directly over the studs. If a two-story house is to be erected, erect one story as already recommended, having the upper ends of the studs even with the top of the joists. Nail a piece as wide as the studs on the tops of them, and erect another story, nailing the lower ends of the studs into the strips 53 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. on which they stand. On each side of the doors and windows FIG. 10. studs four inches wide should be used. If a building is erected with an attic story, collar joists should be nailed to the rafters \\ ~ ~ near the lower ends, to keep the building from spreading. If the studs should not extend more than one or two feet above the attic floor, collars on the rafters will not be necessary. The raft Joist ers should be notched on the plate, $ ~JOI~ST Pand should extend beyond the side of the building; and the lower ft> ~ ends may be planed and painted; C< ~ and the under side of the roof boards planed and painted; or the rafters may be ceiled on the under side of them; or finished with a plain projection or cor A CHEAP COR.ICE FOR A BALOO HOUSE. nice, as shown by Fig. 10, which will require less than half the amount of lumber and labor; and in the eyes of many people, present a more desirable appearance as a cheap cornice. 53. Some builders line or ceil such buildings on the inside with rough, second or third quality of lumber; and then lath and plaster, which gives a building additional strength, but it is by no means necessary Where vertical siding is used, some ceil or line the outside of the studs. Some place the studs just twelve inches apart, and fill between them with brick laid in lime and mortar. But when good clay can be obtained, it will subserve about as good purpose as lime mortar. Some tenon the ends of the studs, and mortise the sills and plates; but it is useless, as they will never move if well nailed. If the timber is hard wood, holes, just large enough for the nail to drive in tight, ar4 not split either studs or joists, should be bored for the nails through 54 rHE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. one stick only. Use nails just long enough to extend through the studs and joists, and drive in twice the number of small nails that would be necessary of large nails, which would protrude through two inches. 54. When a balloon frame is not built on a substantial wall, the superstructure should be erected on sills eight inches thick. No young farmer need hesitate to build after this style; for there are more than thirty thousand of such buildings in the Western countries; and they give most complete satisfaction. Almost any kind of timber may be used for studs and joists; and if a man is possessed of but a small amount of mechanical skill, he can get his frame timber all sawed in the winter, and dress out the siding, &c., when he cannot labor on the farm, and if he is a good economist, his house or building will not cost three times more than it ought to cost for the labor alone. 55. When such a house is erected by the job, the young farmer should not neglect to see that not less than five good nails are driven in at the junction of each joist and stud; and that every other part of the frame is well nailed. HOW TO INCREASE THE HEIGHT OF ROOMS WHEN THEY ARE TOO LOW. 56. It is frequently very desirable to make the rooms, both below and above, one foot or more higher between the joints than it was originally made. When the attic story is to be made higher, if the roof is a poor one, it would be the best and cheapest operation to take it to pieces and raise the sides to the desired height; and then erect the roof as when a new house is built. But when a roof is a good one, and it is desirable to raise it any number of feet, let collar pieces be spiked to the rafters to keep them from spreading, and then raise it bodily with screws, with or without the plates, to the desired height. If the rafters are spiked very tightly to the plates, it will be better to raise the plates with the roof, and then put another set of plates in the place of the first ones. 57. I once performed a job in less than one day, by the as 3 55 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. sistance of two men, of increasing the height of all the lower rooms of a two-story house. The lower rooms were eight and a half feet between joints, and it was desirable to make them ten feet high. Four screws were paced under the side sills of the house, two of them a few feet from one end, and two others about the middle of the building. One end of the house was elevated about twenty inches, when it was sustained on shores, placed under the beams, and girts. The sills and floor were then lowered with the screws to their original position, when the ends of the post and studs at one end of the building were all scarfed, or "spliced," and the sills were then raised again with the screws, and the-shores were taken out, and the building was then lowered on the foundation. Then the two end screws were paced near the other end, and that end was elevated and sustained on shores, and the floor lowered, and the remainder of the posts and studs were scarfed, and the shores were then removed, and the house lowered to its original position. 58. Barns and outbuildings which are too low, may be raised, in a short period of time, ten or more feet higher; and the posts scarfed at an expense of a few dollars. If the spaces below the main beams of a barn are about right, let the roof only be raised; but if the arrangement of the timbers is about as one desires, above, and not below the beams, raise the superstructure and scarf the posts, or put a part of a new frame beneath the old one. (See PAINTING BUILDINGS in the next vol.) 56 CHAPTER II. FENCING. "SwnBT from the rural shades, 0 Muses, bring Your wonted aid, while of the Fence we sing I And let the fence our fathers built of rails, With stakes and posts and boards, or logs or pales, Close up the long-neglected gaps."-LNGERSOLL. 59. IF there is any one thing more than another which is a source of constant anxiety and unremitting care to the farmer, it is the erection of suitable fences for enclosing his own grounds for the purpose of excluding lawless intruders, or keeping his own animals within proper bounds. Wherever a farm may be located, or whatever may be its productions, fence, fence, fence, is the first, the intermediate, and the last consideration in the whole routine of the operations of the farm. Erecting new fences and repairing old ones, and laying up a rail here, and fastening a loose board there, is something that demands the vigilance of the farmer, from the commencement to the close of the year. If there is a day, or a number of days, when the laborers of the farm have arrived at a point when they do not seem to know what to do to advantage and profit, they can almost always find something connected with the enclosures of the farm, the performance of which will be a work of some profit and economy, and sometimes of very great convenience. In the winter and spring, in summer and in autumn, on stormy days and leisure days, and parts of days, if all the plans of the farm are wisely laid, something may be done at fences or gates, or bar-posts or bars. But few farmers have any proper idea of the expense attending the fencing of a (57) THIE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. farm of one or two hundred acres, when performed in an efficient and workmanlike manner; and could they see at a glance, in dollars and cents, the amount expended in their fences, they would be disappointed beyond measure. As a general rule, so changeable and perishable are the materials of which fences are built, that the expense of keeping them in good repair, from year to year, consumes a much greater amount of the income of the farm than we feel willing to appropriate for that purpose. But fences must be erected at all events, and any thing that will reflect light on the subject of fencing the farms of America, in the most systematic and permanent manner, will be welcomed by every one who is experimentally acquainted with the enormous expenses which attend enclosing the fields of a farm, before it would be prudent to commence the cultivation of the soil. 60. Fencing is a branch of labor, in the operation of the farm, which requires the exercise of a good deal of wisdom and judg ment in selecting, preparing, arranging, and disposing of the materials which are to be made use of in building fences in the most economical, workmanlike, substantial and durable manner; and as economy, durability and substantialness are the most im portant considerations, as a general rule, in building a fence of any kind, and as there is a variety of materials to be worked up into fences, the preparation of materials demands our first atten tion. It cannot be denied that there is a vast destitution of eco nomy, not only in preparing the materials for fencing, but in working up those materials. The very best of materials, when improperly prepared, fail to make an economical and substantial fence; and, also, the best of fencing materials, when unskillfully arranged and worked up, make a fence far inferior, in almost every respect, to a fence made of materials of a very inferior quality, which has been well made. As economy in preparing timber for fencing is an object of the first importance, when the materials are of wood, we shall speak of the best and most suita ble time for cutting timber, in order to secure its greatest dura bility, when it is to be split into rails, as well as when it is to be split into posts and stakes. 58 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANEUAL. THE BEST TIME TO CUT TIMBER. WHZN autumn comes, and leaves are dry, And rustle on the ground, And chilling winds go whistling by, With moaning, pensive sound, Cut timber then for posts, and beams, and rails, For tongues, and thills, for whippletrees and stales." 61. Late autumn is the best time for felling timber for almost any purpose; and it is particularly so when timber is to be worked up into rails, or stakes, or posts for fencing. At that season of the year, the new wood has arrived at its most complete maturity, and there is less sap and albumen in timber then than there is at any other season of the year, which albumen, when exposed to the influence of the weather, hastens the decay of timber. If timber be cut and split out in the latter part of autumn the seasoning process is much more gradual and perfect, because the grain of the timber contracts more equally and uniformly, rendering the timber firmer and less porous, and less cracked and checked than when it is cut at many other seasons of the year. Besides this, timber that is cut in late autumn and split out or sawed out before spring, will not "powder post," nor be injured by the worms working in it, nor be injured by the dry rot, as is the case with timber many times, which has been cut at some other season of the year. Fence posts and stakes particularly, no matter what the kind of timber may be, when felled and split out in late autumn, will outlast other posts and stakes of the same kind of timber which may be cut at a different season of the year, by several years, according to the time when it may be cut. Reason teaches us that this is so, and the experience of the most successful experiments in timber furnish the most indubitable testimony to substantiate this fact. 62. The treatment which timber receives immediately after it has been felled, effects its durability, and also its firmness and tenacity, to a much greater degree than many are wont to suppose. For this reason many farmers in experimenting on the durability of timber, have failed, almost entirely, to allow this consideration 59 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. to have any influence at all. If timber which is intended for rails, stakes and posts be felled in late autumn, and allowed to remain in the log for six or eight months, or half that length of time, with some kinds of timber, its durability will be more or less affected, according to the kind of timber; and no aftertreatment will make it as durable as it would have been, had it been split out immediately and placed in a favorable situation for seasoning. Timber for posts or stakes ought always to be split out and seasoned nearly or quite one year before they are set in the ground. A post or stake which is set in the ground when it is green, will not last half as many years, as a general rule, as it would have lasted if it had been seasoned well before it is set in the ground. The first thing, after timber has been felled, is to split it out into rails, posts and stakes; therefore, as a very important branch of fencing, we shall treat of SPLITTING RAILS, STAKES AND POSTS. 63. It requires the exercise of a little good skill to split timber economically into rails, stakes or posts. Any one who can handle a beetle and wedge, can split fire-wood, for it matters little how that is split; but if a man does not know how to split timber straight, he will be very liable, and, indeed, very likely to spoil a vast deal )f timber when splitting up a tree. The truth is, if he does not know how to stick the wedges, and where to stick them, he will be very apt to make bad work, even in the best of timber, for splitting well. When we split fire wood, we cleave it the best way that we can, and if it slivers to pieces, so much the better. But there is a regular rule for splitting rails, stakes, posts, wagon spokes, staves, and every thing else, and if one does not observe this rule, he will, most assuredly, spoil much timber. If in splitting any thing for fences, some pieces have huge ends at one end, and are run out to a mere splinter at the other end; or if they are not all of about a uniform size, if the operator does not understand his business, and if he makes many short pieces, it would be the wisest policy to employ some one else who will not waste so much timber. 60 THE YOUNG FARMERrS MANUAL. 64. In splitting timber for anything, it is best to set the wedges always at the smallest or top end of a log, should there be any difference in the ends. If there are no large checks across the end of a log, take the axe in one hand, and the beetle in the other, and make a crack entirely across the end of the log, so as to split it into two equal parts. If there is a large crack a part of the way across the end, drive in the axe a little with the beetle, so as to make a crack entirely across the end. Generally speaking, timber splits the best and wastes the least, by setting the wedges in an old crack or seam. But sometimes a log will separate much the easiest directly across the old check. Now, set two iron wedges in the end of the log, and drive them both together, and when the end is opened sufficiently, drive in gluts; if the wedges have been set in the middle of the end, the log will sepa rate usually in the middle. Should it vary a little from following the middle of the log, it is better to let it go where it will than to undertake to open it at the other end, so as to meet the operation, which is attended with doubt and difficulty. Sometimes it is almost impossible to split a log through the heart. This is the case many times with black ash, and elm, and buttonwood. Logs many times have a seam entirely around the heart. When this is the case, it will require a vast deal of unnecessary pounding to split it through the heart. Such logs can be worked up far more easily and economically by slabbing them, following the old seams; and many times when a log has a very tough heart, even if there be no checks nor seams, it is best to split them by slabbing off about one-third of the log at once; this will leave, in a log thirty inches in diameter, a heart piece about ten inches square. If, now, the timber be very tough and stringy, this may be worked up by slabbing it. In splitting ordinary timber, the builder must keep in mind that a round stick or a square stick cannot, very well, be split into three equal parts; because, if we attempt to split off one-third of it at a time, the smaller part is very apt to run out before the split reaches the other end. Therefore, if a square stick be about large enough for three rails, it is best to split it through the centre, and then split the two halves of it in 61 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. the centre again, even if the rails should be a little too small, than to undertake to split it into three equal parts; or if such a stick, when split into four rails, would make them too small, it would be best to make but two of it, even if they were a little larger than we could desire. We cannot always have every rail, stake or post exactly of the size we may wish, but the aim should always be, in splitting rails, to have the smallest rails equal to a stick two and a half inches square, and increasing in size, so that the largest rails will be equal to a stick four inches square. This is a very good rule to split by, but if thought to be exceptionable, it is very easy to split in two those rails which A says are of the right size, and which B thinks are too large for one rail, and just right for two. A rail about three inches square, or equivalent to that size, will be pronounced by the great majority of farmers to be a more desirable size, so far as economy and convenience are concerned, than a rail of any other size. When a man has a saw-mill of his own, and timber does not split very well, it might be good policy to saw out his rails, making them about three inches square;-but the same timber would build twice as much fence if it were sawed into boards. 65. Sometimes rails are split out of poles, which will make from two to eight rails each; and it often occurs that a pole would make about three good rails, and if split into four they would be too small, and if split into two rails they would be rather large. As it is very difficult, and usually impracticable, to split a pole into three, or five, or seven equal parts, on account of their liability to run out in splitting, if a pole be too small for four rails, it is best to make but two of it, even if they should be rather large. When a pole is about the right size for six rails, the best way is to split the pole into quarters, as nearly as we can, and many times one of the quarters will be large enough for two rails. The idea should be always kept in mind, that the rule which is observed in riving staves, wagon-spokes, and such like, is, to split a stick through the middle, and then take a smaller piece and split that through the middle, and so on until every piece or bolt is reduced to its desirable size. When a log or rail cut will make about 62 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. eight good rails, the true way is to quarter it first, and then split those quarters in two. If we attempt to split off of one side one rail, in most timber it would be sure to run out before it would split half the length of the log. The following cuts will furnish the learner with a more correct idea how a large log is to be split into rails, stakes, or posts. In the first place, split the log intc quarters, if practicable, whether it is to be split into rails, stakes, or posts. Fig. 11 represents one of those quarters split into rails. After a log has been split into quarters, split FIG. 11. the quarter in two again, as nearly in the middle as may be. If the workman cannot stick his wedge within half an inch of the centre of a quarter of a log at sight, he had A better measure the distance. Now split these pieces, first in the direction a a a, then split off the heart rail b b, then split c c, and we a have three rails. Split the other heart piece, QUART OF LaG M NO like the first, into three rails; split the sap RAI. pieces at d, and split each piece at e e. Sometimes it is better to set the wedge in the middle of a stick, half-way from each end, then to set it at the end, when splitting a piece that will make two rails, as at c c, for example. When a wedge is set half-way from each end, in the middle of the stick, if the crack does not run in the middle, each way from the wedge, sometimes a blow or two with an axe will start it, so as to make it split in the middle; and sometimes it is necessary to set another wedge half-way between the middle and the end. A little practice will enable the builder, if he has a little good skill, to split timber very accurately, without spoiling but few pieces. The same rules are observed in splitting stakes as in splitting rails; only it is necessary, first, in splitting a quarter, to make a little estimate how many pieces a quarter or an eighth of a log will make. In splitting fence posts it frequently occurs that a piece is too large for one post, and too small for two posts. In such a case, if a stake cannot be split off without its running out, it is best not to attempt to split it again, lest both pieces be spoiled. 3* 63 6THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 66. In splitting bar-posts, or any pieces that are required to be thin and wide, first split the log in two, and if it is a large one quarter it. Make calculations how many posts a quarter will make, splitting from the heart to the bark. If a quarter will make four, split it in the centre, and these pieces again in the centre. If they are wider than necessary, take off a stake from the heart side, as at Fig. 12. If half a log will make about six posts, it is not best to quarter it first, because FIG. 12. each piece then would contain timber enough for three posts each, and there would be danger of spoiling a post in attempting to split only one post from a stick which is large enough for three; therefore, divide the half log into three equal parts, and first split off a piece large enough for two posts, and then MANNER OF SPTG BARsplit the pieces in two in the middle. The POSS. workman would do well, after opening the end a little, to set a wedge or two in the side of the stick, to prevent its running out, and drive all the wedges at once, or drive that wedge the most which seems to split the truest and straightest. When tim ber is not inclined to split exactly straight, by tracing it with the axe and beetle the whole length of the stick it can be made to split tolerably straight. In splitting a log eight or ten inches in diameter into bar-posts, or any other wide posts, make an esti mate how many a log will make; if it will make four, split it through the centre, and then, by tracing or starting it a little with FIG. 13. MANNER OF SPILIMNG A LOG LINTO FOUR POSTS. the axe and beetle on the side, the two halves may be split in two again the wide way, as represented by Fig. 13. Fig. 14 64 THE YOUNG FARMER7S IMANUAL. shows how a log may be split into three bar-posts by tracing on the sides as the wedges are driven in the end. We first take off a slab, and if the timber does not split rather freely it is very lia FiG. 14. MA,1ER OF SPLIXTiG A LOG INTO THREE BAR-POSTS. ble to run out and spoil a post. It is very impracticable to give a perfect idea on paper of splitting timber correctly. THE LENGTH OF RAILS AND STAKES. 67. The most common length for rails is twelve feet, although many farmers make them ten, eleven, and even fourteen feet in length; but when we consult convenience and economy in split. ting and handling, as a general rule twelve feet for rails is the best length. If timber should split very freely, there is no objection f cutting them fourteen feet long; on the contrary, if timber should not split well it might be a matter of good economy to cut them ten or eleven feet long; but there ought to be a uniform length for rails on every farm, because when rails are of different lengths there will be more or less disadvantage in making them ilito a fence. Large logs should be sawed in two, just twelve feet long, and smaller logs may be cut with an axe; and as every rail cut should be measured with a pole just twelve feet long, each cut should be measured from the middle of the chip, or axecut, and the top end of each cut should be left square; this will make the heart rails a little longer than the outside rails. But in l-lying the foundation for a fence, if there should be a little variation ill the length of rails, it should be remembered to select first the sap rails, and if the heart rails project a little more than is necessary at the joints, it will do no harm. 68. The length of stakes should always be regulated by the 65 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. height of the fence. They are usually cut from seven to nine feet in length; but whatever length may be adopted, it should be kept in mind that stakes should be cut long enough to admit of being set the second time, after the end which has been set in the ground has rotted off. The part of stakes out of the ground will usually last twice as long as the part in the ground, no matter what the timber may be. Therefore, if stakes be cut just long enough to be set but once, after one end is decayed, so that they need re-setting, they are worthless; but by cutting them long enough to be set again after a foot or so has rotted, it is much more economical than to make new stakes as often as the ends rot or decay enough to render them too short for the fence. 69. Some farmers deem it a matter of economy to cut their fence posts, and particularly bar-posts, long enough to admit of the other end being set in the ground after one end has decayed. But there are very plausible objections to this practice. Fence posts which extend from two to three feet above the fence present an unsightly appearance, and, besides, the longer the post is the more liable it is to deviate from standing erect. Bar-posts whick extend three feet higher than they ought to are a nuisance, because they are always in the way, especially when one is passing with a load of hay or grain. PEELING RAILS AND STAKES. 70. This should always be done when they are split out, so that they may season the better. It requires but a little time to peel them when splitting them, and as rails and stakes are often split by the job, at so much per hundred, a man will usually split them, peel them, and stick them up, for a few cents more per hundred than he will ask for simply splitting them, providing one insists on it when negotiating about splitting. When timber is cut in the fall, it is true, it does not peel as well as when cut in the summer, but as a general rule it will peel tolerably well after it is split out, even when cut in autumn. When the bark is thick and heavy it will peel about as well from small pieces, lilke rails and stakes, as it will when the timber is cut in the summer. But 66 THE YOUNG FARMERS MANUAL. the bark should be taken off at some rate; and when it adheres so tightly that it is necessary to cut it off, it may be cut off at each end about a foot or so and laid in the fence, with the bark downwards, and during the summer it will usually become so loose as to drop off itself; but if it is not held in the joints of the fence, it may be stripped off very readily after one end is loosened a little, and if the rail be laid with the bark down it will become loose by the drying of the rail. When rails are made of timber having a very thin bark, like iron-wood, for example, the most expeditious way of peeling them is to lay the rail to be peeled on a couple of benches, and then with a drawing-knife shave off the bark while the workman is sitting on it. When small poles are used for rails, if they are not peeled entirely a strip of bark should be taken off on two sides opposite to each other, and one of the peeled sides laid upward in the fence; by this means the bark will become loose during the season, and many times drop off itself. Rails, stakes, posts, and timber of every other description, will be very much more durable if peeled, unless it is buried in the ground. When a stick is two feet or more under ground, it will last much longer if the bark be left on; but if the bark be left on a fence post, the part of it two feet below the surface will be more durable with the bark on than if it were off. But that same post will rot off at the surface of the ground many years sooner if the bark was left on than if it was peeled before it was set. Bark preserves timber when it is alive, but after it has been cut down it hastens its decay, when it is exposed to the influences of the weather, wet and dry. When the bark is not taken off, worms damage rails and posts of many kinds of timber. Allowing rails to soak in a pond of water for a few days will generally loosen the bark so that it may be peeled off very quickly. DISTRIBUTING RAILS FOR FENCE. 71. It is a very common thing for many farmers, in hauling rails and stakes where a fence is to be made, to distribute them, as to number, entirely at random, without any calculation at a* how many will be needed for a fence of a given number of rails 67 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. high, and therefore in some places twice as many rails are unloaded as are necessary, while in other places there are not half enough. Sometimes there may be just enough to build the fence, but they have been distributed so unevenly that many of them must be carried too far. When a man is obliged to go twenty or thirty feet for every rail, it will take him twice as long to lay up a fence as it would were the rails left within a few feet of the place where they will be needed. It is a very easy matter to distribute rails for a fence so that there will be just enough to build it, and it argues a little stupidity and want of calculation to see one distribute rails in such a manner that after the fence is finished there are several loads to haul away. That is all lost labor; and it will consume several hours to haul and unload, and reload and haul away, two or three loads of rails. 72. In distributing rails for a fence, in the first place set a few stakes where the fence is to be built. Now calculate how many panels there will be in five or six rods. We will say there are thirty paces in six rods. If the foundation is not laid, the rails may be laid for thirty paces or so, in a straight line, or zigzag, like a worm fence, and then, by counting the number of panels in thirty paces, and by multiplying the number of panels by the number of rails in one panel, we shall know how many rails are wanted in a distance of thirty paces. Now, let the number of rails required in thirty paces be distributed close to the place where the fence is to be made, and put them in small piles, with not more than ten in a pile, so that they will be near at hand, and be well spread out, so that small rails can be selected, if necessary, without tumbling over half a load. Never leave them with nearly a load in a- pile, nor in the place where the fence is to be built, lest they have to be removed; nor a rod or two distant, for fear they may be in the way. Now pace off thirty paces more-it can be done in less than one minute-and drop as many more rails, and in the same order, and proceed in this manner until a job is finished. When the foundation, or the first rail is laid, it is a very easy matter to make calculations for hauling j~t enough to make a fence. 68 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 73. Rails of one kind of timber should always be left together, and rails of another kind of timber, unless they are equally durable, should be kept by themselves, because, when oak and basswood are laid together, the basswood will decay long before the oak, and the result will be, the entire fence must be repaired; whereas, if the oak had been kept together, and the basswood together, no part would need repairing but the basswood. For the same reason, new rails should always be kept together, when repairing fence; and take old ones to supply the place of those which have decayed. When one is hauling rails which are to be laid in a fence immediately, it is much quicker to take the rails from the wagon and lay them in the fence, than to throw them on the ground and then pick them up again and lay them in the fence. 74. When the stakes are to be hauled let them be placed near each joint of the fence, with one on each side of it; because it will save the time of picking them up. When the foundation is not laid, if we know how many panels there will be in a given distance, it is easy to calculate that two stakes will be required for each panel, whether the fence is to be zigzag or straight. FENCE BLOCKS. 75. These are a very important item in building fence. It is very poor policy to place rails on the ground or on perishable materials which will soon let the fence down to the ground. Bowlders, from ten to twenty-five inches in diameter, make the best blocks. When one is a little too large, let a hole be dug a foot or so deep, and roll it in. When one is a little too small, put it on the top of a fiat stone. A small pile of small bowlders, or little stones of any kind, will make a very good block for a corner to rest on. When wood is used for blocks, always place the bark side down, if possible, because they will last many years longer than if the bark side is up. When a round stick is used for a block, let it be peeled, if practicable; but, if not, cut off a strip of bark; three or four inches wide, on one side, and 69 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. lay that side up, and then, as it seasons, the bark will usually become loose, but if the bark be left on the top of blocks it will always hasten their decay. Sometimes a couple of good pieces of broken rails will make a very good fence block. Flat stones, a foot square, or more, laid on the top of a little mound of earth, or on the top of two or three sods, will make capital fence blocks. When one has a plenty of small stone, it is good policy to make a ridge of stone, a foot or so high, and lay the fence on the top of it. This will answer both for a straight fence and for a zigzag fence. Where no stone can be found, and wooden blocks are scarce, make a fence block with square sods, and lay on a piece of board, or slab, or two or three short pieces of old rails. Let the fence be kept well up from the ground, at all events. When a foundation corner is made of earth, or sods, the sides should be covered with sods, to prevent them from washing away in heavy showers. MAKING A ZIGZAG, OR WORM FENCE. V6. In making a zigzag fence of rails, there are two modes of laying the bottom rail, by stakes, which I shall lay down, in order to have the fence straight. And when a fence is to remain for a number of years, or is to be a permanent fence, it ought always to be straight; but in making a temporary fence, if a man is mechanic enough to give the fence the necessary worm, he may lay the bottom rail by guess. But the beginner had better have some stakes to guide him; because, if he does not, he will be sure to give some parts of it much more worm or crook than is necessary, and give other parts so little worm that it will barely stand alone. When a fence has too much worm, or crook, it is a good fault; it will stand more firmly,-but it requires more rails. But when it has but little worm, it requires less rails; and the first driving storm may throw it from its foundation, and prostrate it. 77. The first step, then, will be, to set a number of small, tin stakes, six or seven feet high, in a line, where the middle of the 70 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. fence is to be made. Now make a fence rule, Fig. 15, which consists FIG.15 of a stick, either round or square, about seven feet in length, as large as a fork handle, and pointed at the lower end. If the ground be stony and hard, the lower end ought to be fitted to an iron socket, pointed. Bore several half-inch holes through it, for the rod R, which should be made of a very tough piece of wood, about as large and elastic as a good whip-stalk. This rod should be about three feet long; and then it may be graduated, by making a mark for two feet, and for two feet three inches, six, and nine inches. This rod should be merely pressed into a hole, a without fastening it, so that when laying a foun dation on very high or low blocks, it may be raised or lowered, as may be necessary. Always work up hill, in laying any kind of rail fence; A FENCE RULE. because, when we begin at the bottom of a declivity and work upwards, the rails will lay more level than the inclination of the ground; and, if we work down a declivity, the rails will be more inclined than the ground, and will not stand as firmly as if it were made by working up hill. When a string offence extends over rolling or undulating land, the proper mode of making it is, to lay the bottom rail the whole distance, and then go back and change those corners in that part of the fence which was ]aid by beginning at the top a declivity, so that in laying up more rails the operator can work up hill, both ways, from a valley. The next thing in order will be to decide upon THE AMOUNT OF WORM, OR CROOK, FOR A FENCE. 78. The length of rails must usually determine the amount of worm for a fence. Long rails require much more worm, or crook, than short ones, in order to have the corners of each kind of rails of the same angle. Suppose, for example, that rails are nine feet lonI, and we wish to give the fence which is made of them three feet worm, I. e., the fence will occupy, measuring across the fence, 71 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. three feet of ground, from the centre of one joint to the other. Now, if rails are fourteen feet in length, in order to give the corners the same angle of the nine feet rails, we must give these rails a crook of four feet eight inches, measuring from the centre of one joint to a point opposite it, in a line with the joints on the other side of the fence. Where fence is to be staked, the rule for the amount of worm which is most commonly adopted is, that it be equal to one-third the length of the rails. This is enough for any fence that is well staked; and where a fence will not be exposed to fuirious winds, it may answer just as good a purpose to give it less than one-third the length of the rails. But where a fence is not to be staked, and the rails are rather light, the worm should be increased so as to be at least five-twelfths the length of the rails, and sometimes even more than this. 79. If the stakes are all stuck in a line, plant the fence rule (Fig. 15) in a line with the stakes, where we are to commence laying the foundation, having the rod R standing at a' right angle to the right or left of the line which would cut the fence rule staff and the stakes. If the fence is to have a worm of four feet, which is about right for rails twelve feet in length, place a fence block under the rod R, so that the centre of the block will be just under the two feet mark, from the rule staff. Lay on a good straight rail, and carry the rule forward; and plant it down, in a line with the stakes, nearly opposite the other end of the rail, with the rod R extending in the opposite direction. Place a block beneath the two feet mark on the rod R, and lay on the end of the first rail, and then lay on another rail and carry the rule along, and lay another block in a line with the first block, and so on. 80. Many fence-makers, in laying up rails, have the ends of the rails extend beyond the points of conjunction at the corners about one foot. But this practice uses up more rails than is necessary to build a fence a given number of rods in length; and, besides, when the ends of the rails extend beyond the joint from ten to twelve inches, a fence does not look as well, and is far more lable to be thrown down, by the whippletrees catching it, or cattle rub 72 THEE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. bing against it. If the ends of the rails extend three or four inches beyond the joint, a fence is no more liable to be thrown down than if the same rails extended a foot beyond the joint. It is very important that all the rails should lie, at the joints, one directly above the other. The smallest rails should always be laid at the bottom of the fence; and the largest ones, if there be any difference in the size of them, should be laid on the top, as heavy rails on the top render a fence, whether it is staked or not, much more substantial than if the large rails were in the middle of the panels, with small ones on the top. If there should be any difference in the size of the ends of the rails, the large end should be laid at the lowest corner. When there are many crooked rails, make a panel or two of crooked rails, placing those together that are of nearly a uniform crook. If there are but few crooked ones, reserve them for the top of the fence. After a fence is laid three or four rails high, if flat stones, three or four inches thick, are at hand, it is a good practice to lay one on each joint, as they will make the fence about one rail higher, and, at the same time, it will subserve just as good a purpose as if a rail was in the place of the stones. And another advantage is, flat stones laid on the joints will turn the water from the joints, and render them more durable, as rails often rot at the joints in consequence of the wet finding its way there and not drying out. A large flat block of wood will answer for this purpose, in the absence of flat stone. Roundish stones in such a place would be liable to throw the fence down. Low corners of a fence may be brought up level with the others by laying on a flat stone between every two rails. 81. Another mode of laying the foundation of a worm fence, which some people prefer to laying with a fence rule, is, to set two rows of small stakes the whole distance where the fence is to be built, with the rows just as many feet apart as there is to be given to the worm of the fence. If the worm is to be four feet, set the rows four feet apart; if the worm is five feet, set the rows of stakes five feet apart. Now lay a fence block in range with one of the rows of stakes, and lay on a rail diagonally from one row to the other; then lay another fence block in range with 73 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. the other row under the other end of the rail, and so on. In order to ascertain whether the block is in range with the stakes, stand in range with the stakes, and set a stick, about as large as a common fork-handle, perpendicularly, on the top of the block before you, and if when it stands in the middle of the block it is in range with the stakes, the block is in the proper place. By placing the trying stake, or stick, in range with the rows, the workman will readily perceive which way the block, or corner, must be moved, in order to bring the corner in range with the stakes. 82. There are other modes of laying the foundation by stakes, but they are so inferior to those already mentioned that we shall omit to notice them. 83. A common worm fence may be staked and capped, staked and ridered, staked and wired, locked and ridered, or it may merely be laid up without either stakes or riders or locks; but whichever mode is adopted, the operation of laying the foundation and of building the fence several rails high is the same in each kind of fence, with the exception that a staked fence does not require as much worm as one that is not staked. LOCK AND RIDER FENCE. 84. Fig. 16 represents the manner of finishing a worm fence with locks and riders, which will resist the wind as well as some staked fences. The fence is first laid as many rails high as is desired; and then the largest rails are laid in a straight line, from panel to panel, as in the figure. The locks may be good stakes, or pieces of FIG. 16. rails, placed in the nook of the fence for- med by two panels,.. and inclined into the corner formed by the top rail and rider. The LOOK AND RIDER FENCE. dots in the figure show about where the foot of the locks should be placed. The locks are not usually set in a hole in the ground, 74 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. although if they were the fence would be stronger. Sometimes the riders in this kind of fence may be long poles, extending the distance of several panels. Long poles are much better than rails for riders. 85. Another mode for locking a fence is shown by Fig. 17. The fence is first made as high as it is to be made, and then the locks, which may be of good rails, or stakes, or pieces of rails, are FIG. 17. ~~~x5L HIGHWAY SIDE BOARD FENCE, FOUR AND A HALF FEET HIGH. judgment of our civil fence law, would be considered a lawful fence, either along the highway side or between the adjoining farms. Some of our great sticklers for wide boards at the bottom may take some exceptions to it; but if fields are inclosed with such a fence, the proprietor, and all the force of the farm, may lie down to rest without en tertaining any fears that any of their animals will get on forbidden ground through or over such a fence. It will be seen by the figure that it is fifty-three and a half inches high, including the cap board, and if that were one and a half inches thick, which would be economy, the fence would be four and a half feet high. The posts are set eight feet apart, from centre to centre, perpendicularly, and a line struck on the sides of the posts for the top board, according to the manner shown at paragraph 152; and if but one workman is employed in building the fence, to aid in holding up the ends of the boards he will find it very advantageous to use two gauge boards, like Fig. 31, which are very important in building a board fence, in order to prevent mistakes in the spaces. When two such boards are used, the lower ends can be set on the ground, and the top fastened near the top of a post, by driving in a nail a little, just sufficient to hold it while all the boards of one panel are being put up; two such boards would be of far more practical utility to a good workman, than any two boys from the Emerald Isle, because the gauge boards would always hold them in the right place. The boards should "freak joint" on every alternate post, because it renders a fence stronger 102 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. than to have all the joints on one post. Not less than two eight-penny fence nails should be used in ~ a place. The whole fence may be planed and painted, 0 or not, as desired; but in either case, the face sides i of the posts, and those parts of the boards which come? in contact with the posts, should be painted, or smeared ~ with coal tar, to prevent their decaying. After the c 5 boards are all nailed on, the efficiency and strength of the fence will be much increased by nailing on battens, i' four inches wide, over the boards on each post. The insides of the battens and the fence boards, where they are nailed, should be painted. Much care should be exercised in nailing on the battens, lest the large nails split the ends of the fence boards. If the nails are very large, holes should be bored through both battens and boards for the nails. Some fence makers consider it very important to fit pieces of boards in the spaces between all the boards, and nail them to the posts; but if a fence is well battened, and if the nails which hold the battens are driven near the lower edges of the fence boards, pieces in the spaces will not pay for the labor of fitting them and putting them in. After the battens are all nailed on, let the tops of posts be sawed off square, and the cap board firmly nailed on. This should be four inches wide, so as to cover the top ends of the posts and the top board and the batten. If it should be desirable to case all the posts of such a fence, or every second post, the manner and style of doing it may be seen at Fig. 32, 123. Which represents a style of fence which is almost universally admired, especially by the farmers' wives. The fence is designed to be planed and painted, and a part or all of the posts cased. The face casings are eight inches wide, and extend ten or eleven inches above the top of the fence. The tops of cases are finished with square pieces of plank, or with a pyramidal top, made of inch boards. The boards are all nailed on the posts, and then the face casings to posts are nailed on, as if they were battens. The side casings are then fitted by cutting gains in them for the fence boards, and they are nailed to the face casings. 5 103 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. The side casings are six inches wide. This makes a case eight inches square. If every alternate post is cased, the remainder should be battened, as shown in the figure. There is no economy in casing posts, and it is done merely to please the fancy. For FIG. 32. r LI ! q 8 5 I 6 8 ,..8..........: Ip. 2; LAWN FENCE. q my own part, I do not approve of casing but few posts; and I may be allowed to say, that the majority of people are quite as well pleased with the appearance of such a fence, when only the gate posts and those at the corners of the yard are cased, as when every post or every second post is cased. It increases the expense of a fence very much to case all the posts, and they are by no means ornaments of good taste and of rural beauty. For a fence which encircles a huge cathedral of the Corinthian style of architecture, cased posts for a board fence would seem to be in better taste and harmony than around a plain country residence of a farmer. The fence, as represented by Fig. 32, is forty-five inches high, including the cap board. There is one objection to it, however, and that is, it is not high enough to suit most men. But the eight-inch space might be made two inches wider, and the bottom board might be slit in two, and a space between the two pieces three inches wide. There is a width of boards,-aside from the cap in this fence, of twenty-two inches, and in Fig. 30 .............. I"...-...-..... 104 20 .1 I 4! 1' THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. there is a width of twenty-two and a half inches, but about a foot difference in the height of the fences. The builder can choose either, or reject both, or make the spaces a little wider or narrower, to suit his caprice. DIVISION FENCE. 124. Fig. 33 represents a style of board fence which almost every farmer likes, because of its efficiency and cheapness and durability. It is four and a half feet high, with boards sixteen FIG. 33. or more feet long, and four - --,... and a half inches wide, I___ l____ |{_ _o and only three to a panel. - __i i __ 7 __' The spaces are the same ---------------- ------- - - ---- -as in the fence at Fig. 30. l _ s S There are no cap boards to l~ ~ ~~ S ~~this fence. The great ex cellence of this fence con sists in its permanence, and L.. i 1..... the facility with which it DIVISION PENCE. can be made. The posts are set as shown at Fig. 34; and any one can see at a glance that such a miode of setting posts will render a fence far more substantial, and much less liable to be made to lean either way by any influence which causes a fence to deviate from a perpen: FIG. 34. MA.NER OF S,'1G FENCE POSTS FOR A DIVISION FENCE. dicular position. The boards of each panel are independent of each other; they may all be put up without any sawing off. In making a fence of this style, all the posts at the ends of the 105 .............. t - 4 i d THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. boards should be set on a line with each other; and then the posts, at the middle of the boards, should be set about half an inch on the other side of the line. There is no face side to such a fence, both sides being alike, and there are no joints to make, nor to break, as in fences of other styles. After the boards are all nailed on, a ridge of earth, twenty two inches high, should be cast up under the boards, and seeded with grass. As the grass seed sometimes all washes from the top of such a ridge, a row of sods should be laid on the top of it, beneath the bottom boards. SELF-SUSTAINING BOARD FENCES 125. Are the most disagreeable nuisances that ever dishonored a farm. It is perfectly ridiculous to talk of making a good selfsustaining board fence that will bear any worthy comparison with a good post and board fence, either in point of cheapness or permanency. I have never seen a model of a self-sustaining board fence (unless it had as much worm, or even more, than a rail fence) which was fit for any other purpose than to entrap the credulous, or to be kept in the museum. I am well aware that there are several styles of self-sustaining patent board fences, which have been extolled to the clouds, and which, at first sight, appear to be a great improvement in fencing. They look well, and seem to stand permanently; but after a few-yes, very fewyears of exposure to the influences of the weather, they begin to twist and warp, and give way in important places by decaying or shrinking, so that they soon become as "shackling" as a rickety old wagon. When it becomes necessary to give much worm to a board fence, in order to save posts, any good arithmetician can show by figures, in a few moments, how many more feet of boards-it will require to build a zigzag fence than a straight one, and it will be easy to show how many feet of boards will be used up in making locks and cleats, and such like, for the purpose of holding the fence erect. He can then calculate how much that redundant lumber is worth, which is required to 106 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. build a zigzag board fence, over and above what is required to build a straight fence. After this, calculations may be made for posts; and the cost of posts for a straight fence compared with the cost for a redundant quantity of lumber for a zigzag fence. A zigzag, self-sustaining fence cannot be made without using up lumber of some kind for locks and cleats, nearly as many feet as there are in a post. And so with a straight fence: there must of necessity be about so many square feet of lumber for the standard, and cross-pieces and sills, or locks and stakes, as the case may be; and there is more or less waste in working up such material, and by close calculation it will, in most instances, equal the amount of lumber in the posts required for a panel. If selfsustaining fences would continue to be permanent for as many years as a post fence, there would be some good encouragement for adopting that style of fence, but the standards will shrink, and the locks will become loose, and if the cross pieces are not painted where they are joined together, they will soon rot away; and the stakes, or pins, unless of the best of timber, and nearly as large as a fence post, will soon become loose and rotten, and the first heavy gale of wind will scatter the fragments as if it were a little boy's cob house. Patentees of self-sustaining fences will denounce me as a ninny for such words against their fences; but unless there shall a style of fence appear, which has never come under my observation, entirely different from any that is now in use, what has been penned will prove true to the letter in the experience of every one who may give such fences a fair trial. A good post and board fence is the fence for thrifty farmers; one that will stand firmly and erect, without repairs, for a score of years; and one that will not crouch, like a sneaking cur before a bullock, when he shakes his horns at it. When fence posts can be purchased for ten or twelve cents each, it will be the wisest policy and the cheapest, and infinitely better in the end, to make post and board fences, instead of being perplexed with such vexatious appendages as self-sustaining board fences. 126. But as there is such an insatiable thirst in many Americans for new things, I deem it best to furnish some specimens of 107 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. self-sustaining fence; and those who choose can adopt them in fence building, if they prefer either style, to a post and board fence. There are a number of patents on self-sustaining zigzag board fences, which, when they are new, appear quite substantial and efficient; but I consider them a poor apology for a fence. If a self-sustaining board fence is needed of a zigzag style, the best way is, to nail the boards to pieces of scantling as long as the height of the fence, having the corner standards, to which one end of two panels is nailed, standing on flat stone. But such a style of fence requires one-third more lumber than a straight fence, although it will be almost equal to a post fence in point of permanency and durability; and it will occupy a large space of ground, too much for an ordinary fence. It is poor economy to build a zigzag board fence. All self-sustaining fences that I have ever seen, were very deficient in point of durability for a number of years. But there are several styles of board fence which are not exactly self-sustaining, although they pass under that name. For a per manent fence, let me have a good post and board fence, even when a self-sustaining fence can be made for about half the expense of it; and, at the end of twenty-five or thirty years, if the expense is not in favor of the post and board fence, I am no arithmetician. 127. It is very convenient, many times, to have what is called a surface fence; and in some localities, where the soil is not deep enough to set fence posts on account of rocks, it is desirable to have some device by means of which the standards of a fence may be kept erect. At Fig. 35 is a representation of a standard for board fence, which subserves a FIG. 35. - = 11~~~: 0~~~ a Ma. *. I STANDARD FOR BURPAOB BOARD FENCE. very good purpose for that object, and many prefer it to posts. 108 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. a a are two standards, made of 1+ inch lumber, about seven inches wide at bottom and three at top, with gains sawed in the edges for receiving the ends of the fence boards. b is a sill, about three feet long, two inches thick, and four inches wide. The two standards pass through the sill, and are fastened with keys on the under side of it. Keys are preferable to pins, because, if the standards shrink a little, they can be tightened a little with keys; but with pins through the sills, they could not be tightened so readily. The tops of the standards are fastened with a band, or small carriage bolt, after the boards are put in the gains. The ends of the sills are supported by flat stones, or blocks of wood, and kept in place by stakes well driven into the ground, as at c. The gains in every alternate standard may be just wide enough to receive the thickness of each board. Notches are sawed in one side of the boards to prevent their sliding endwise. This style of fence is made without any nails, a~nd it. can all be made in FIG. 37. e ? pa !f * * C FIG. 36. GABRIEL'S PATENT PORTABLE BOARD FENCE. O EN STANDARD FOR SURFACE BOARD F1ENCE. can be driven through holes near the ends of the sills for holding them in place. * * -ee *~ *:' *: 109 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 128. Fig. 36 represents a different style of standard. The sills may be about two by four inches square, with the standards passing through and keyed on the under side. Each side is braced with wires, twisted together to hold it firm. When wire braces are used and twisted up tightly, there is no need of keying or pinning the standard. The gains may be sawed in the standard with a circular saw, about half an inch deep, and the boards nailed to it. Large flat stones may be used for sills; or, the standards may be set on a rock, and the bottom kept from moving by drilling a half-inch hole one inch deep in the rock, and two inches deep in the bottom of the standard, and putting in a half inch iron dowel pin. Holes are drilled for the wire braces, and made fast in the rocks by melted lead, and the wires afterwards twisted together. Or a heavy stone may be placed on each end of a sill, to keep the fence in the proper position; but it will require nearly as much timber for the sills and standards as it would for posts; and it will require more labor to make the standards, than it would to set the posts three feet deep. 129. Fig. 37 represents Gabriel's patent portable board fence standard, which appears to meet with much approbation by most farmers. a a are standards made of inch boards, fastened to the top after the boards are put in the gains by a wooden yoke, or a little band of iron e; c c is a horizontal strip of board, about thirty inches long and five wide; and the standards may be nailed or screwed to it at the bottom. b b are two pieces of boards fitted neatly between the stakes d d and the standards, and firmly nailed to the board c c. The stakes d d are one inch thick. Another board of the size of c c must be nailed on the opposite side of the standards. The standards may. extend below the sills, as shown by the dotted lines, and the fence rest on these points; or the ends of the sills may rest on stones. The standards for this fence may all be made in the workshop; but if the fence is to be set up where it deviates from one direct horizontal line, the gains in the edges of the fence boards should not be made until the time when the fence is to be putup. In making such a fence up or down a hill the [ tandards should all be set perpendicularly, and not at a right i'-].' 110 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. angle with the surface of the ground. Many farmers like a style of fence called HALF WIRE AND HALF WOOD FENCE, 130. Or, a board and wire fence. The posts for such a fence may be set, as shown at Fig. 34, paragraph 124, and a top board and bottom board be nailed on above the ridge of earth, and two or three wires fastened on the posts, between these boards, with staples. Three wires between the bottom and top boards, when there is a ridge of earth along the fence, will turn sheep. 131. I have a fence four and a half feet high, thirty rods in length, with only a top sugar maple-board four inches wide, and three number eleven wires below it, with a ridge of earth twenty inches high, which has turned most effectually, ever since it was built, (four years since,) calves, cows, oxen, horses and colts; and they have never broken a wire, although crops were always on the other side of it. I own a young bull, which made many desperate efforts to get through it, without any success. The posts are eight feet apart, and the wires were never strained as they ought to have been, because it was my first experiment in using wire; and I see no reason, at present, why that fence will not remain permanent, as it now is, for ten or fifteen years to come. I state this to show what three small wires and one narrow board have done. 132. Fig. 38 represents a substantial barn-yard board fence. As such fences should always be tight, i.e., no spaces between the boards, on account of shielding animals from cold winds when they are not in their stalls, the best, neatest, and most economical manner of building them is, to set the posts three feet deep, and frame the rails, which should be of scantling, not less than three by three inches square, from post to post, as in building picket fence, and nail the boards to the corners instead of the sides of the rails. (See Fig. 49.) Such a fence should be about six feet high. In that case the top rail should be about four feet from the ground, and the bottom rail about twenty inches, from the ground. It looks better and is better, all things: -.. 5* * ill THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. considered, to allow the boards to extend nearly to the ground, instead of nailing on a bottom board, horizontally, below the vertical boards, as is often done; and, more than all this, FIG. 38. .I II. SECTION OF BARN-YARD FENCE. boards will not wear (;ut as soon in the weather, when placed vertically, as when in a horizontal position. It is a good idea to place a row of flat stones under the bottom of the boards of such a fence, in order to keep them dryer, by keeping away weeds and grass. After the boards are nailed on the yard side of the fence, battens two inches wide, portions of which are shown, should be nailed over the boards, into each rail, with large nails. A line should then be struck at the tops of the boards, and all sawed off straight, and a cap nailed on the top of the boards, which is made of strips of two-inch plank, two and a half or three inches wide, and two inches thick, with a groove half an inch deep, and an inch wide on the under side of it, for receiving the tops of the boards. The corners of the cap are to be planed off before nail ing on. This cap keeps the tops of boards dry, and prevents their springing, and warping in and out, and makes a fence much stronger, besides adding very greatly to its workmanlike appear ance. If it is preferred to cut picket points in the top ends of the boards, it can be done most expeditiously by marking them ~ ~ ~ I I II 1,-112 II THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. all out with a pattern, and cutting them with a circular horse saw. THE RIB FENCE. 133. Fig. 39 represents a kind of fence which suits the fancy of some men better than any other style of fence. The posts are about five or six inches square, and three-inch holes bored in the sides, two inches deep, for the ribs. The ribs are about two and a half inches square. They may enter the posts by mortise and tenon, although that style increases the labor of making it. The ribs, if square, should be put in as shown in the cut, with one corner upwards and one I downwards, as they will make less space between them than if they were placed with a fiat side up. The ribs should be about eight feet long, and with the corners cut off a little the ends will enter a three-inch hole. (See BORING POSTS WITH BORING MA, CHINE, Fig. 122.) 134. By adjusting a three.inch auger by the side of a railway horse-power, so as to make about as many revolutions in a minute as the band wheel, with one horse a man could bore a large lot of posts in a few hours. And as the ribs are put up when the posts are set, one workman would be able to put up a long string of it in a day. A line should be stretched, when setting the posts, parallel with the top rib, so that one panel will not pitch dclown nor slant up too much. When the ribs are put in place the ends should be well painted. This is a very economical and substantial fence, requiring no nails, pins, nor wires. Should a ra1il or rib get broken at the middle of a fence, dig one post loose on one side of it, and lean it to one side of the fence and put in a new rib, and then set it up and fasten the post in its former FIG. 39. RIB FENCE. 1. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~,Ii 1 10 Oil~7 1 5 IV, Ili _4. .1 I _ L~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I I I I 113 THE YOUNG F.R4ER'S MANUAL. erect position. Five ribs in that position will give a width of nearly eighteen inches, and the spaces thirty inches, which makes a fence four feet high; but the two lower ribs may be left out and a ridge of earth thrown up in their place, which would be as effectual as a fence five feet high. A two-inch round tenon at the ends of the ribs would be proportionally stronger than the middle of the same stick, eight or ten feet long, when of the size mentioned. Where the timber is all hard wood, it would be quite as economical to saw it into ribs two and a half inches square as into inch boards; and put them up with nails, because boards of hard wood are, sometimes, ugly and hard things to drive nails through without boring them for the nails. SECTION III.-WIRE FENCE. "Glorious triumphs wire brings I Wire fences, wire springs! Wire into " hoops" is curled I Wire soon will span the world. "I-INGERSOLL. 135. The time has been, and it was but a few years ago, too, when wire fences were considered by the great majority of people as an unwise experiment, which could never possibly be attended with success; and, even in the last decade of years, wire fences have been decried and condemned by many able correspondents of agricultural journals, which were sound on all the other ordinary subjects connected with the operations of the farm; and in some instances the editors themselves have imbibed the false inspiration, and have coincided with their respected correspondents in their views with regard to the certain failure of wire fences, and have denounced wire fence from beginning to end as an "exploded humbug." For imany years wire fences were laughed at by almost every one who passed by; and every old fogy would wag his head and denounce the inventor, and builders also, as " incorrigible ninnies," and would utter all sorts of most direful prognostications against wire fence, and everything else that resembled it. 114 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 136. It cannot be denied that there have been scores and hundreds of instances in building wire fence, in which it would seem that the experiment was a most complete failure; and many farmers, who have ever entertained a very favorable opinion of wire fences, when they have come to see the report of those who have experimented (very superficially) in building such fence, "that wire fence could not be relied upon for protecting cultivated fields from unruly cattle," have been fully deterred from ever attempting to build a fence of wire, notwithstanding their own good judgment has always seemed to be in favor of such a fence as a most complete success. If a substantial, permanent, and impassable fence can be built of wire, what mean so many failures in building it? Why so many rods of worthless, inefficient obstruction between adjoining fields, denominated wire fence, which animals of all kinds pass and repass at pleasure? The reason is plain, and the remedy is very obvious and simple, and the failures may all be expressed in one short sentence-imperfect construction. Because one or two, or one hundred, individuals have failed in building an impassable wire fence, it affords no plausible reason why a'nost permanent and impassable fence may not be erected of the same materials. We have no hesitancy in affirming, that the failures have always been, without one single exception, attributable to imperfect construction, and not to any deficiency or imperfection of the materials used for such a purpose. 137. But fences of wire are no longer viewed as an object of doubtful utility by men of enterprise and of practical common sense, in building fences of any kind. Wire fences, with posts of durable wood or of iron, are among the most permanent, impassable, and economical fences which can be erected, especially in localities where materials, in the shape of stone or wood, cannot be obtained at a fair price. It argues a great destitution of the knowledge of the strength and efficiency of materials, to admit that a wire fence cannot be erected, which will turn, most effectually, the most unruly animals that any one has no fears of giv — ing their liberty in the open fields. 115 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 138. The chief difficulty, which has been almost invariably the cause of failure in the permanency of a wire fence, is, the snapping of the wires by animals bounding along, and plunging, when in full speed, against them. It is an unusual thing for wires which are destitute of flaws, to be broken by the simple pushing and hooking of an animal. A bullock, or any other animal, will not thrust very powerfully with his nose or neck against a bare wire, consequently a small wire will resist effectually all the force that an animal is disposed to apply to it. But when an animal plunges against a wire with rapid fury, something must give way, or he will be, perhaps, a little harmed by such an unceremonious rencounter. If we stretch up a lot of wires, and animals have nothing to admonish them that they are approaching an obstruction, when running at full speed, a wire fence is a dangerous obstruction to place in a field. When a wire fence is built thus, it is very imperfectly constructed; and if the wires should be snapped asunder, or the fence completely demolished, or animals seriously injured, we need not be filled with wonder, because something of that nature would be only a natural and certain result. When a wire fence is erected in a proper manner, animals will very soon learn where it stands, and they will no sooner plunge against it than they will against a rail or a board fence. When a wire fence is built across a field where the ground is entirely smooth on both sides of it, and also where it stands, if the posts are some ten or twelve feet apart, and nothing but bare wires from post to post, colts and young cattle, when running, unless they have learned that there is an impassable obstruction along the line of posts, will be very liable to attempt to pass between the posts, when running at full speed. But if a ridge of earth, from one to two feet high, be thrown up along the posts, or if a narrow board be nailed on the posts at the top, or even at the bottom, they will never plunge against it when running. It is always best to have a narrow board at the top of the posts, when it can be obtained readily. But in case boards are not at hand, a ridge of earth along the posts is a consideration of the firs~ importance in building wire fences, because, if animals do not see 116 THE YOUNG FARKER'S MANUAL. the wire they will see the ridge of earth, and will quickly learn that wires are above it. WIRE. 139. Wire is obtained at the manufactory or at hardware stores in large coils; and sometimes the wire of a large coil will be several hundred feet in length, and sometimes there will be a score or more of pieces in one coil. In purchasing wire for fences, the builder should see to it that the coils are not all pieces of wire, because it is much more convenient to make fences of long wire than it is of a lot of pieces, the ends of which must be firmly united before they can be used. 140. Wire for fences is usually annealed at the manufactory; but when it is not annealed before it is to be used, a whole coil or more may be thrown on a brush heap when it is burning, or a small fire may be kindled of wood for the purpose of heating it. Wire should not be thrown into a fire where it will become heated to a white heat, lest it become materially injured. All that is necessary is, to place it in a gentle fire that will heat it all to redness; and then, by allowing it to remain in the fire until it has all burned down, and the wire has become cool, it will be as pliable almost as lead, and very tenacious; and the ends may be twisted together without danger of breaking them. 141. The different sizes of fence wire are usually distinguished by numbers. The following, Fig. 40, will give a very correct FIG. 40. 3 5 6 v 8:lo A i3 BIZEs OF FEINOE WIRL idea of the diameter of the various sizes, from three to thirteen, which diminish regularly in size. No. 3 wire is exactly onefourth of an inch in diameter; No. 6 is about three-sixteenths in diameter; and No. 11 is about one-eighth in diameter. 142. Fig. 41 represents the most common mode of uniting the ends of wires. In uniting the ends of large wires, it is advisable to have a small fire at hand in order to heat the ends when they 117 hL THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. are to be twisted. An iron kettle full of burning coals will subserve a good purpose. It is not always an easy job to unite the ends of large wire when they are cold: but by heating them to FIG. 41. MA2/,XRR OF uNITING THE WIRES. M",NER OF DrING THE WU. redness they may be bent very readily without danger of breaking them. 143. When a coil of wire is uncoiled, the coil should be rolled along like a hoop, or hung on a reel, until it is all uncoiled; because, if it be uncoiled by allowing it to run off at the side, the wire will be twisted just as many times around as there are rings in the coil. And twisting wire very often produces a kink or a number of kinks in it, and causes it to break before it has been strained to half its proper tension for a fence. When wire is to be coiled up, instead of winding it around anything as we do a cord or a string, the coil should be rolled over and over like a hoop, in order to avoid twisting it, or wound up on a reel. 144. The most expeditious manner of separating a wire, either large or small, is, to file a groove with a triangular file on two opposite sides; and if the wire be a large one, file entirely around it, and then bend it back and forth a few times, when it will sep. arate very readily. It is by no means an easy matter to break a piece of annealed wire simply by bending it back and forth, unless it is held firmly by two pairs of pinchers or tongs. 145. Doubtless the beginner will often be in doubt as to the most proper size of wire for fences for ordinary purposes. One man will recommend No. 3, or 4, or 5, or some other number, as the most suitable; but he must exercise a little judgment of his own in this respect. As a general rule, those farmers who have built wire fences, and have reported their success in the Agri. cultural journals, have used twice or thrice as large wire as was necessary. Many have insisted on Nos. 3 and 4 as the only sulTtable sizes. There can be no disadvantage in using a large wire; 118 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. but when a wire two-thirds smaller, which costs only two-thirds as much, will subserve the same purpose as a larger one, the small one is to be preferred. There is no propriety whatever in using No. 3 or No. 4 wire in building ordinary fences. Wire of such a size would hold to draw out all the posts to which it might be attached, without breaking. Hitch a span of horses to one end, and let us see if, by fair drawing, they can separate it. By no means, if there are no flaws in it. There can be no consistency in using wire for fences which will resist three or four times as much as the posts to which they are attached. It is much better, and more economical also, to use a larger number of wires of a medium size, than to use a few very large ones. Wire should be strong enough to resist the force of the animals which it is designed to fence against. For fencing against small, peaceable animals, like sheep, No. 12 or 13 wire is sufficiently large and strong; and for horned cattle and horses, No. 9 will turn anything that wears horns; and any animal that will thrust into a fence, when it is properly made, with force enough to break a sound No. 11 wire, should not have liberty in all open field. 146. The manner of fastening the wires to the posts is a very important consideration. Bending the wires around sharp corners of the posts should always be avoided, as wires are very liable to break when drawn tightly across a sharp corner. The ends of the wires may be fastened to the end post of the fence, by being passed entirely around it, after the corners have been rounded off a little; or they may be put through the post in a half-inch hole, and the ends of two of them twisted together; or, after the ends have been put through the post, they may be wrapped round a rod of wood, and the ends twisted round the same wire; or the ends, after having been put through the post, may be turned into holes in the post, and plugged up tightly with a hard wood plug. The wires may be fastened to the intermediate posts by driving staples over them, or by sawing gains in the sides of the posts for the wires, and nailing a strip of hard wood on every post, to keep the wires in the gains, or gashes. 119 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. Strips one inch by two square are sufficiently large; but if the posts should be square, they should be about as wide as the posts. But the best way of fastening the wires is, to bore half-inch holes through the posts for the wires, and, if thought best, pins of hard wood may be driven into each hole, which will hold them firmly. A little care and skill are necessary in boring the holes, in order to have them straight with the wires. If they should be bored crooked, or not in a line with the wires, the wires will bind on the sides of the holes with so much force that it will be very difficult, in straining them, to bring them up to the desired tension. 147. A pair of pliers for holding the wire, and a pair of pinchers for twisting it, are indispensable in putting up the wires, and a triangular file to aid in separating them. 148. Staples can be obtained at the hardware stores much cheaper than they can be made by hand. In driving them, if the posts are very hard, holes, a little smaller than the staples, should be bored in the posts, about half the length of the staples; otherwise the posts will be split, or the staples "stove up" bef6re they are half driven in so as to hold the wire. 149. The size of the posts is another very important matter. It is not necessary to have posts for wire fence as large as they are for a board fence, providing they possess equal strength. One very common defect in wire fences have been posts that were too small. It is necessary to have posts which possess as much strength for a wire fence as for a board fence; otherwise a fence will be very deficient in fair proportion and symmetry. Many farmers have recommended posts for wire fence only two inches square. What a lack of common sense I Half a thrust by a heavy horse or ox, unless such posts were of the very best timber, would break them off at the surface of the ground; and, more than that, posts but two inches square are too small on the score of economy. It is true, that the wood of a small post may not decay sooner than a large one; but, allowing that they decay alike, when a half-inch or more of the outside of a small post is gone, there will be but little remaining; whereas, a half- inch of the wood 120 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. of a large post may decay, and it will be injured but little. Intermediate posts for wire fence should never be smaller than three by four inches at the lower end, and one and a half by three inches at the upper end. But if they were one inch or more larger than this each way, they would last many years longer, provided they have been cut at the best season of the year for cutting timber, and seasoned a year or more previous to setting them in the ground. THE PRINCIPAL MANIPULATIONS IN MAKING A WIRE FENCE. 150. Suppose, for example, we wish to make a wire fence thirty or forty rods, more or less, in length: let a stake be set at each end, and then set a dozen or more stakes in range with these, one or two feet high; plow a furrow where these stakes are standing, as deep as practicable, and straight as a line; by using a double team ancl a large plow, very much of the labor of digging the holes may be saved in a little time, by plowing a furrow twenty inches deep, or more (see DIGGING POST HOLES, 226). Set the straining-posts, Fig. 42, three and a half or four feet deep; they should be made of good timber, not less in size than three inches by six square, with two-inch auger FIG 42 holes in one of them, and holes two inches square in the other. In order to have the holes correspond exactly with each other, the square holes should be made before the post is U set, and after they are set the auger can be run through the square holes in order to bore those in the opposite post. These posts should be set at least three inches apart. 151. The strainers are represented at a,- -, which should be made of the most firm and tenacious wood, about one foot in length, CL with four inches of one end four square, and the remainder turned round. The wires are am: put in a small hole through these strainers, A - oF and wound up with a wooden wrench,three On G and wound up with a wooden wrench b,. three ]?OM. -121 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. feet long, fitted to the square end of the strainers. When the wires are sufficiently tight let the strainer be driven into the square hole, and the wrench taken off. When a wire is to be loosened, drive the strainer a part of the way out, and let it unwind. 152. Set an anchor-post firmly at the other end of the fence. The anchor-post and straining-posts should never be more than forty rods apart. In making a long line of fence, straining-posts should be set every forty rods, in which case they will answer for both anchor-posts ani straining-posts. They should also be well braced. Let them be set perpendicularly on the work side. Set one post about six rods firom the straining-posts, perpendicularly, and then stretch two lines from this post to the strainingposts, one at the top, and one near the bottom, and set the posts by these lines. By having two lines, a workman will be able to get the posts more in a line than when only one line is used, with the plum rule (see Fig. 105) to keep them perpendicular. When all the posts are set between the anchor-post and strainingposts, let the top wire be attached and strained in part, or nearly as tight as it can be. The aim of the workman now is, to strike a line on the sides of the posts near the tops of them, which shall be parallel with the surface of the ground, were it even and smooth, and free from depressions and little knolls. If the surface of the ground is level, there will be no difficulty in doing it; but when the surface is undulating, it will require a little skill to do it in a workmanlike manner. Let the workman stand at the straining-posts, and look forward along the posts to a point where the ground begins to rise or descend. On the post which is nearest that point, raise the wire or fence line as high on that post as it is at the straining-posts, and support it with a nail. From this post cast the eye forward to the next point which de. viates from a direct line, and support the line or wire on a post there with a nail. Let the top wire be adjusted after this manner throughout the entire length of the fence. Let the workman go back, and where the wire does not seem to be parallel'vith the surface of the ground, let it be adjusted by sticking a nail 122 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. under it where it seems to need raising a little, and a nail or two above it where it seems to be a little too high. Fig. 43 will givethe builder some cor- FIG. 43 rect ideas on the subject, by which the top wire or line is properly adjusted parallel with the general surface of the ground. Sharp angles in the rising and falling of the fence, as shown at a b of the preceding figure, should be avoided as much as practicable. After the top wire or line is adjusted as correctly as may be, let 8 the workman stand away from it three or four rods, and walk the whole length of the fence at that distance from 7 7 it; and if it appears all right, the next operation will be - to mark off the distances on the sides of the posts, by ~ V means of a board six or eight inches wide, with notches made in it, like Fig. 44, as far apart as the holes are to be bored, or the wires to be fastened. The upper notch' 5 of the marking board should be placed even with the top wire, and then there will be no liability to mark some posts wrong. 153. Let the holes be bored with a good auger bit instead of an auger, as a man can bore more than twice as fast with a bit as with a small auger, and with much less fatigue. When the holes are bored, the wires may be put in and fastened at one end, and drawn up as tightly by hand as they can be, and then attached to the strainers, (see Fig. 42). It is a good practice to hitch a horse to one end of the wires, and draw them up as tightly as practicable before attaching them to the strainers. When it is necessary to unite a wire where it is in two parts, the junction should be midway between two posts, lest it should be too large to go through the hole in the posts. If the wires are to be fastened with staples, the staples should all be-driven almost in before. 123 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. STRAINING THE WIRES. 154. Let the ends of the wires be firmly secured in the strainers, after having greased them with a little lard to make them turn easily, and draw them up as tight as possible without breaking the wrench or the strainers. About ten or fifteen rods from the straining-posts let a man step on thle wires, and spring up and down on them; and if they stretch any let them be drawn up tighter. In warm weather the wires should be drawn up tight, as they expand in warm weather and contract in cold weather, about one inch in a hundred feet. As the cold weather comes on the wires may be loosened a little, as there is some danger of their breaking by their tendency to contract. There is but little danger, however, of their breaking by contracting. 155. When wires pass through the posts, some fence-makers prefer to drive a pin into each hole to keep the wires from rendering when anything presses against them; and when they are fastened by staples, some prefer to drive the staples tight on the wires. The most advisable way, probably, is, to fasten the wires at posts nearly a hundred feet apart, and then, if it is necessary to loosen or tighten them, it can be done at less expense than if they were fastened to every post. 156. The top board (see Fig. 46) may now be nailed on, and if desirable, the tops of the posts may be sawed off and a cap board put on. Or, what would be still less work, let a scantling about three by three inches square be firmly nailed on the tops of the posts. It will add very much to the durability of both wires and boards to have them well painted with paint or coal, tar, or Japan, especially where they touch the posts and where the wires pass through the posts. By using a very small brush, paint can be worked into the holes on each side of the posts. 157. When posts are more than eight or ten feet apart, stay wires may be used to prevent an animal from thrusting his head between the wires of the fence. For this purpose No. 12 wire is sufficiently large, but should be well annealed before it is used. It is attached, first, to the top or bottom wire of the 124 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. fence, by wrapping one end two or three times around it, and then by passing once around each of the other wires, being careful to keep them at their proper distance apart. 158. The final operation now will be, to cast up a ridge of earth along the fence, twenty or more inches high, and seed it with grass seed. A wire fence should seldom be made without such a ridge. 159. ARnother mode of building wire fence, where posts of wood are scarce, and iron and stone abundant, is, to use iron posts and stone sills for the intermediate posts. Figure 45 represents an iron post, which is made of wrought iron, about three-eighths of an inch thick at the lower end, and three-six- FIG. 45. teenths thick at top, and three-quarters wide at top, and an inch and a half wide at bottom, with shoulder on each side of the tenon, which J0 is passed through the sill and fastened with a 9 key, or nut and screw. A shoulder one-fourth... of an inch deep on each side is sufficient, 8 and the tenon may be tapered from the shoul-. ~ 7 der to the lower end of it, when a nut is used... to fasten the posts; but an iron key is the best and cheapest, in the end of tenon, and 5 is, usually, more convenient. The best way to obtain such posts would be, to give the dimensions of them to the proprietor of some IRON POSTS FOR manufactory of iron, and have them rolled out, WIFE FENCL and holes punched for wires and keys, where machinery for such purposes is used, and then the expense of them would be but one cent or so on a pound more than for ordinary bars of iron. The sills may be made of almost any kind of stone. A sill six inches wide and four thick, and three feet in length, is a good size. Stone for flagging, which are not more than two inches thick, may be used for that purpose, providing they are not less than three feet long and eighteen or twenty inches wide. Bowlders and blocks of square stone, weighing several hundred pounds each, may be used by drilling holes in them three or four inches 125 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. deep, and by placing the iron tenon in the hole, and by pouring in melted lead to make it solid. Such posts may also be fastened into blocks of wood, or into plugs of wood driven into the ground as deep as for fence posts. 160. In making a wire fence with iron posts inserted in sills of stone, it is best to form a ridge of earth where the fence is to stand, about twenty inches high, and three feet wide on the top, and seed it with grass seed, allowing it to settle one season; and then place the sills in which the iron posts have been set, on the surface of the ridge, in a line with each other, as in setting posts of wood. Bowlders, into which posts have been set, may be sunk a few inches into the ridge in order to make the holes in the posts stand in range with each other. Posts set in this manner may seem to some people like a very superficial fabric, possessing little permanency, but after such posts have been placed a few weeks, let a man move them, if he can, by taking hold of the iron posts. Such posts may be placed thirty feet apart on the ridge, and two or three stay wires put on the main wires, between the posts. In order to prevent swine from lifting the bottom wire, the stay wires may be first fastened to the stakes driven into the ridge, and then passed around the other wires to the top wire. After the wires have been put in and strained, the holes may be plugged with hard wood to keep them from rendering back and forth when the wires are pressed sideways. A fence made after this plan will remain permanent, without doubt, as long as one man usually wants a fence. If the posts should ever become a little inclined, they may be readily set erect by raising one end of the sills. THE NUMBER OF WIRES 161. In a fence will always depend upon the size of the animals to be turned by the fence. No sheep, cattle, or swine, of a hundred pounds weight, will be able to pass between the wiresof a fence like Fig. 46, when the wires are well strained. In merely 126 THIIE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. fencing against horned cat- FIG. 46. tie and horses, there is no, - necessity of having any of Hi 8 - the wires less than eight or ten inches apart, and they should never be more than 6 ten inches apart The bot- tom wires, which are de._ signed to turn sheep and'' I | swine, may be no larger!' ~.: I: than number twelve or:'. thirteen, as no sheep nor SEON OF WIR MCL swine will be able to break a wire of that size. The strongest wires should always be placed about as high as the shoulders of horned cattle and horses. 162. There are several modes of straining the wires of a fence besides the one noticed in paragraph 154, but for convenience, cheapness, efficiency and practicability, they are inferior to this. Straining wires by having X small iron screw and swivel in each wire is a good way, but is usually too expensive. There are modes of having all the wires pass through holes in an upright roller, and then with an iron lever the roller is turned round, and the wires are strained from the ends of the fence towards the middle of the fence, by being wound up on the roller from each way. But this is a very inefficient manner of straining wires, and he who adopts it will be glad to abandon it before he has been able to bring all the wires to a uniform tension. There are several other very neat modes of fastening wires to the posts, but some are too expensive, and others are not worthy of adopting. THE LOWELL WIRE FENCING. 163. Fig. 47 represents a style of wire fencing which cannot fail, ultimately, to supersede every other style of wire fencing. Wire of every size is woven into cloth, or network, by machinery, with the meshes of various sizes. The meshes are usually about eight inches wide. After the wires are woven, the whole 6i 127 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. of it is well coated with Japan, which is made from asphaltum, which prevents its rusting. About 20 or 25 rods in length of it are then rolled up in bales, as shown by the figure, which weigh from 200 to 300 lbs.; when it can be transported to any locality, and put up by almost any farmer. The very efficient manner in FIG. 47. A RAU OF LOWELL WIRE FENCING. which the meshes are formed by the weaving of the wires, is represented by Fig. 48. It will require the application of a force almost equal to the strength of the wires to separate the meshes, by drawing on two of them which are twisted together. 164. The COST of such fencing depends on the width of the cloth and the size of the wire, varying from 75c. to $2.50 per lineal rod. The cut represents a strip of network thirty inches wide, with eight-inch meshes, made of Nos. O10 and 12 wire, weighing five and three-quarter lbs. per rod, and is sold for 75c. per rod. W. J. Johnson, Boston, Mass., manufacturer, will send an illustrated catalogue of the various kinds and sizes which he manufactures. 165. HItow to make the fence.-Set the posts from ten to twenty feet apart, according to the size of the wire and weight of cloth per lineal rod. If the cloth is narrow, cast up a ridge of earth along the posts. Set the straining-posts, which are represented at Fig. 42, and attach wires to the cloth, and wind them u with the strainers. When there are a number of straight strands of 128 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. wire in the cloth, they may be wound on the strainers. Fasten the cloth to the posts with small staples driven over the wires. 166. In putting up such fence where the surface of the ground is undulating, the young farmer will meet with a difficulty which will puzzle many experienced mechanics to obviate. The wider the cloth is, the greater will be the difficulty. When a portion FIG. 48. MASER OF WEAVING THE WIRES. of such cloth is put up on a straight course, and then the ground rises abruptly, the bottom of the cloth will be tight, and the top, or upper edge, will be very loose. In such cases a strip of cloth may be put up in a horizontal position, or at a given angle, and another strip put up at another angle, with a pair of strainingposts between them, so as to tighten the strips on both sides of the straining-posts by one set of strainers. In any instance when either the lower or upper side of the cloth cannot be made tight, in consequence of the inequalities of the ground, cut one side of the cloth and take out a gore, or set straining posts, as already directed. SECTION 4.-PICKET FENCE. "The good dd picket fences there surround The garden, vineyard, and the furrowed ground, To turn marauders, and nocturnal prigs, And roaming curs, and pesty, rooting pigs, And chanticleer, with majesty and pride, Strutting along, with partlyby his side."-EDWI. 129 .... ETHE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 167. There is probably a larger number of different styles of picket fence than of any other variety of fence, and the most fastidious can always find some style, among so great a variety, that will harmonize with his taste and fancy. There is greater adaptedness in picket fences to many purposes than in any other kind of fence; and in some instances picket fence will subserve a purpose which could not, practically, be accomplished with any other kind of fence. As picket fences may be built of so many different styles, he who aims to erect a picket fence which shall be in good taste and harmony with his grounds and buildings, if he knows exactly what he most desires, is not compelled to search a great length of time to find a style of fence which will come fully up to his ideas of what a picket fence should be. There is an appearance in picket fence which almost always affects surrounding objects more or less; and not unfrequently a picket fence of correct style, to harmonize with surrounding objects, imparts a beauty to the scenery which a board fence of the neatest style, or a stone fence, or hedge fence, would never impart. Picket fences have all the excellencies which can possibly be combined in any style of fence; they may be strong or fragile, costly or cheap, neat and tasty, or awkward and homely, or ornamental, or plain, to any desirable degree. No style of fence, in my own estimation, adds more to the beauty of a spacious dooryard, or lawn, than a tasty picket fence. Although a board fence may be made as ornamental and tasty as such materials will admit of, still a picket fence seems never to fail to satisfy the caprice of the most fanciful. 168. There is also an efficiency in many kinds of picket fence which no other kind of fence possesses. A picket fence will not only stop fowls from roaming on forbidden ground, but will often be the means of keeping the productions of the fruit-yard and garden in safety from pilfering interlopers,'who would climb over a board fence and carry off, without difficulty, the delicious booty. A picket fence is usually a difficult, dangerous fence to climb over; and for this reason, when orchards and fruit-yards andgardens have been encircled with a substantial picket fence, the pro 130 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. prietors have feasted on their own fruit and vegetables, which they would never have tasted had their grounds been enclosed by any other kind of fence. When a fruit-pilferer is passing a fruit yard which is enclosed with a board fence that he can hop over at any place, he is sure to glut his swinish palate with anything within his sight; whereas, had there been a picket fence he would have passed on, and found his booty somewhere else. Horses, horned cattle, and almost every other kind of animals, fowls and other bipeds, which belong to a higher order of creatures, not ex cepted, which need to be fenced against, are usually more shy of a picket fence than of any other style of fence. Dogs will many times run many rods around a picket fence rather than jump over it, when, if a board fence of the same height were there, they would have bounded over it without any hesitancy. This is particularly the case if the tops of the pickets are pointed. Fowls, in flying over a picket fence, generally aim to perch on the top of the pickets, as they are accustomed to do on other fences; but, as pointed pickets are not very convenient for them to stand upon, they soon learn that it is best to fly over without touching it, which they seldom do, or keep on their own side of it. Filching marauders, in quest of good fruit, fear the points of pickets, lea they, by an inadvertant hold or step, should meet with their merited deserts. 169. In point of economy in dollars and cents, a picket fence may cost more than a board fence, or it may not cost as much. The height of each fence being the same, there will be little, if any, difference in the cost of the rough materials; but the labor of building according to a given style will increase or diminish that cost, according to the amount of labor bestowed upon it. The style of casing and capping the posts, or not casing them; the style of rails and bottom boards; and the style of the tops of the pickets, all affect the expense of a fence, in proportion to the amount of labor required in dressing out and preparing the materials. There is often an unnecessary amount of labor expended in making the tops of pickets very ornamental, by cutting them of different forms, which only increases the expense, without 131 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. adding at all to its beauty or efficiency. The plainer the work is, in making a picket fence, and the less cut work in the shape of gains and moldings there is about it, the neater it appears. 170. The width of pickets, and the width of spaces between them, is a consideration which affects the symmetry and expense of a fence far more than most people are wont to suppose. Pickets are often made one-third or two-thirds wider than is necessary for strength, to say nothing for or against their beauty; and the spaces between them are too frequently twice or thrice as narrow as they might be, without detracting at all from the efficiency of the fence, or from its real beauty. Pickets are often four inches wide, and the space between them but two inches; in which case a width of pickets eight inches wide is required for every foot in length of a fence. But if the pickets were two inches wide, which is sufficiently wide for ordinary fences, with two-inch spaces, there will be a saving of just one quarter of the lumber for the pickets required for a rod in length. But when pickets are a plump inch thick, and not more than four feet long, a fence will look quite as well when the pickets are an inch and a half wide, with spaces two and a half or three inches in width. It is mthing of rare occurrence, that pickets of the size last mentioned are ever broken by animals thrusting against them, or by attempting to pass them in any way. When pickets are an inch and a half wide, and the spaces between them two and a half wide, only a width of four and a half inches of pickets is required for a foot in length of fence. Spaces two and a half inches wide are narrow enough to stop any kind of fowls, or pigs and lambs. 171. Fig. 49 represents a neat, cheap, durable and substan tial lawn fence, and may be three and a half to four and a half feet high, to suit the fancy. The top of the pickets should extend not less than eight inches above the top rail; and if the fence is four feet or more in height, they should extend not less than ten inches above the rail. The rails should be about three inches square, in which case the posts may be twelve feet apart, and should be fitted to the posts as shown in the figure, so thaW the pickets may be nailed to a corner of the rails instead of the side. 182 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. Rails are much stronger, both laterally and vertically, when placed in this position, than when they are placed with one side up. And besides this, the surface of conjunction between the pickets and rails is so small, that there is little or no liability to decay, as is the case when pickets are nailed to the flat side of rails. Every FIG. 49. oi: *. ,! : I I I ., : 1. I. I. *_,, A LAWN PICKET F'ENCE. one who has had any experience in picket fence, knows that when pickets are nailed to the flat side of rails, water will often get between them and cause them to decay in that place in a few years. The bottom rail may be halved and let into gains in the posts, or attached by mortises and tenons; and the strongest mode of putting up the top rail (unless by mortises and tenons) is, in sawing off the tops of the posts, to saw from each side of the posts, with cut slanting downwards, so that the top rail will fit the cut neatly, as shown at a in the figure. The top rails may then be nailed, as shown at the top of the posts. Where the rails and posts touch each other, they should be painted to preserve themn from decay. 172. The pickets may be sawed out of inch boards with a power circular saw, as it is difficult to saw pickets of so small a size from logs at the saw-mill. After they are dressed out, the tops may be sawed off in a mitre-box with a hand saw, or with a small circular saw. In nailing them on the rails, let a chalkline be stretched as high above the rails as the tops of the pickets ---- -I-.I:, -I- I1.1 133 I,,. I,, p I I,,,, p I I,,,, ------------ ---------—..,j --- - - ----- - - --- - ------ - -- - -- I I I I . I I THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. are to extend, supporting it in the middle, if it sags a little, with a picket slightly tacked to the rails. Dress out a space-board as wide as the spaces, and be particular to have both ends of an exact width. Drive a long nail in one side of it, near the top, so that it can be hung on the top rail; now nail on the first picket, and plumb the edge on one side. Hang on the space-board, and put up another picket to the side of the space-board, with the top barely to the line, and hold it with one knee while nailing it. After two or three pickets more have been put up, apply the plumb-rule and see if the pickets are perpendicular. After the pickets are all nailed on, the bottom board, the top edge of which is planed bevelling, as shown in the figure, may be nailed on the outside of the pickets. The lower ends of the pickets need not be sawed off even, as they are not in sight; and the bottom board may be nailed to the lower rail, subserving the additional purpose of a batten or ribbon; or it may be two or three inches below the rail. A ribbon about one inch by an inch and one-fourth square may be nailed on the pickets into the upper rail. But if each picket is nailed with two sixpenny nails to each rail —four nails in a picket-if the rails are of hard wood, a ribbon will be of little utility. A half round ribbon would look better than a square one. Near the middle of the bottom boards a few pickets may extend to the bottom of the board on the inside, and be nailed to it to strengthen it. The bottom board may be from eight to ten inches wide; or there may be two narrow boards four and a half or five inches wide, with a three or four-inch space between them, which is in quite as good keeping with a picket fence as one wide board. If it is desirable, the posts of such fence may be cased. But if the gate-posts and posts at the corners of the yard be cased, like those at Fig. 32, the fence will probably suit the majority of people quite as well as if every post were cased. SELF-SUSTAINING PICKET FENCE. 173. Fig 50 represents a style of fence but little different rom the one shown at Fig. 49. The pickets, bottom boards, rails and 184 THE YOUNG FAR MER'S MANUAL. ribbons, are all alike; but instead of posts, standards are used, one of which is shown at Fig 51. The sills a are made of scantling, not less than three by four inches square, and thirty inches or more long; and the standards, b, after the mortises have been FIG. 50. .SELF-SUSTAINING PICKET FNCE. - I- - SELF-SUSTA INING PICKET FEN,CE. made for the rails and bottom boards, are firmly united by mortise and tenon to the sills. Braces c c are then nailed on, or wires twisted together, as at Fig. 36. The standards may be of one and a half or two-inch plank, and may extend above tops of pickets, for holding one or two wires to prevent fowls from flying over it; or they may extend no higher FIG. 51. than the tops of the pickets. If preferred, the standards may be in two parts, like Fig. 35, or 37. The ends of the rails are halved D together at the standards. The longer the rails and bottom boards are, the less will be the expense for the labor of building, as they may be run through one or two standards without having a joint at each one. When A... they are made in two parts, like Fig. 35, S STANDARD FOR SELF BUSinstead of fastening the tops with bolts or TAINING PICKET FENCE. bands, a wooden yoke, made of two-inch plank, with a long mortise in it, is fitted to the standards, about half way from the tops of pickets to tops of standards. The ends and sides of the yokes are rounded a little, and give a very tasty appearance to the fence. The sills may be staked to the ground, or large stones 6* r I I 'I A r / am r A A r . . -. mg. 135 A p THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. few years, or if the wind does not turn it topsy-turvy, and inside outwards, it will stand firmly until it rots down where it was set up. In the event of a hurricane, stakes might be driven in the ground at each corner, and the fence wired to them. It is a very good design for hurdles. When such a fence is made up and down hills, there should be a brace nailed from one rail to the other, to keep the panels in their proper shape. POULTRY YARD FENCE. 175. Fig. 53 represents a very good style of picket fence for inclosing the kitchen garden or poultry yard. It may be built of any desirable height. It is best, usually, to have a bottom board, FIG. 3. POULTRY YARD FENCOE. nine or ten inches wide, close to the ground, or a little ridge of earth may be thrown up under it, to keep chickens and ducklings, and such like, within the inclosure, and.to exclude skunks and other "varmints" from the yard during the night. There is no necessity whatever, of building such a fence more than six feet high. Our domestic fowls do not need wings any more than they need fins; and if they are disposed to fly over the top of such a fence, let two or three inches of the end of one wing be clipped i i ,me - -1 -- --' — =-w I I I II .137 " - -— 'me - -1 -- -- --' — -=- W - I . 1. I, L II I THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. off, and they will soon make no effort to fly. The pickets for such a fence should be sawed tapering, as shown in the cut, about two and a half inches wide at the lower end, and not more than half an inch wide at the upper end; the space board should be (see 172) about two inches wide at the lower end, as a space of two inches is narrow enough, and the upper end must be enough wider than the lower end to correspond with the taper of the pickets. The space board need not be as long as the pickets. The object of sawing them tapering is, to save lumber, as the spaces can be much wider at the top than at the bottom of the pickets. It is always best, when it is not inconvenient, to nail on the pickets on the inside of the yard, so that fowls cannot fly on the top rail, and then fly over, or get through between the pickets. THE FIELD, WIRE AND PICKET FENCE 176. Is usually made of pickets turned round and pointed. although square ones are frequently used instead of round ones; but they are not as neat, especially if the fence is to be painted. because the loops of wire, in straining, cut into the corners of the pickets much deeper than they do in round pickets. The pickets are cut out in a lathe in the same manner that broom handles and rakestales are cut out, and the ends are thrust into an instrument called a " pointer,'; holding cutters, which will sharpen the end of a picket in a second or two. They are from four to five feet long, and an inch or more in diameter. One inch in diameter is rather too small for a fence where cattle and horses run. Instead of wooden rails for holding the pickets, two wires are used, bent into loops, like Fig. 54, which represents a wire about the size of No. 10 or 11, ready for the pickets. It is very important FIG. 54. TWO n C MANNER OF BENDING THE WIRE RAILS FOR A PICKET FENCE. that the loops be bent with as much uniformity as possible;. because, if both the upper and lower wires are not bent into loops 138 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. as nearly alike as they can be conveniently, the pickets will not all stand in a perpendicular position. I have noticed fences made in this manner, where the pickets in some parts of the fenco would lean more than the width of one space. 177. To aid the workman in making the loops, an instrument like Fig. 55 is necessary, which is made of cast-iron, and screwed fast to a work-bench, or held in a vise. The projections a a should be as large in diameter as the pickets, and FIG. 55. just as far apart as it is desirable to have the pick- a ets when they are worked into the fence. In forming the loops, have the wire in a close coil, L,, and after winding it around one of the iron pins INSTRUMENT FOR a a, carry it to the other pin, winding the wireBENDING. THE WE. around that also. Now slip both loops off the tops of pins a a, and put the loop which was made last on the first pin. Again, slip off the loops and carry them back, making one loop every time they are slipped off. Great care should be exercised to carry the coil, in bending every loop, just so far forward, and to have the last loop put on the pin with the straight part of the wire between the loops at just such an angle with the pins; otherwise there will be a variation in the spaces, so that the pickets will lean a little in some places, and then will be perpendicular in some places, and then they will lean a little in other places in an opposite direction. An accurate workman will bend the loops with two pins; but the beginner had better have three pins instead of two, and then there will be no liability to make variations in the spaces. When three pins are used, all three of the loops must be slipped off the ends of them every time a loop is made. The wire should not be wound around as a string would be, but the whole coil must be carried around the pin. If this is not done, the wire will be twisted once around at every loop, which weakens its strength. 178. The posts for such a fence may be set as far apart as thought best, say from eight to twelve feet, with one side of them on a line with each other; and then the wires may be laid on the ground, and the pickets put in the loops, with the tops all in line. 139 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. When the ground is level, after the pickets have all been put in the loops, they may all be set up, and the wires strained (see Fig. 42) and fastened to each post, with staples driven over the wires into each post. Where the ground is undulating, it is a most difficult job to adjust the wires in such a manner that the pickets, up and down slopes, will all stand in a perpendicular position. Suppose, for instance, a fence is to be made fifteen or twenty rods on a level, and then to rise up a slope from ten to twenty rods. Let the wires be fastened to the post at the bottom of the slope of ground, and have a set of straining-posts at the top of the slope, and another set at the end of that part of the fence on level ground; and let the wires be strained from both ways. If either of the wires should seem to be looser than the other, and straining it more would incline the pickets from a perpendicular position, it would be best for a man to step on the wire which is the tightest, in several places, in order to bury the wires deeper in the wood; and then they can both be strained up to the desired tension. 179. The cost of such a fence will be easily estimated, and the fence very quickly made. The pickets, in this region, can be obtained, turned and pointed, for one dollar per hundred, four feet long. If they are one inch and a quarter in diameter, which is as small as they ever ought to be, with four-inch spaces, it will require about thirty-seven pickets for one rod of fence. The cost of the wire will depend on its size; and the cost of posts will depend on the locality, and the kind of posts used. Posts similar to Fig. 45 may be used for this style of fence, by passing a wire around the wire which holds the pickets, and through the holes in the post, and twisting it up tight. Instead of having the pickets four or more feet long, a ridge of earth two feet or so high may be cast up, and the pickets be made correspondingly shorter, which will lessen the cash cost, and at the same time increase the efficiency of the fence by means of the ridge of earth. When such a fence is put up in a workmanlike manner, and well painted, it harmonizes with the taste of many individuals better than almost any other style of fence. 180. Fig. 56 represents one of the most expensive kinds of 140 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. picket fence which can be built, but which harmonizes quite well with the style of archi- FIG. 56. tecture of the buildings which it is designed to surround. The pickets are turned round and pointed, and every alter- I nate one passes through three rails. The rails should be bored with precision, and with an auger or bit that: will cut a clean, smooth hole, I so that the pickets will fit water-tight. If they are ONAMENTAL ROND PICKET FENCE. painted, there will be no danger of their rotting in the rails on account of the rain getting in the joints. 181. In making this or any other style of picket fence up a slope, the rails for one panel must be fastened in the position of inclination in which they are to be placed, when the fence is built, and then, with the plumb rule, make a perpendicular mark on the edges of the rails; after which it will be easy to adjust the table on which the rails are laid when they are bored, in order to have the holes of the desired angle. When the fence is built on level ground, the holes for the pickets must be bored through the rails at a right angle; but if bored at a right angle when the fence is not on a level, the pickets will all lean in proportion to the steepness of the slope, which would look awkward and very unworkmanlike.-I should not have mentioned these particulars, had I not seen fences which were made by inexpe rienced workmen, with the pickets leaning down the slope at about a right angle with the surface of the ground.-A modification of this style of AN ORNAMENTAL LAWN FENCE, 182. A fine specimen of which may be seen encircling the grounds of Mr. Andrus, of Ithaca, is made with turned posts with acorn tops, and turned pickets with acorn tops, with two 141 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. rails through which the pickets pass, and a bottom board from eight to twelve inches wide. The fence last mentioned is about the neatest fence which I ever have seen for a lawn fence, and as durable as the wood of which it is made. The acorn tops are turned in a lathe, with gouge and chisel, after the other part has been cut out straight. When it is desired to make the posts ornamental by turning them-as turned posts are much cheaper than the casing of posts-a very efficient lathe may be fitted up for the purpose, without a mandrel, by having a point instead of a mandrel at one end of the lathe, with a screw and point at the other end, and allowing the band from the speed-wheel of the driving power to pass round the post instead of a pulley, on the mandrel. Or the posts might be mounted with a large wooden acorn, whether they were cased or not, or with any other ornament turned out of wood. But a turned post would be in better keeping with the pickets than a square one; and a man who understands turning, would turn out three posts sooner than he could case one. As we cannot drive such pickets in the rails, they should be just large enough to fill the holes, and so that they can be worked in by hand, without driving them. The pickets should be thoroughly seasoned; but the rails through which they pass may be green or half seasoned; because, when they shrink, they will hold the pickets tighter than when they have been seasoned before boring the holes. AN ORNAMENTAL LATTICE FENCE FIG. 57. : - II.. ..I .. LATTIOE FENOIL 183. Is shown at Fig. 57, which is often built between the gardens of adjoining owners, or on the back side of lawns or gardens. The rails and posts are put up in the same manner as for ordinary picket fence, with bottom board or not, as preferred; and the lattice is made of half-inch stuff, an inch 142 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. and a half or two inches wide, put up at a right angle to each other, or at an angle that will make the meshes or open spaces of a rhomboidal form, as in the illustration. The spaces may be of the width of the lattice strips, or from three to four inches wide. The tops of them should be screwed together, instead of nailing them, as screws will hold much better than nails. In putting on the strips, they should be kept at just such an angle; and the surfaces of conjunction, between the two courses of lattice, ought to be painted before the second course is nailed on. THE FORMS OF PICKET TOPS 184. Are as numerous as the different styles of fence, and may be varied to suit the taste of the most fastidious. Many men like the plainest form possible for picket tops; and others, again, think a fence very incomplete and tasteless without ornamental tops of some style. The style of architecture in which the buildings are finished should determine, in a measure, the style of picket tops for the fence which encircles them. Figs. 58, 59, 60, represent turned pickets, and are particularly adapted to rural residences, with spacious dooryards, or lawns, beautifully embellished with a variety of shrubs and evergreens. The top of Fig. 58 is turned in the shape of an egg. The top of Fig. 59 is of any oblong conical form. Fig. 60 is of the form of an acorn. FIGS. 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68. I!L I I1 SFi I FORMS8 OF TOPS OF PICKETS. If it were desirable to have the acorns larger than the main parts of the pickets, they might be turned separately, and a half-inch 143 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. hole bored in the lower ends of the acorns, and tenons made no the upper ends of the pickets. When this mode is adopted, the acorns should be put on tight with good paint. The tenons can be cut with a tenon auger fitted to the mandrel of a lathe, and the acorns bored in a lathe, so that the expense of fitting them up in this manner would be quite small. The ends of round pickets are many times cut off square, or a little rounding, or pointed in a conical form, like those shown at Fig. 56. Fig. 61 represents one of the plainest styles of tops for square or fiat pickets, with the corners sawed off. Fig. 67 is particularly adapted to inclosing buildings of gothic order of architecture. When buildings are of the very plainest order of architecture, Figs. 63 and 64 would correspond quite as well with the work on the buildings as any other style. Figs. 62 and 68 would be in good keeping with the architecture of a country villa, where the balconies and verandahs are encompassed with a balustrade of turned balusters. When buildings are finished with a heavy box cornice, with roof rather fiat, and square columns with bevelled mouldings, instead of a bead, or ogee, or ovals, Figs. 65 and 66 would be in good keeping with the workmanship of them. 185. The most expeditious manner of rounding the tops like Fig. 63 is, to put fifty pickets or so in a gripe, with the top ends all even, fiat sides together, and set them up by the side of a work-bench, letting them stand on the lower ends, and shave the corners nearly round with a drawing-knife, and then a few strokes with a joiner's hollow plane will make them all true. When all the corners are to be cut off, like Fig. 64, a lot of them may be put in a gripe, or they may be cornered with a drawing-knife while they are held in a vise, or they may all be nailed on the rails of the fence, and cornered with drawing-knife and bench plane. Figs. 62, 65, 66, 67, and 68, are usually put in a gripes with top ends even, and laid on the work-bench, and some parts cut with a back-saw and rabbet-plane, or a joiner's dado, or with planes called hollows and rounds. A joiner's dado, for such work, is a very useful tool. There are many other form! for picket tops, but these must suffice for a work of this character. 144 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. SECTON V.-STONE FENCE. "Let me but place one stone within the wall, While the stout masons, with great plumb and line, Are laying the foundations broad and deep."-T. B. RED. 186. Stone fence or stone wall is about the best and most durable and efficient fence that can be erected, when it is properly built; but some farmers, who have an abundance of stone, have no confidence in stone fence, because it tumbles down so frequently in places, making gaps for the ingress or egress of hogs or sheep. But the difficulty is almost always attributable to imperfect workmanship in building. Stone walls are usually built by jobbers, who itinerate through the country in search of labor; and who sometimes understand the business well, and will lay up a good wall if their employer understands what constitutes a good wall, and insists on having his work done to order. Jobbers often will slight their jobs all they possibly can; and if they discover that their employer does not know when the work is well done, they will toss the stones together any how, and pocket their wages and be off. But if they have their orders how to lay up a wall, and these are insisted on at the time of negotiating, and the overseer watches the builders, there will be little danger of stone walls tumbling down in consequence of having been laid up in an unworkmanlike manner. Jobbers will often insist that it is just as well to lay the foundation stones on the surface of the ground, as it is to lay them eight or ten inches below the surface. If the foundation stones were always fiat on the bottom, and large enough to extend entirely across the bottom of the wall, it would be just as well to lay them directly on the surface of the ground, because the entire wall would settle bodily and evenly, and, if the frost gets under it, it will be raised evenly. But when the foundation consists of small stones, either fiat ones or bowlders, they will not settle perpendicularly. Large bowlders, when laid on the surface of the ground, will seldom settle straight down; because, when more rain runs off of one side than the other, the soil in one place will become softer than it is in others, and if '145 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. the stone rests on that point it will be very liable to slide a little sideways in that direction. And when the foundation is a part small bowlders, and another part large flat stones, and another portion something else, the wall will not all settle alike, and the frost will not lift it all alike; and, by constant lifting and letting down, here and there, the wall will begin to spread out in places, and in a few years will tumble down. A wall may often have the appearance of being well laid up, when in reality it has been very imperfectly done. It requires the exercise of good skill and judgment to place every stone in the best position, so that it will not roll or rock about at the slightest touch. Almost every stone has one side a little broader and flatter than the other sides; and the best side should be always laid down, so as to keep the stones from rocking about. If a stone has one good face side, and will lie more substantially with that side down, let it be laid in that position rather than to set it on the edge for the sake of having the face side outwards. It is desirable to have a straight and smooth face to the stones in a wall; but when this object cannot be secured without detracting from the permanence of it, it is best to place the best sides down, even if the wall is not quite as even and smooth as we could desire. A wall may be just as strong when the stones all have a rough and uneven face, as if those rough and uneven corners were all knocked off and a smooth face made on them. When jobbers lay up a wall, the stones of which are mostly small bowlders, if they are not watched closely they will lay up a row for each face, and then throw in small stones without any order at all, to fill up the middle. But such a wall will stand but a few years, because the sides will bulge out in a short time, and it will fall flat to the ground. The stones of a wall should all lie flatly, and lap on one another clear across the wall. Such a mode of laying stone will keep the wall from spreading or bulging out in places. 187. Stone walls are usually built by the perch or by the rod, running measure, with the foundation and top of a given width, and the wall of a given height. A perch of wall is sixteen-and a half feet long, and a foot square, or sixteeni and a half cubic 146 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. feet. A rod of wall may be two feet wide or ten feet wide, and almost any given height, but always sixteen and a half feet long. When walls are laid up dry, the faces or sides should be laid battering, as they will stand much more permanently than when the sides are built perpendicularly. When the stones are mostly small and round, the faces should be laid more battering than when nearly all flat stones are used. If the stones of which a fence is to be made be nearly all large and flat ones, it is quite as well to lay the faces perpendicularly, as battering. The most important idea to be kept in mind in laying up a stone wall is, to have all the stones laid in such a manner as to bind the wall together, from face to face, so that the faces will not separate. The following figures will enable the farmer to know, if he is not a practical stone layer, whether a wall is laid up in a workmanlike manner, or whether it is performed in a slighty, job-cheating way. Fig. 69 represents a transverse section of a fence or stone wall which is laid so as to bind the two faces together, and which is done in a workmanlike manner. It will be perceived that there are no large holes between the stones, and that they are all laid flat, and not pitching this way and that way, and are laid so as to bind from face to face. Fig. 70 shows a section of the same wall, and of the same size, FrIG. 69. A SECEON OF WAU We LAID. FIG. 70. A SECTION OF WALL IltPItOPERLY LAID. and having faces equally as good as Fig. 69, but which is laid up very slig,htlv, with merely a row of stones for each face, while t':;tl J14e of the wall is filled with stones thrown in promiscu 147 THE YOUNG FARMERrS MANUAL. ously, without being placed so as to lie firmly, and without having the face stones chocked on the inside. It is always very important to have the face stones well chocked on the inside. It is of little or no importance, usually, to chock stones on the face side. But if face stones are not well levelled up, and chocked up on the inside, especially in erecting a wall with a single face along a bank of earth, a wall is sure to bulge out and fall in a few years. This explains, in a great measure, why walls under a house or barn often bulge into the cellar and fall: the face stones were not well chocked on the inside; and a small force, produced by the superincumbent pressure of a heavy building, or by the freezing and expansion of the bank against which the wall is erected, will thrust the walls into the cellar. When long stones are laid in a stone wall, and the ends or sides within the wall do not rest one on the other, if they are not chocked clear to the ends, (not back six or eight inches from the ends,) the superincumbent pressure of the stones which rest on the ends of these long stones will tend to bring the ends together, and to separate the ends at the face, thus bringing them into a position to be forced or thrust easily from the centre of the wall. MANIPULATIONS IN BUILDING A STONE WALL. 188. The first thing in building a stone fence usually is, to haul the stone; and they are usually thrown in a long row, exactly where the fence is to stand. This is always wrong. If stones are gathered from year to year, and hauled to a given place for the purpose of making a stone fence, the place where it is to stand should be staked off, and no stone should be dropped within four feet of the point where the face of the wall is to be, on both sides of it. If the wall is to be made six or eight feet wide on the bottom, no stone should be dropped nearer than six feet, especially if they are mostly large ones. It is a great fault with most farmers who build stone fence, to get their stones too close to the wall. It is but the work of a few moments to tumible a large stone six or eight feet; and it is far better to have a stone 148 THIE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. one foot too far away than to have it a foot too close, to obstruct the progress of workmen. 189. When a stone wall is to be erected directly on the surface of the soil, the stones may all be dropped in a long pile where the fence is to be built, and then the workmen can commence at one end and carry the stones back and lay them up; and if they should not be abundant enough without carrying them too far in some places, they can be hauled along the side of the wall where they are needed. But we do not advocate the practice of erecting a stone wall on the surface of the ground, because it will not settle alike, unless the soil is of a uniform quality; and as the frosts of winter will raise it whenever it freezes beneath the foundation stones, it is very liable to freeze in freezing weather on the windward side first; and perhaps it will not freeze on the leeward side at all under the foundation stones. When this is the case, when one side of a stone wall is lifted by the frost, and the whole of it does not go up bodily, the stones will most of them be displaced a little. And again, supposing that it has all been lifted bodily and evenly, when the ground comes to thaw it is not at all likely to thaw evenly and settle uniformly. This will displace the stones a little, and a large number of such little displacements will soon produce bulges in the wall; and as soon as a wall commences bulging here and there a little, it is very liable to fall in a few years. In order to build a wall that will stand as long as any man will need a fence, the soil where the fence is to stand should all be thrown out, to a depth which will insure safety from settling, or from heaving by frost. In some localities the necessary depth will be only four inches, while in other places, perhaps in the same field, a depth of from eight to fourteen inches will be necessary. The foundation stones should be well laid, and chocked up all round. If a large stone, for instance, has but one fiat, or smooth side, and has more the appearance of half of a globe than anything else, it is best to dig a hollow in the hard ground which will correspond well with the round side of it, and place it with the smooth or fiat side up. 190. The width of the wall on the ground must be determined 149 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. in part by the size of the foundation stones. Should there be a good number of large bowlders, from four to five feet in diameter, it will be best to have the wall about that width. Between the bowlders let a row of good stones be laid for each face; now fill up the middle, and level it off entirely across the wall. Then if a large fiat stone, or a number of them, can be obtained, lay them on the long way across the wall, and chock them well, so that a man may step on them without rocking or moving them. If there is a number of ill-shapen, rough-looking bowlders, let them be laid on such places as the tops of the large fiat stones, and chock them well. Let the workmen be particular to break joints well, i. e., let a stone be laid directly over the joints of the two below it; let long stones from each face of the wall extend inward as far as possible, and if a few can be obtained which will extend from face to face, they will render the wall doubly strong. When there are more large bowlders than can be laid in the foundation course, if two or three men cannot lift them two or three feet high on the wall, place a strong bench by the side of the wall, and lay a couple of plank, with one end on the bench and the other on the ground, and roll the large stones up this inclined plane with a cant-hook, and lay them carefully on the wall. In this way one man may handle stones with ease, and place them on the wall three or four feet from the ground, which three or four men could not lift directly to that place. When there is stone enough to build a wall, we will say three feet wide on the bottom, and two feet or two and a half on the top, and three feet high, if there should be enough bowlders about two feet in diameter to form a single row the entire length of the fence, they should be left till the wall is finished, from three to four feet high, as the case may be, and then these bowlders should be laid carefully on the top of the wall, close together, and chocked up well all around. Such bowlders will be more efficient in building a fence when placed in such a part of the wall, than they would be if they were placed near the bottom; but they should be assorted, and those of a given size should be placed together. If we would make a fence five feet high, for example, it may be made three 150 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. feet high as far as the bowlders, which are two feet in diameter, will extend; and then, if a lot of bowlders are but twenty inches in diameter, let the wall be laid a few inches higher, so that the tops of all the bowlders will be of a given height. It is a very great help, in putting on these cope stones, to lay two strips of boards, about three inches wide, and the longer the better, on the top of the wall, with their edges even with the faces of the wall, and then lay on the cope stones, letting them rest on these strips of boards. A board or plank as wide as the top of the wall is often laid on the top for the cope stones to rest on; but two strips of boards, I think, are preferable, because they are cheaper, and they do not require so much chocking on the sides, and any corners or points of the stones will set down between these strips much better than they would rest on a wide plank. What has been penned in the preceding paragraphs has particular reference to walls which are made of all kinds of stone. We shall now notice the best mode of building COBBLE-STONE FENCE. 191. When stone fences are made of small stones only, where there are no flat stones to bind the wall together, small strips of wood, called binders, about an inch wide and one-fourth of an inch thick, which are usually split out of cedar or some other durable wood, are laid between all the courses of stone as thickly as thought proper; but one binder extending entirely across the wall to every six or twelve inches will be sufficient. If the stones are all quite small, it would be well to use more binders than if the stones were larger. The stones will settle a little into these wooden binders, and keep the sides from bulging out and falling down. The binders should not extend beyond the face of the wall far enough to allow cattle to move them; they should be cut of different lengths, when the wall batters on both faces, so as to be just as long as the wall is wide, as the wall increases in height. When any of the binders extend beyond the face of the wall, the ends should be sawed off even with the stones. 7 151 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. This mode of building refers more particularly to walls about thirty inches wide on the bottom, and a foot wide at the top, and from three to four feet high. This kind of wall is sometimes covered with a row of square stones, sometimes one foot square; and sometimes stones from two to six feet long, and from four to ten inches thick, and as wide, or even a few inches wider, than the top of the wall, are placed carefully on the top. Sometimes a stick of timber is placed on the top of the wall, and the top of it dressed in the shape of a roof of a building, and cased and painted. Sometimes, again, when such a wall is from three to four feet high, the top is levelled off, and a board of some durable timber is placed on the top, and stones of a given size, which were reserved when the workmen were carrying up the wall, are placed on the top close together, and chocked up well on both sides. It will require the exercise of a little skill to place these cope stones in the most firm and permanent manner. A large stone should be placed at the end to keep them from moving readily, and the others should be placed in the best possible manner for laying firmly and wedging the entire length of the wall. Sometimes such walls are finished with two or three rails in height, or, what is much better, long poles staked and ridered. 192. Throwing a bank of earth against each side of a wall about two feet high, and sowing grass seed on it, is highly recommended by some, and equally denounced by others. When a wall is resting on a good foundation, below the influence of frost, there can be no advantage in banking up the sides of a wall, excepting this: it prevents stock from approaching as closely to it as they could do if it were not banked up, and consequently they are thus deprived of the advantage they would otherwise have, to rub, and hook, and displace any of the stones. Many farmers contend, and with very plausible reasoning, too, that when a wall is banked up the dirt finds its way between the stones, filling all the spaces so completely that a frost affects a wall just as much, and sometimes even more, than it would if it were built on the surface of the soil. If a wall is properly laid up, a bank of earth on each side will not make it stand any longer than if it were not 152 THEE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. there. The farmer can do as his own judgment may dictate in reference to banking up the sides. 193. Another thing of no little importance in building stone fence is, to lay all the stones as nearly level as may be practica ble. In making a wall up or down a slope, the workmen should always work up hill, laying the stones level, instead of laying them parallel with the surface of the ground. When stones are laid sloping in a wall, they are moved much more easily than when they are laid in a level position; consequently, a wall built in such a manner would not be as strong as it would be were the same stones laid level. 194. Whenever a wall is built along the hillside, and the dirt is hauled down against it, the face of the wall should be more battering than are the faces of a double-faced stone wall. It is a very great error to lay up a wall in such places with the face perpendicular; because the earth will freeze and expand behind the wall, and, unless it is several feet in thickness, it will thrust it over in a very few years. Stone walls that are erected along the sides of abutments should always be laid battering, lest the sides bulge out in a few seasons, and they fall. The face of such a wall should be laid battering not less than one foot in three. For example, if a wall be three feet high, it should be laid battering one foot; and if six feet high, two feet battering. And there is another very important consideration in laying up such a wall, which is almost always entirely overlooked, or not even thought of, which is this: the stones, especially the flat ones, instead of being laid level, as in other kinds of wall, should be laid pitching inward towards the bank or hill above, with their surfaces at a right angle to the face of the wall. When a wall is laid up in this manner, if the frost should ever thrust it over any, it would settle back again to its original position as soon as the earth behind became all thawed out. When a wall is built along a side-hill, as has been mentioned, it should never be less than two feet thick clear to the top. It should be as thick, and even thicker, at the top than at the bottom. The wider it is, the less liable it is to be thrust over by the frosts of winter. In localities 153 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. where there is an excess of water in the soil, arising from springs, a good ditch should be made, and well tiled or stoned two or three feet above the foundation of the fence, in order to receive the water before it should saturate the earth under the foundation of the wall. This precaution will keep the dirt about the wall more dry, and consequently less liable to heave by freezing. DITCHES UNDER STONE WALLS. 195. It is a very common practice with some farmers to throw out the earth, where a stone fence is to be built, to the depth of thirty or forty inches, and from two to four or five feet wide, or as wide as the wall is to be built at the surface of the ground, and then fill this channel with small stones, thrown in promiscuously. In this operation they have two or three objects in view-draining the soil, preparing a good foundation for the fence, and a place for the surplus stone. But this is a very expensive way of disposing of surplus stone of any kind. It would be far more economical to lay them up even on the top of a wall that is already high enough, than to bury them beneath the soil. We do not approve of nor advocate the practice of forming a channel for water beneath a stone wall, by simply allowing the water to percolate between the stones, because dirt will keep working towards the bottom, and mice will haul in dirt in places, so as to stop the passage of water entirely. When it is desirable to have a passage for water under a stone fence, the earth should be thrown out from one to four feet deep, to suit the judgment of the proprietor; and then a channel should be dug in the bottom of this trench from six to twelve inches deep, and a good throat laid, as in an ordinary ditch, and well chinked with small stone, and then filled with the kind of earth that was taken from it, and well trodden down even with the bottom of the large trench. If there should be much water, it would be necessary to make a large throat; but, whether a large or small throat be made, the workman should exercise unusual care to do every part of the work in such a manner that mice cannot possibly find.their way into the throat of the ditch. If the ditch be well chinked 154 THE YOUNG FARMERIS MANUAL. with small stones, and then about six inches of hard earth be well trodden down on these stones, mice will never try to burrow in it, and the water will have a free channel as long as water runs. A row of tile laid beneath a stone fence would be the most complete manner of making a permanent channel for water; but where stone is abundant, economy dictates that they should be used for this purpose. When stone walls are built up and down a steep slope, with a stone drain beneath them where there will be much water, flat stones should be laid in the bottom of the ditch to prevent the water from gullying the bottom of the ditch, and thus undermining the wall. Where there is much flood-water, make a deep furrow on each side of the wall in the former part of summer, and seed it, so that a stream of water will not wash it away. (See MANNER OF STONING DITCHES, Par. 422.) DITCHES ON BOTH SIDES OF A WALL. 196. Many farmers seem to prefer to have a deep ditch usually open on both sides of their stone walls, to having a ditch directly beneath the wall, as has been recommended. The method pursued in such cases is, after the wall is finished, to cut a large open ditch on both sides of the wall, say three or four feet wide on the top, according to the depth of it, and about one foot on the bottom, leaving sufficient space between the ditch and the wall to receive all the dirt, so that when the ditch is finished the embankment on each side of the wall will correspond with the slope of the sides of the ditch. The sides are then sown with grass seed. 197. Although this style of stone fence is very common and much admired, it is decidedly objectionable on account of the expense incurred in cutting two such large ditches, and also the amount of land occupied. If the two ditches are made three feet wide on the top, and the spaces from them to the wall be four feet on each side, and the wall three or four feet wide on the bottom, and as we cannot plow nearer than about two feet to a ditch, it will be perceived that the space occupied by such a fence will be about twenty feet wide, or more, when less than half that 165 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. space, with a ditch beneath the wall, would be much cheaper and subserve a better purpose. HALF WALL 198. In localities where stone is not very abundant, and where there is some fencing timber, a very good, economical, and durable fence can be made by laying a stone wall two or three feet high, according to the amount of stone at hand, and then by staking and finishing with two or more rails, as may be necessary to make it of sufficient height to turn stock. Some farmers finish their stone fence by laying on the top of the wall long poles, say twenty or thirty feet in length, and then staking it, and afterwards laying on heavy poles for riders. 199. Another mode of building half wall fence is, to set the posts as for a whole board fence, and then lay up the wall about half as high as the fence is to be made, and then nail on the two top boards. If the boards should be nailed on before the stone are laid up, they will be very much in the way of the workmen. 200. Another manner of finishing a half wall fence is, to set the posts, and, after the wall is laid up, fasten rails to the posts with wires, as shown by Fig. 22, paragraph 94, skeleton fence. When this mode is adopted, rails may be used, or poles twenty feet long, instead of rails. A CHEAP WALL OF QUARRIED STONE. 201. Whenever stone are quarried expressly for a fence, and they can be taken from the quarry from one to two feet wide, and from two to eight or ten feet in length, a small amount of stone may be made to build a long line of fence, in the following manner, which will stand firmly as long as one man will need the advantages of a good fence, and subserve as good purpose as those walls in which there are three or four times the amount of stone. 202. If the soil where the wall is to be built is at all inclined to be a little wet, let a ditch be made as directed (paigraph 195), and then throw up a ridge of earth over the ditch not less 156 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. than two feet high, and three feet wide on the top of it, and six feet or more at the bottom. Let it all be smoothed off level, and grass seed sowed on it. Allow it to settle for one year or more, and then lay the stone wall directly on the top of this ridge. 203. The object of the ridge of earth is, to save stone; and the object of seeding with grass seed is, to prevent the rain from washing it down; and the object of letting it settle one year or more before the wall is laid on it is, to have the earth the entire length of the ridge of a uniform density, so that the whole wall will settle uniformly. Other advantages of such a wall will be readily perceived without mentioning them. HON. A. B. CONGER'S STONE WALLS. Hon. A. B. Conger, President of the N. Y. State Agricultural Society, has forwarded me his mode of building stone walls, which has been very successfully adopted by many other farmers in various parts of the State. "I cast up a ridge with plows and shovels aL )ut eighteen inches high, one foot or more wider on the top than the bottom of the wall is to be made. This is done at any time befere frost, as opportunity offers. The bottom stone are then hauled on, even in the winter, and placed in a line, without the usual filling in with small stones, so as to have the benefit of being thoroughly bedded in by the following spring, when they can be readjusted, if necessary, to the line, and filled in; and the "seconds "-stones of a smaller size than the bottom ones-are placed upon them, and the wall raised to three and a half feet high, without levelling. After the foundation has been laid, the wall may be left to undergo another settling by the next winter frosts, and early in the succeeding spring can be topped off and finished. In all cases thorough draining of the ground where the wall is built is very necessary for the security of the wall, otherwise water will be absorbed and remain late in the season under the bed of the wall, and so tend to its upheaval. "It may be added, that the strength of the wall and its durability will be materially assisted by the care of the builder in chink 157 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. ing in all the interstices between the large stones, and especially by a careful binding of the sides together, as only in this way can displacement be prevented under the action of our severe winters. In passing across gullies, or over undulating fields, it may be well, in order to give the wall when finished a more uniform top-line, to lay a lower wall of the rougher stone of a height to correspond with that of the ridge on which they are placed. The width and height of a wall will necessarily vary with the quality, size and character of the stone. If large bowlders exist in abundance, they must be blasted when they are larger in diameter than the base of the wall. It will be sufficient to build the wall four feet wide at the bottom, four feet eight inches high, and twenty inches wide at the top. If the stone are of a smaller size, and cobbles mostly, or of slate, the width at the bottom may be two and a half feet only. "It is understood that a wall is considered of a lawful height if it is four feet six inches high. But I have thought best to construct my walls four feet eight inches high, so as to allow for settling." Some farmers cut an open ditch on both sides of the wall, and throw up the dirt on the top of the ridge against each side of the wall, so that animals cannot approach the wall. But such ditches take up too much land, and increase the expense of a fence to an unnecessary amount. (See par. 196 and 197.) QUARRYING STONE. 204. The first step in taking stone of any kind from a quarry is, lo remove the dirt from a large surface. Sometimes this may be done with a team and scraper; and sometimes, when a stream of water is near, it may be turned out of its natural course and made to wash the dirt away; and sometimes it must be removed with shovels. When the surface of the stone is all laid bare, if the stone is found with regular, vertical, and horizontal seams, at the distance of a foot or so, it will be very easy to get thei,out. It requires the exercise of a little judgment and skill to quarry 158 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. stone, or the operator will make bad work by damaging many good blocks of stone, that might, by a skillful workman, be taken out of the quarry of a very desirable size and form. Stone are not very elastic, and the operator should bear in mind that he cannot drive in wedges in the seams of stone as carelessly as he may in a block of wood. Stone will break before they will render, or give but little; therefore it will not answer to drive in wedges all in one place. 205. A workman in a quarry needs a half score of wedges many times. They should be about four or five inches long, one inch and a half wide, and about three-eighths of an inch thick, of the very best iron, and steel-pointed. These should be driven in the seams not more than one foot apart, and all driven at one time, by striking them alternately one or two blows at a time. This will open a seam uniformly, without danger of breaking a stone. But if a wedge be driven in at a corner, for example, unless the stratum is very thick the corner will be very liable to break off. Where the courses are laid bare, having vertical seams from two to four or five feet apart, and the strata from four to twelve inches thick, the surface should be marked off in a square form, of the size of which it is desirable to have the stone, and then a row of holes may be drilled eight or ten inches apart where the stone is to be broken, and iron wedges driven into these holes until the stone separates. Two pieces of half round iron should be placed in each hole, leaving a space in the middle of each hole for a fiat wedge to enter between the two pieces of half round iron. When the strata are not very thick, and the stone are such as may be broken with fire, the strata may be broken by fire instead of drilling holes and separating with wedges. It is usually best to drive most of the wedges at the end in lifting a stratum of rather thin stone, although some wedges may be driven on the side; but if the wedges should be driven mostly on one side, a stone will seldom break square across the stratum. WVhen the strata are rather thin, by cutting a groove with a cold chisel about an inch deep where it is desirable to break the stratum, if the wedges be driven in the side opposite the groove, 7* 159 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. the stratum will break very true where the groove has been cut. TOOLS FOR HANDLING STONE. 206. In addition to a good crowbar or two, and hand-spikes, a good canthook, represented by Fig. 71, is a very useful and - convenient implement for handling bowlders which two or three men could not handle with crowbars without much difficulty. But with a good canthook one man can roll along a bowlder of six or eight hundred pounds with ease, and by using a couple of plank he ~.> ~ ~ will be able to load such a stone on a sleigh or stone-boat in a very few minutes. 207. The handle of the canthook is al most always made too large and clumsy. It should be about six feet in length, and of a uniform taper from the mortise where the hook enters it to the end, which end need not be larger than the end of a fork handle. The other end may be tapered off, as shown in the cut. At the mortise it should be about two by three inches square, or even smaller if the timber be of the best quality, otherwise it must be larger. The hook should be made of the best iron, about an inch and a half wide and three eighths of an inch thick, with half-inch holes every two inches, and from twenty to thirty inches long, according to the size of stone or logs to be rolled with it. At the hook end it must be made much heavier and stronger than the other part of it. The curvature of the hook is a very important feature of it. If it is curved but little it will hook on a large stone or log very readily, and will not hook on a small one. But if the curvature of it will admit of its hooking to a small stone, it will usually hook on a larger one, except it is very large. The bolt which holds the hook should work easily in and out, and be fastened with a leather key. 208. The grapple hook, Fig. 72, is used for hooking on to large stone with a team, in rolling them over and over, or in lift 160 0 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. ing one end of a stone, so that a chain can be passed around it, when one end of it is in the ground. It is very convenient in a quarry, for hitching a team to a corner of a large stone, when it FIG. 72. FIG. 73. A GRAPPLE HOOK HITCHFD) TO) A LARGE BOWI DER. A WINDLASS FOR LOADING STONE ON A WAGON. is desirable to slide it- a little. With three or four such hooks, a stone may be slung up, when it would be very inconvenient get. ting a chain round it. 209. The grapple hook should be made of about the same curvature as the iron part of the canthook, Fig. 71, with a link and ring in one end, as shown in Fig. 72, for the purpose of hitching a chain to when in use. It should be made froic eight. een to twenty-four inches long, of the best iron, with the point of the hook laid with steel. The hook should be large enough to retain its shape without bending, even when two teams may be hitched to it. At the hook end, where it is exposed to the greatest strain, it should be about three-fourths of an inch thick and two inches wide. The other parts need not be half as heavy as this. 210. Fig. 73 shows a portion of a platform to a wagon or sleigh, with a windlass attached to the hind end, for the purpose of loading stone which would weigh from one hundred to three or four hundred pounds. One man can roll a stone, which three or four men cannot lift, on the wagon; and by having a windlass on the hind end of the wagon, one man can raise a large stone on the wagon in one minute, with case. In loading a stone, the fore cnd of the platform should 161 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. be fastened down, so that it cannot tip up without raising the forward wheels of the wagon. Hitch the chain around the stone, and raise it as high as the top of the platform, and then let a board be slid under the stone, with the two ends resting on the sills of the platform. The stone can then be rolled forward on the platform, and another raised in the same manner. 211. The windlass should be about three inches in diameter, of good timber, and about thirty inches above the sills of the platform. The sticks for turning the windlass should be at least four feet in length, and if the timber be very tough, one inch in diameter is large enough for ordinary purposes. The ends of the sills should extend beyond the cross-piece about eighteen inches, as shown by the figure. A small chain is best, although a rope would subserve a good purpose, for winding up on the windlass. 212. For loading stone on a wagon, which will weigh from four hundred pounds to a ton or more, a set of sheers and tackles, Fig. 74, is about as convenient and efficient as anything FIG. 74. j~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GIN FOR LOADING LOGS AND STONE. in the line of cheap implements which can be made use of. Almost every farmer often sees the need of such an apparatus for many purposes besides loading stone. It hardly neecs a description; but to aid the beginner, we will give the chief 162 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. dimensions. The sheers should be not less than sixteen feet in length, of light timber, and should be larger in the middle of the sticks than at the ends, to keep them from bending. The single sheer, or the one to which a windlass is attached, for winding up the slack rope, should be, in the middle, of a size equivalent to a scantling three by four inches square. The other two sheers may be two and a half by three inches in the middle, and tapering to each end to two inches square, in order to render them as light as possible. At the upper end of the single sheer an iron rod, about seven-eighths of an inch in diameter, and twenty inches long, should be fastened, by passing through it, for holding the other two sheers, which should have an inch and a quarter hole in their upper ends for receiving the ends of this rod in the single sheer. The tackles may be made by almost any mechanic, with cast-iron sheaves. A rope an inch in diameter is large enough to hold one ton and a half, when the rope is threedouble, or three sheaves in the upper block of pulleys. 213. Such an apparatus is very convenient in hoisting large stone on to any part of a stone wall, and especially in placing large stone on the top of a wall. It may be used also very advantageously in loading logs and timber, and such like, on a wagon. In extensive quarries a crane will be found to be more efficient and convenient than almost any other apparatus, for hoisting the stone from their bed on a wagon or other vehicle. As cranes may be seen in every locality where stone quarries abound, we do not think it advisable to give, in this place, a cut and description of one. When the farmer has a quarry of any kind of stone, if he has not in his employ a man who has a good share of practical experience in quarrying stone, he will find it very much to his interest and convenience to visit some extensive quarry, and spend a day or so in witnessing the manipulations of the workmen, and in making inquiries of the foreman and proprietor in relation to the business, and in examining the tools used in quarrying. A day or two spent in this manner may be worth hundreds of dollars to an individual, in enabling him to start in his operations in the most efficient manner. Scores of 163 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. men have been in the possession of excellent quarries, but who, for the want of getting started right in the quarry, and not knowing exactly what they really needed, have blundered along at a very great useless expense and inconvenience for a long time, or many times have entirely abandoned the operation as a non-paying business, when a day or two spent in examining the machinery, &c., of an extensive quarry would have enabled them to start right, and progress with all desirable rapidity and efficiency. BREAKING STONE WITH FIRE. 214. Many kinds of stone may be broken very readily and very expeditiously with fire. Large bowlders, when a fire is built on them, will, in a short time, separate into small pieces; and many times these pieces will have straight edges and smooth and true faces, and may be used in a foundation for a building, or in stone fence, with no little econominy. When a large bowlder is mostly below the surface of the ground, let the earth be thrown away from it all around as low as the middle of it, and then pile on a lot of old rails or pieces of stumps, or even good wood, and it will soon crack into pieces so that they may be pried out with the crowbar. Should it not be broken clear to the bottom, apply the fire again after the broken pieces have been removed. Sometimes, after the fire has been burning for a few minutes, the top of the bowlder will be covered with large scales of stone, which should be immediately removed, in order to allow the fire to come in contact with the unbroken stone. Some kinds of stone that are taken from the quarry may be broken very straight and true into almost any desired shape. In many quarries stone are often taken out ten or twenty feet in length, and from six to ten or twelve inches in thickness, and sometimes from one foot to three feet in width, with straight edges and true and smooth sides. Now, in order to break them in pieces of a desirable size, let little fires be made with hard, dry wood, across the stone where it is desirable to break it, and in a few minutes a seam will be 164 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. formed so that a crowbar will easily separate them. We have often broken large flat stone, very true and straight, with fire, by laying a scantling about four inches wide on the place where it is to be broken, and then shovelling dirt on both sides of the scantling, about an inch in depth. Take up the scantling, and make a fire with short pieces of dry wood, split very fine, the whole length of the stone where it is to be broken. Small hard wood chips are the most convenient article to make a fire with in such a place. The dirt is to prevent the fire from heating the stone on each side of the line where it is desirable to have it broken. If the fire burns uniformly entirely across the stone, it will require but ten or fifteen minutes before it will crack, when the fire should be immediately removed lest it should injure the edges of the stone. Small thin stone may be broken very readily by heating a large bar of iron and laying it on the stone where it is to be broken. 215. Some kinds of stone will not break at all with fire, and some kinds will crumble to pieces before they will break in two parts. The beginner can soon learn, by a little observation and experience, which kinds may or may not be broken with fire. SECTION 6.-FENCE POSTS. 216. There are several considerations of first importance in making fence posts, which should not be overlooked. One is the length of posts. Posts are cut, many times, nearly one foot longer than is necessary. If all the logs of a tree be cut one foot longer than necessary, there will be waste of timber enough in one tree, many times, to make a cut for posts. The farmer should calculate how deep he intends to set the posts, and how long they are to be above ground, and then cut them but three or four inches longer than that length. 217. Another thing is the size of posts. When timber is good and well-seasoned, a large post will always outlast a small one; therefore, it is not a bad fault, so far as durability is 165 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. concerned, to have posts large; but, on the score of economy, it is not best to have them very large. It is much better to have them too large than too small. A post six inches square is much better, and will last longer, than one four inches square; but it would not be an economical manner of working up timber to make ordinary posts six inches square. For ordinary fence, sawed fence posts may be about four inches square at the lower ends, and two by four inches at the upper ends; but some prefer to have them sawed five by five at the lower ends, and five by two or three inches at the tops. For a high fence, like Fig. 39, this last size would be better than a size smaller. In splitting fence posts, when a portion of a log is rather large for two posts, and too small for three posts, it is much better to make them a little too large than too small. It is much more economical to have posts sawed out than to split and hew them, when a saw-mill is not more than two or three miles distant, providing the timber is large. It is not practicable to split as many posts out of a log, even when it splits well, as can be sawed from the same amount of timber. By sawing the lower ends large, and the upper ends proportionally smaller, there is always a saving of timber, and the posts are of a much better form. If timber is very small, and will split good, it might be best to split them out, instead of sawing them. Sometimes, when small timber is winding, four posts, worth fifty cents or more, might be sawed out of a small log which could not be split into posts, and which, if not sawed, would make only one post. 218. Another thing, which seems almost superfluous to mention, is, the kind of timniber for posts. Red cedar and mulberry are, perhaps, more durable than almost any other kinds of timber; yellow locust, oak of different kinds, butternut, red elm, red beech, and many other kinds not mentioned, will make good posts. The butt-ends of trees, when the trees are sound and healthy, are usually more durable than cuts near the tops of the trees. It is always very poor economy to make fence posts, and especially gate posts, of perishable kinds of timber, such as sugar-maple, or 166 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. bass-wood, and such like. All kinds of posts should be seasoned at least one year before they are set in the ground. 219. Hewing posts.-When posts have been split out, the most convenient mode of scoring and hewing them is, to lay the post to be hewed on two large blocks or logs, and then drive in two stakes or pins, about six or seven inches apart, in one log, and let them extend beyond the surface of the log eight or ten inches, and key the post with a wedge in the desired position between these two stakes; then line it and hew it. Some men prefer hewing their posts after they have been set in the ground, but the practice is not a good one, because it loosens them. 220. Sharpening posts.-When the ends of posts are to be sharpened, if they are so large that a man cannot hold them erect with one haild, with the post standing on a firm block, while he sharpens it with an axe in the other hand, they mnay be fastened with a wedge in a gain cut in a heavy log, in a device similar to the one for holding posts when they are to be hewed, as shown by Fig. 75. It requires the exercise of a little skill to FIG. 75. A POST CLA1P FOR HOLDING WHILE SHARPENING. sharpen a post in a proper manner for driving well. The bevel or slant should be of exactly a given angle on each side of the post. The following figures will give some correct idea on the subject: Fig. 76 represents a post sharpened in the most proper manner. A post sharpened thus, when it is being driven, will go straight down, if the point does not hit a stone. Figs. 77 and 78 represent two posts improperly sharpened. Although they may go straight down, when sharpened like Fig. 78, they 167 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. will drive very har FIGS. 79, 76, * mm , -' i i they are too blunt. When they are sharpened like Fig. 77, it is almost impossible to keep them, when driving them, in a perpendicular position. Sometimes, when posts are not entirely straight, the sharpening must all be done on two or three sides of it only, as the case may require. Fig. 79 will furnish a very good idea of the most proper manner of sharpening a crooked post, in order to have it drive true. The dotted lines will show on which side the MODE OF SHARPENING FENCE POSTS. post should be sharpened. The idea to be kept in mind in sharpening a crooked post is, to work by a line drawn from the centre of the top of the post, Fig. 79, at a to b, and then bevel the end on both sides of this line, so that the angle of the bevelling will be nearly the same on both sides of the line a b. It will be perceived by the figure that the sharpening is almost all done on one side, at b; but a thin chip only was taken from the other side. A workman who has a mechanical eye, will sharpen posts with all desirable accuracy without a line. HIe will cast his eye from end to end of a crooked post, and at a glance observe about how much must be cut off on each side, in order to make it of a true taper, and then will snatch up his axe and cut it off while another man would be getting ready to sharpen it. In sharpening straight posts, a workman must calculate to have the point at the centre of the post, and to have the cut on each side of the post of a true taper, from fifteen or twenty inches from the end, according to the size of the post, to the point, like Fig. 76. If these rules, which may seem trivial to some, are observed, the beginner will soon be able to sharpen his posts with necessary accuracy. If the ends of posts are of a true taper from the points to that part which is at the surface of the ground, they will enter the ground much easier; but they will not stand as well as 168 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. those which have a short taper. Pointed posts are far more liable to be lifted out by the frost than those which are of full size clear to the end, and we would not recommend the practice of pointing fence posts; but as farmers will persist in doing it, we have thought proper to give some practical hints on the subject, to aid the inexperienced workmen in doing the job in a workmanlike manner. Let the farmer avoid sharpening posts like Fig. 77. JENKINS' PATENT CAST-IRON POST. 221. Fig. 80 represents a cast-iron fence post for board fence; but the pattern for it may be made shorter, with holes in it for receiving the ends of the rails for picket fence. The entire length of this kind of post is six feet. The breadth is three and a half inches. The length below the flange or cross-pieces is eighteen inches, tapering and terminating as shown FIG. 80. in the figure, in a barbed or spear-head end. The flange is two inches wide, eighteen inches long, with a mortise in the middle of it, through which the post is inserted,-the flange being put over the 8 top of the post, and resting on little shoulders or projections, eighteen inches from the lower end. The main part of the post, through which the mortises are made, is one-fourth of an inch thick, with a flange around the margin, from half an inch to three-fourths of an inch wide, to give strength to the posts. The mortises for the boards are two inches wide, and of any desirable length. 222. The object of the flange or cross-piece is, to aid in keeping the fence erect, and to prevent the frost heaving it. Holes are made with a crowbar for the posts, when a piece of hard wood plank is thrust through the lower mortise, and the posts are driven in by striking on the edge of the plank., CAsr-nLON Afterwards the cross-piece is put on; and a ridge of FACE POr. earth is thrown up along the fence to save one board, and to cover 169 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. the cross-pieces, and thus keep the posts in their places. The posts should receive a good coating of pitch and gas tar, applied hot, which will keep them from rusting. If this is not done, in some r L i I E .,I!1 ll 11 C I I ~!tII It — -— X, -.-~ Ji . SECTION OF BOARD FENCE WITH CAST-IRON POSTS. soils such posts would corrode or rust so rapidly, that in less than twenty years the wind would blow them over. But by smearing them they will last for ages. 223. The weight of a post will be according to the pattern and style of fence. For ordinary board fence, if they weigh from twelve to fifteen pounds they will be sufficiently strong. If a goodly number were ordered, they could probably be obtained for about three cents per pound in most of our cities. One such post is worth two posts of the most durable kinds of timber. 224. In making a board fence with such posts, stretch two lines, one a few inches above the surface of the ground, and the other near the tops of the posts; and drive every post so that the top mortise will exactly coincide with the line. Now, put in the boards, and smear the ends, where they come in contact with each other, with paint or coal tar. No nails are required in building such a fence; no post holes are to be dug; and the posts may be set twelve feet or more apart, and the ends of the boards driven into the mortises. If the boards are not very stiff, nail a narrow strip across all of them at the middle of each panel. A fence built with such posts in a workmanlike manner, is worth all the portable board fences in America. Alex. S. - l !I i 170 -iGU,SiN THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. Rowley, Hudson, N. Y., holds the right for these posts, who will sell farm or State rights for them. REMEDY TO PREVENT POSTS BEING LIFTED BY THE FROST. 225. When posts having a straight end of uniform size are set in the ground, unless they are set three or four feet deep in the ground, they are very liable to be lifted out of the ground in a few years by the influence of the frost. In dry localities, however, the freezing and thawing of the ground has little or no effect on them. Setting very deep in the ground is the - usual remedy against their heaving out in the winter, but a more convenient and cheaper one is to bore a two-inch hole through the bot tom of each post, and drive in a hard wood pin, allowing it to extend beyond the surface of the post about four inchles, and then in setting the posts place a stone on each end of the pin, and let FIG. 81. the dirt be well rammed down on the stones. - Another and better remedy is, to cut a notch on each side of the bottom of the post, about four inches from the lower end, and ram the dirt well into these notches, or place stones in them, as shown by Fig. 81, which represents a post with stones placed in the notches. Posts may be cut on both sides, if they are of good size, so that in .. the thinnest place they will be not more than one inch and a half thick, without injuring their ti strength or durability, because at the bottom of a post, which is from two to three feet below the surface of the ground, but little strength is neces sary; and at that depth in the ground a post deMODE OF PRE.E-,-NG cays very slowly. It should be remembered, that FENCE PI S rS BEING LaED BY-rTH, CosT. posts decay most at the surface of the ground. When posts are rather small, a notch may be cut only on one side of them for receiving the stone. This is a most effectual rene dy for the heaving of posts by frost. 171 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. DIGGING POST HOLES 226. Is a part of fence building which may be performed at "odd spells," and may be done by the forces of the farm which are very awkward and unskillful in everything they attempt to perform, providing the work is all laid out for them, so that it will be barely possible to do anything wrong. In the first place, set two stakes and plow a deep trench, as stated, if the saving of labor is any object, and then stretch a line four or six rods long, and have a little pole as long as the distance is to be between the posts, from centre to centre, and measure along the line, and stick a little stake exactly where the centre of every hole is to be made. With the spade cut a circle in the sod or dirt around these little stakes, and throw out the dirt with the spade for one foot or so in depth, if the earth is not too hard to be spaded with facility. Let the digger be careful not to work the holes sb far on one side of the centre that the posts cannot be placed in range with each other. There is no necessity of digging the holes for ordinary fence posts more than one foot in diameter. If the ground is very hard and dry, it must be picked up with the crowbar or spud, and taken out with the dirt-spoon. If the ground is not stony, the post-hole augur (Fig. 99) may be used to great advantage, especially after a hole is two feet deep. In digging large holes for gate posts, or straining-posts for wire fence, which are to be four feet deep, an expert digger will sink such a hole much the quickest by stepping down into it, and by making it at least thirty inches in diameter at the top and nearly two feet at the bottom. The hole for fence posts should be large enough to admit the rammer freely all round them when they are being set. SETTING FENCE POSTS. 227. Let the post be placed in the hole so that it will almost touch both the upper and lower line, (see mode of adjusting the lines, par. 152,) and throw in a little dirt, say enough to fill the hole around the post not more than two inches after it is well rammed; put in as much more and ram it. and the post will stand without 172 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. holding it. Be careful in ramming not to move the post by ramming too hard on one side of it. Be very particular in making the bottoms of the posts firm. Let the dirt be well rammed in at the top of the holes, by filling in a little at a time; and let the earth be raised around each post a little above the level of the ground, with the hardest kind of dirt. This will keep the posts from becoming loose. When small stones are used for filling the holes around the posts, they should be placed with care, and in such a position that, by being rammed a little, they will hold the post very securely. When there is water in post holes, it must be bailed out, as it is not practicable to make a post stand firmly when there is water in the hole. Posts are somtimes set in grout, which is made of good sand and water-lime, and poured among the stones which are placed in the holes around the posts. This renders them very firm, but the frosts of winter are very liable to injure it as deep as it freezes. 228. Posts are often set by driving them in a hole made with a crowbar; but as a general thing I never could like it as well as setting them in holes that have been dug. I have often practised driving posts in the bottom of the holes after they have been dug two feet deep, and I have always found that this practise saves much digging; and the posts are more solid and quicker set than when the holes are dug as deep as the posts are to be set. By digging two feet, and driving one foot or more, posts will be sufficiently deep for ordinary fences. 229. In driving square posts a wrench is very necessary to keep them from turning from a right line when they are being driven. For this purpose an iron wrench, large enough to fit on the post, may be used, or a mortise as large as the post may be made in a piece of tough plank, or a gain may be sawed in the edge of a plank, and the posts held in the desired position by one workman while another drives them with a sledge. When posts are driven without any digging, the workmen are too apt to drive them only twenty or twenty-five inches, instead of thirtyfive and forty inches deep, as they should be. It is no easy job to drive a post three feet into the ground in some localities, while 173 THIIE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. in others a post may be driven clear down with comparatively few blows. In such places driving posts is preferable to setting them in holes which have been dug. CHARRING POSTS, 230. With a view to render them more durable, has long been commended by men who ought to pass for good authority on such subjects; but the beginner may rest assured that the practice is by no means a good one, as a post will last longer when not charred than when charred; and this is particularly true of green timber. I am fully persuaded, that if posts of green timber be charred it hastens their decay. Charcoal, we all know, is very durable in the ground, but posts which have been charred are not all converted into charcoal. Simply a small portion of the outside, by being charred, is rendered more durable. But this does not exclude moisture from the wood inside or beneath the charred portion. There is a thin portion of wood just between that which has been converted into coal and the remainder of the post which has not been affected by the fire, which has been heated almost to a burning point, which will quickly decay, when the whole charred portion will afford no more protection from the influences of the weather than so much loose charcoal placed around a post. Posts are charred usually around the part that will come, after they have been set, just at the surface of the ground, because posts always decay first near that point; and if that part could be rendered as durable by any artificial means as the other portions of the posts, they would last as long as we could desire. When posts are charred they are almost always burned too much. It is necessary to form only a thin coal on the outer surface, which is just as efficacious as if coal an inch thick were formed around the posts. 231. In order to place the matter beyond a doubt, let two posts be taken from the same log, and from the same portion of the log, and let them be seasoned for one year; and then ret one be charred, and both of them set in the ground where the soil 174 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. and moisture are as nearly equal as they can be, and if the charred post outlasts the uncharred one, the result will be in favor of charring them. STEEPING FENCE POSTS 232. In different kinds of antiseptic liquid, for the purpose of rendering them more durable, has been often practised with very good success. The process has been denominated Kyanizing and Burnettizing timber, from the names of the inventors. Kyan used corrosive sublimate, and Burnett used chloride of zinc. A tank or vat is prepared, or a molasses hogshead will subserve a good purpose, and about one measure and a half of the dry chloride of zinc to about one hundred measures of water are put in the tank and well stirred together, when the posts are set in this liquid, and allowed to remain ten or fifteen days, or until they become thoroughly saturated with the liquid. They should then be taken out, and allowed to dry, under cover, until they are entirely dry. It is necessary to saturate only that part of the posts which is set in the ground, and a few inches above the surface of the ground. 233. Dr. Boucherie, of Paris, France, has used for this purpose about one pound of sulphate of copper to one hundred pounds of water. It is contended that timber thus treated is rendered more firm, and will endure three times longer than if it had not been submitted to the process of steeping it in the liquor of an antiseptic character. In some localities there are companies having suitable apparatus for impregnating large quantities of wood with an antiseptic liquid, for bridges, ships, &c., and it is considered to be a process which pays exceedingly well. 234. The practice of boring a hole in posts near the surface of the ground, and filling it with common salt, is but a modification of steeping. The salt soon becomes dissolved, and is absorbed by the wood, and thus preserves a small portion of the post for a short time. All these processes which have been mentioned are chemical processes of preserving wood. There are mechanical modes of preserving posts, of which I will mention but one, 8 175 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. which is, smearing the parts of posts near the top of the ground, for a few inches above the ground and several inches below it, with melted pitch or coal tar, or anything else which will exclude the moisture. A mixture of equal parts of pitch and coal tar, applied hot to posts, is far more effectual in rendering fence posts durable, in my own estimation, than any chemical antiseptic liquor that has been used for that purpose. A good coat of such materials will protect posts much longer than we are wont to suppose, until we have tested it in a practical manner. THE TOP END OF TIMBER UP, AGAINST TOP END DOWN. 235. Almost every man who has ever set fence posts, and many who have never set a post, will recommend setting them with the top end of the wood in the ground, affirming that they will last many years longer than if the butt end was set in the ground. But we have never seen nor heard of a philosophical reason why they will last longer when the top is in the ground; and we never had one atom of confidence in the theory, and we never expect to have, until it has been fairly and honestly shown that the theory is a correct one. It is a most palpable absurdity to affirm that a post will last longer when placed in a reversed position from that in which it grew. This is not the place to show, by extended argument, that the theory is a false one, but those who are anxious to investigate the matter may find an article on this subject from the pen of the author, in the Country Gentleman for 1858, page 323. It is sufficient to say, in this place, that posts well seasoned before they are set in the ground will tell infinitely more on their durability than the position in which they may be placed. SECTION 7.-GATES. " Opes the gate that hung for ages, Rusting ill its old repose, Which, once swung upon its hinges, There's no giant hand can close."-RFn's NEw PASRK. 236. A gate closes a passage or opens a way to an enclosure, and consists, usually, of a rectangular frame, made of wood or of 176 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. iron, or of beth these materials, and is so adjusted on hinges or rollers that the force of a child can open and close it at pleasure. FIG. 82. I I 1 5 1 \\.. ao *. 3 ~ eo o. A SUBSTANTIAL FARM GATE. 237. The essential and very important parts of a gate are, a heel-post or stile a (Fig. 82, inserted at the head of this arti cle); the head or latch stile b; the top bar or arm c; the lower arm d; the slats or the filling, which extend from the heel stile to the head stile; the stay or stays, or those pieces which extend across the middle of the gate vertically; and the struts, or those pieces which extend diagonally in the direction from the bottom of the heel stile towards the top of the head stile. Ties extend from the upper end of the heel stile to the lower end of the head stile, or in that direction. The struts operate as supports to the gate to keep it in an unchangeable position and shape. The strut of the gate operates as a pillar, and the force applied to it is a compressive force. The ties operate in an opposite direction, and sustain the gate by suspension. Struts are more effectual in keeping a gate in position and shape when they are made of wood than when made of iron, unless they are made of a bar heavy enough not to be bent by the weight of the gate. Ties are more frequently made of wood, in wooden gates, but large wire, with a nut and screw on one end, and a head on the other, makes a tie which will keep a gate in shape and position as long as the wood remains sound. Stays are very important in a gate; and every gate that is long enough to allow a load of grain or of c I. .1I 177 a 6:-'::;!: i —. & 8 a . 3 ----- - ------- THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. hay to pass, should have not less than one stay. -The slats frequently pass through mortises in the stays, but, as a general rule, the stays are nailed, riveted, or bolted to the slats. INSTRUCTIONS TO AID IN MAKING A GATE. 238. Every young farmer should learn to make his own gates. It requires but little mechanical skill to make one, and it will not be any disadvantage to a man to exercise his mechanical faculties in using tools a little, even if he is abundantly able to hire every such job performed. It cannot be denied that there are a few men in the world who always make a complete botch of every job they attempt to do, and the true reason is, they lack the exercise of energy and perseverance. If a man will go to work with a determination to succeed in performing a job well, he seldom fails, after a few trials. There are thousands of young farmers who could, with the instructions we shall give in this place, make gates for all their fields, and they need only occupy the hours which they squander in idleness. Come on, then, my good friends, and make a gate, and hang it in the place of those bars which you have taken out and put in a hundred and one times during the busy season, and see if you do not detect a smile on your countenance every time you go through it; and listen, and you will, doubtless, hear the proprietor soliloquizing thus: "This is truly more convenient than those old bars. I wonder I did not have one years ago. I shall soon save time and strength enough to make a gate; and, more than this, Eddy can open and shut it, and turn away the cows, and bring them up." Don't be disheartened because you cannot make one quite so neatly and quickly as I can. I can make a gate like any one of the cuts given here, and plane it, paint and hang it in a day, and dig the holes for the posts; and can make six such gates in a week, in a workmanlike manner, and hang them, too,-and I never had one single word of instruction about any part of the business. If you will make as good a one in two days, ve will give you a meed of praise, of "well done." 239. In the first place, have a log of good oak timber for THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. gates, like Fig. 82, sawed into stuff, a part three by six inches square, for the heel or hinge stiles, and a part into slats, one by three, and a part into upper arms, c, three by six at one end, and three by three at the other end, and have the sawyer saw the upper arms at the mill like the arm in Fig. 82, as far as the jog in it. At the jog in the arm it should be about three by four inches. The piece that is taken off will make a good head or latch stile. As soon as the timber is sawed out, let it be stuck up, very straightly, under shelter, where it can sea son not less than one year. If any of the pieces are sprung after being sawed, if the pile is stuck up straight put a lot of stones or timber on the pile to bring all the pieces down straight. 240. The next thing will be, to have a few tools in order to work with. The planes must be sharpened after they have been ground, on an oil-stone, which will give the irons a fine, keen edge (see EDGE TOOLS). Let the chisels be well sharpened, for it is impossible to make a good mortise with dull chisels. Let the hand-saw be well filed and set. Saw off a piece of scantling for the hinge stile, as long as desirable, and plane off the smoothest and truest side of it, and mark it with a pencil as the face side. It is very important to have the face side not only straight, but true, i. e., not winding. Fig. 83 represents a hinge stile laid out ready for mortising; a is the face side and b the FIG 83. work side. If the face side of the stile should be a little winding, it may be the means of making the whole gate winding. Therefore, to ascertain whether the face is winding, lay it on the bench face side up, and lay on the square at one end and the jointer planet -'b a at the other end, and look over the edge of the square to the jointer; and if the edges of the square and plane coincide with each other, the face is true. If the face is not true, the mortises will not be true. Apply the try-square, and see if the work side is at a 4right angle with the face. Plane this side straight and true, and mark it (see How TO PLANE). NOW, with the rule and scratch-awl, prick off the spaces a.nT s' 179 TIHE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. for the mortises (see Fig. 82), and then, with the try-square and scratch-awl, make marks across the work side, b, as in the figure. Place the square against the work side always, not against the side opposite the work side, and make the marks across the face side of stile, as in the figure. Then, from these marks, with the square against the face side, draw the marks on the side opposite the work side. Have two points in the gauge just one inch apart. (I would not recommend to purchase a mortise gauge, for they cost too much. A common gauge, costing fifteen or twenty cents, with two steel points for marking, will answer a good purpose.) Run the gauge along against the face side, and mark the sides of the mortises, both on the work side and on the side opposite to the work side. Lay the stile on two benches as high as a man's knees, and have it lay level. One cannot work as well when a stick does not lie level. Bore the mortises half through from each side, and dress the sides of the mortise to the mark. Or the stiles may be bored with the boring machine (Fig. 122). Be careful and not break the wood over the mark. With mallet and corner chisel, head down the ends. If the farmer has no corner chisel, let him procure one, for it is worth a score of straight chisels for making mortises. See that the mortises are true clear through the stile. If they should be a little winding, and if the tenon is made to fit tightly, the stile will most certainly split when the gate is put together. Now plane out the latch stile, and lay it by the side of the other stile; and lay out the mortises, and see if they correspond with each other. After the mortises are made, bore the holes for the draw-pins in the stiles. Half-inch or five-eighths are sufficiently large. Dress out the arm of the gate, having a face side and a work side. Let the face side on the arm be on the face side of the stile, and the work side of the arm upwards. Lay out the tenons with the gauge, and make them a sixteenth of an inch wider than the length of the mortise, so that they will be tight when driven in. If the tenons are a trifle too thick, they will split the stile. Make the tenons on the slats, and have a little shoulder 180 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. on one edge at each end. See that the tenons on the slats are not too thick, but have them a sixteenth of an inch wider than the mortise. Drive stiles and slats firmly together, and mark the tenons in the holes of the stiles with the bit. Drive the stiles partly off, and bore the holes in the tenons about a sixteenth of an inch nearer the shoulders than they are in the stile. Give all the tenons a good painting, or smear them with coal tar, and drive them together and pin them, painting the pins when they are driven in. A gate usually decays first in the joints, and if they be well painted, and the draw pins, which should be made of oak or yellow locust, well painted when they are driven in, a gate will last forty years. Put on the stays by cutting a gain on one side of the arm, about half an inch deep, and halve the ends of the stays, and paint the joints, and fasten them with carriage-bolts. If it is thought best, lay out the mortises for the slats in the stiles half an inch on one side of the centre, and then make mortises in the under side of the arm two inches deep for the stays. Put small carriage-bolts through the lower ends of the stays and bottom slat. A wrought nail will answer through the other slats and stays. Let in the strut in the hinge stile and upper arm, by making a gain half an inch deep. Make the strut first, and then mark off the gains, and have it fit tightly. If the upper hinge is not bolted to the arm, as in Fig. 82, put not less than three draw-pins through the tenon of the upper arm, because there is great strain on this arm, which tends to draw the tenon out, while the strain on the lower arm or slats is inward. I have mentioned the most important considerations in making a gate. Space will not allow me to give all the minutiae. HANGING GATES. 241. The first step in hanging a gate of any kind is, to decide how it is desired to have it hung. One must decide whether he will have it hung so as to open both ways, or but one way only, and whether it is to be so hung that it will remain at rest at any point which it may pass in opening it; or whether it shall be so 181 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. adjusted on its hinges that it will shut of its own accord when it has been opened at any angle, in one-fourth of a circle. Gates may be so hung that they will immediately open when unlatched, and swing back to a right angle; or they may be hung so as to shut themselves when opened at a right angle. Many farmers seem to think it very important that a gate should be hung so as to shut of its own accord; while others prefer to have it hung so as to swing open when unlatched, and remain open; and others choose to have a gate hung on an even balance. Hanging a gate according to one's fancy may sometimes not be practicable, on FIG. 84. STYLE OF GATE EIINGES CALMLD HOOKS AND PS. account of the kind of hinges. With hooks and straps, like Fig. 84, gates may FIG. I I I II I ,::= "_, I o.,, $ l ...... EH 0;4 1. M E0 p . PA ,,., ON ~ = c: m z, ~ g 0 To H 0 NO be hung so as to open or shut of their own accord, or to remain at rest when opened wide or opened but little. But with such hinges they cannot be opened both ways. With hooks and eyes, like Fig. 85, they may be hung to open both ways, and at the same time they may be hung so as to be self-opening or self-closing. The most proper and expeditious manner of drawing out a gate hinge from a post is, to bore a hole close to the hinge, above or below it, a little larger than the hinge, and then with a cold chisel crowd it down or up into the hole bored. A large nail or spike may be taken out in the same manner. 242. We will now show how the farmer may hang his gates, no matter what may be the style of hinges, so as to suit his wishes. 182 m " naveI 85. a, _ THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. And should one mode of hanging them not seem to coincide with the fancy of his fastidious neighbor, we will lay down rules which will aid him in hanging his gates to his mind. If Mr. A. wants his gates to swing open as soon as unlatched, exposing his crops, or offering an opportunity to cattle to leave their enclosure and run away, or to enter on forbidden ground, will he allow me the prerogative to hang my gates so that they will close of themselves, rather than swing open when unlatched. Gates are often left open by children; and indolent interlopers, wandering about the fields, are frequently too lazy to shut a gate. Therefore, if a gate should, by any means, get unlatched, if it is hung so as to shut itself; it may be the means of saving much damage to -a crop, or the running away of animals. Vicious cattle and horses are often rubbing and hooking about gates, and if they happen to unlatch them and they immediately swing open, they are more inclined to try their skill again in opening them. But if a gate is hung on an even balance, or so as to shut itself, they are obliged to learn, not only to unlatch a gate, but to push it open, before they can pass through. Now, if one unruly animal has succeeded in getting through the gate, if the gate closes after him, the others must necessarily learn the tricks of their leader before they can follow him. 243. It is important that the farmer should understand the principle of hanging gates so as to make them swing any way he may desire, or have them remain at rest, which is nothing more nor less than adjusting the centre of gravity in the gate. The centre of the turning points of the hinges, i. e., the centre of the hooks and the centre of the eyes, are the two centres of motion. The whole gate, in swinging, is supported by and revolves around these two points. If, now, the higher point of the centre of motion is perpendicularly above the lower centre of motion, a gate will be hung on an even balance, and will remain in any part of the circle which it describes, in opening and closing. It is no difficult job for a skillful workman to set the posts for a gate by the square rule, and attach the hinges, doing everything by measuring, so as to have a gate swing as he may desire. But the 8* 183 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. young farmer must first understand the "cut and try" mode of hanging a gate, which is the most practicable, and most generally practised, even by the best workmen. 244. We will run through with the operation of hanging a gate. Set the heel or hinge post firmly (see Fig. 82), with the inside, at least, perpendicular. (The inside of a post is the side towards the latch post.) If the gate is to be hung with hooks and eyes, like those represented at Fig. 85, it is best to hang the gate so as to swing both ways. After the heel post is set firmly, strike a perpendicular line on the inside of it. Put the eyes in the heel stile of the gate, square through the stile. If it is desirable to have a gate hung so as to shut itself, the upper hook must be about two inches longer than the lower, and the lower eye must be about two inches longer than the upper one. This subject will be made more intelligible by reference to Fig. 85, which represents the position of the hinges as just described. It will be readily perceived, that when a gate thus hung is swung around through a quarter of a circle, or more, it will not stand perpendicularly, but is inclined towards the gateway. This inclination tends to close the gate. If it is desirable to have a gate swing open itself, all that is necessary is, to reverse the hinges, having a long hook at the bottom, and a short one at the top. When a gate is hung in this way, when open at a quarter of a circle, or at a right angle, it will lean from the gateway. This inclination tends to keep the gate open. 245. When a gate is hung with hooks and straps, like Fig. 84, a gate can open but one way, and it may be hung on an even balance, or so as to swing open or to swing shut. The straps should be bolted first to the gate, and if it is desirable to hang it so as to swing shut, let the lower strap extend be yond the heel stile of the gate about one inch and a half far ther than the top one. Set the gate post, and plumb the inside of it, and also the side of it where the hinges are to be put. After the straps are bolted on the gate, set it up and hold it in the position it is to hang, and bore the holes fr the hooks, observing to keep the bit or auger directly under the eye 184 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. of the strap. Drive the hooks partly into the post, and hang the gate on, minding to keep the latch end of the gate blocked up until the hinges are driven clear in. If the farmer would have his gate swing open, let the upper strap on the gate extend beyond the lower one about an inch and a half. Another way of hanging with hooks and straps, so as to have a gate swing open or shut, is to let both straps extend an equal distance beyond the heel stile of the gate, just as they do when a gate is to be hung on an even balance. Now, if the gate, when it is being opened, swings to the south, for example, set the heel post leaning to the north about an inch and a half from a perpendicular line. This slight inclination of a post will hardly be perceived by the bystander, and yet so slight an inclination will close a gate quickly when it is opein a quarter of a circle; but when swung beyond a right angle, it will swing back the other way. In order to have a gate swing open when unlatched, when it is hung as last mentioned, let the heel post lean a little the way the gate swings open. It will then open at a right angle, and there remain, and if swung back through half a circle, it will re. turn again, itself, to a right angle, when set free. 246. I have been unusually particular in the preceding paragraphis, in order to show the farmer what is necessary to make a gate swing to his mind which has been hung for a long time, and needs righting up a little. If, for instance, a gate has been hung on an equal balance, but will swing open one way, and swing shut from the other way, the heel post leans the way the gate swings open, and must be righted up a little, if we would have the gate remain at rest when open or partly closed. 247. When it is desirable to have a gate, when hung with iron hinges, open both ways, and shut itself from both ways, the gate should be hung with hook and eye at the top, as shown at Fig,. 85, and with a forked hinge at the bottom, like Fig. 86. The forks rest against two staples which are driven into the heel posts, one of which is represented at Fig. 87. The staples are made of hlalf-inch round iron, about two inches wile and three inches long, and the forked hinge may be made n)ore or le,.s 185 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. forked or branching. For ordinary purposes the forks should be about four or five inches apart from centre to centre. When the forks are six inches apart, the gate will close itself so rapidly, from a right angle, as to break the latch, or to split the latch stile when it closes. - The true way to hang a gate on such hinges is, to put the hinges in the gate stile first, and then set the heel post perpendicularly on the inside, and strike a line on the FIG. 86 A-14 A FORKED GATE-HINGE. FroIG. 87. A S... - - I 1,. A STAPLE FOR FOURKED GAT'E-HINGFS. inside of the post, from top to bottom; and having driven the upper hook in the post, in the line, hang on the gate, and drive in the staples at an equal distance from the plumb line on the post. A gate hung in this manner may be made to swing open both ways of itself, by leaning the heel postfrom the gateway far enough to raise the latch end of the gate four or five inches above a horizontal line. 248. The advantages of the forked hinge over hooks and eyes, or hooks and straps, are: the latch end of the gate, in opening either way a quarter of a circle, rises from eight to twelve inches, more or less, according to the length of the gate and the width of the forked hinge, and the distance the hinges are apart. This is a matter of convenience when snow obstructs the gateway, or when the ground on one side of a gate would not allow a gate to be opened horizontally. When a fence runs down a slope, having a gate in it, if the heel or hinge post is set on the uBper side of the gateway, the latch end of a gate will rise on being 186 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. opened, and allow the gate to be opened wider than with any other hinges. 249. Fig. 88 represents a cheap wooden gate, with wooden FIG. 88. A SELF-SHUTTING GATE WI'lI WOODEN HINGES hinges, self shutting, when opened either way. The dotted lines running up and down the heel stile, cutting the centre of the upper and lower hinge, which lines should be about two inches asunder, will show how to make the round parts of the stile. The round parts of the stile should be not less than two and a half or three inches in diameter. The bottom eye should be made of a good piece of hard, durable wood, about three by six inches square, and the mortise for receiving it should be not less than three by four inches square and six inches deep, and the tenon of the eye and mortise should be well painted or tarred before the eye is firmly driven in. 250. To hang such a gate with the greatest facility and dispatch, drive in the lower hinge and put the hinge post in its hole, and fill it just enough to keep the post erect; then put the gate on the lower hinge, and drive in the upper eye while it is hooked on the upper end of the stile. Block up the latch end of the gate on a level with the heel end, and plumb the side of the heel stile, keeping it in that position while the hole is filled to the surface. Afterwards set the latch post. Instead of having the lower end of the heel stile made round for a hinge, it may Ibe i !! I - i',, Q '.:.! \ .o. 187 ! ;.::: ,,.. _, THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. square on the end, and a piece of three-quarter-inch round iron driven into the lower end of the stile, and passing through the wooden eye which supports the gate. In such a case the wooden eye need not be more than two and a half inches square, but it should always be made of the very best of timber. Always keep wooden hinges well greased. Never put on tar, because it will soon become hard and wear the hinges more than if nothing were used as a lubricator. This style of gates will correspond well with fences like Figs. 30 and 32. 251. Fig. 89 represents a very neat board gate, to correspond FIG. 89. 3. CARRIAGE-YARD GATE, THREE FEET SiX INCHIES IG(I1. with the style of fence like Fig. 32. The heel stile is about three by four inches square, and the latch stile two by three square, of oak, or other hard and durable timber. The stay may be mortised for the slats, or halved on one side, and a ribbon of a corresponding width fitted to the other side and bolted with carriage bolts. The struts are one inch by two, neatly fitted, one on each side of the gate, and bolted with carriage bolts. Carriage bolts are much better than rivets, because they will draw the struts tighter than rivets, and are more easily put in; and they cost no more, and look much better than rivets; and in case a gate gets broken it can be readily taken apart, whereas it would be no desirable job to get out a lot of rivets after they have been firmly put in. The latch plays in a mortise in the latch stile, and is suspended by a little chain near one end. The gate may be from ten to twelve feet long, with boards one inch thick, and widths and spaces as indicated by the figures in the illustration. The 11 188 8 6 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. tenons should be well painted, and also the surfaces of conjunction between all other parts. The cap board is as wide as the stiles, with the ends let in them about half an inch, as shown in the figure. When such a gate opens into the highway, it looks quite as well to have it hung with hooks and strap-hinges, like Fig. 84. A STRUT AND PICKET GATE. 252. Fig. 90 represents, in the eyes of many people, a very FIG. 90. xw~~~yy~Z~X~XZZZZ~X~Z~X~~~Z~d A STRUT AND) PICKET GATE. tasty and fanciful style of lawn gate. The heel stile is about two and a half by four or five inches, and the latch stile two and a half by two, and the arms also two and a half by two. The bottom board is about eight inches wide and three inches below the lower arm. The struts are one inch thick and two and a half wide, and the ends sawed off in a mitre-box. In nailing on the struts, commence with the shortest one, at the heel stile. The pickets may be of any desirable style, with or without ornamental tops, or the tops may be plain and tapering to a point. Such a gate ought to be hung with hooks and strap hinges, bolted to the stile and the upper arm. If such a gate is more than nine feet long, there should be a stay bolted to the arms and bottom board in the middle of the gate. When such a gate is used very often, it would be much better to have a double gate-two short ones-than one twelve feet in length. It may be fastened with a latch or hook. It would be well to have an iron tie on a gate i 189 I I THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. of this style, to keep it from sagging, as without one the arms may bow upwards more or less. A PICKET GATE FOR A LAWN ENTRANCE. 253. Fig. 91 represents a very good style for a picket gate, FIG. 91. L A GATE WI SQUARE PICKETS. and it may be made in two parts, or whole, as represented by the cut. The hinge stile is three by four or five inches, the latch stile two by three inches, the arms two by three, and the pickets about an inch and one-fourth square. The arms are about two feet apart, and the longest picket extends twenty inches above the upper arm, and the shortest ones about eight inches above it. The ends of the stiles are pointed also. The bottom board may be close to the lower arm, or two or three inches below it. 254. In making such a gate, make the mortises in the upper arm smooth and true through the arm, and dress out the pickets one inch and a fourth square, and point them in the vise, with drawing-knife and plane. Drive in the longest one first, and then extend a line from the point of it to the point of the stiles, and drive in the others. Let them be dressed so that they will fill the mortise water-tig7ht. When they are all in, nail them, and saw off the lower ends, and drive on the lower arm, and it will be then ready for the stiles and bottom board. Let the tenons and parts of pickets in the arms be well painted, before putting them together. Hang it with hinges, which may be bolted tothe stile and arm, like Fig. 84. I have been thus explicit on this 190 I I I J. _:: f S_ _1 _ S,- 5 -e i and~ Lo.,. THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. gate, because many workmen are at a loss to know how to put it together in the most advantageous manner. WiRE GATES. 255. Fig. 92 represents a wire gate, with the heel or hinge stile and latch stile of wood, upper and lower arms of wood, with FIG. 92. .... A WOOD AND WIRE GATE. 3 the wires passing through the stiles, and the two ends twisted together. The hinge stile should be at least four inches wide, although five inches would be better, and the latch stile should be at least three inches wide, and, for ordinary gates, about two and a half thick. Both the upper and lower arms should be tapering, as represented in the illustration, and the deeper, up and down, they are, at the hinge stile, the less liable a gate is to sag. At the other ends of the arms they need not be more than two and a half inches square. Wire as large as number twelve, (see Fig. 40,) well annealed, is sufficiently large for filling between the arms. Two wires are put at one place, and strained, bv putting a short rod of iron between them at the middle of the gate, and turning it over and over until it is sufficiently tight. Before straining them, however, a stiff rail or pole should be placed parallel with the wires, between the stiles, to prevent the wires, when they are being twisted, from springing the latch stile inward. After all the wires are strained, this rail may be removed, and the wires will all remain of the same tension. Should any of the wires become a little slack they can be strained a I 3 .. 191 6 e ////I ~ ~ 6~~~ THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. little more, at any time, as two wires when twisted together will not untwist of their own accord. AN IRON AND WIRE LAWN GATE. 256. Fig. 93 represents a very neat and cheap gate, made entirely of iron and wire, with posts of stone. The posts may be FIG. 93. TT a,b IRON LAWN GATE W'ITHI STONE POST. maae of small stone, laid up in cement, with hinges for gates and staples for wires laid in the cement. The hinges should extend entirely through the posts; and the staples, for attaching the wires of a fence on each side of the gateway, should also be long enough to reach from side to side of the posts, with the ends bent like a square hook, to prevent their drawing out. The stiles and arms may be of cast or wrought iron, with holes in each side for the wires, which may be put in and strained by twisting them together, as recommended in Fig. 92. A very light pattern may be made of wood, with both sides of the gate alike, and gates cast after it. Two such gates swinging together may be used to close a drive or carriage-way. At a and b two cross sections of the stiles and arms are shown. The top may be ornamented with pickets of any style, and cast with the gate. . 11 I 11 -- - 192 I 19, HHHI ja --------- ,.-, - 6 --— o --------- - -- - - - I THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. The hinges may be also cast with the gate. The pattern for latch stile may be made of stuff an inch and a half by three-eighths, and the hinge stile a trifle heavier. The posts should be of very small stone, with the joints pointed, and the top mounted with a square cope stone, with any ornament on the summit of these. Should a wire fence be attached, the post should be most substantially braced, so that the frost would not move the posts by lifting the ends of the braces. 257. Fig. 94 repre- FIG. 94. sents a very cheap but durable farm gate, which - has one quality torecom- i. ~ mend it, of which the other gates noticed are.... -- destitute, which is, it is. - H adjustable on the hinges, and when snow obstructs the way it can be raised as high as the top of the there by putting a small iron pin into the round A CIIEAP WOOD AND WIRE GATE. part of the post, under the end of the upper arm. The top end of the post is turned round, not less than three inches in diameter, and, instead of passing through the upper arm, a strip of band iron may be bent around it, and bolted to the end of the arm. The lower hinge is made of a tough piece of hard wood plank, not less than two inches thick, of a form corresponding to the size of the post, with a gain in one side. The lower end of the heel stile is fitted to this gain, and the hinge is bolted to the stile, and plays on the outside of the post. A gate hung in this manner will swing entirely round the post. The slats of such a gate may be of narrow boards instead of wire, or pickets may be nailed on the arms. Let the hinges be kept well greased. Sometimes an iron pin is put through the end of the arm into the top3 of the pos', istead of letting the post extend above the 193 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. gate, as shown in the figure; but the stress at that point is so hard, that a small iron pin, if it were not turned smooth, would in a few years wear a large hole in the arm. This gate will open either way, and hangs on an even balance at whatever point it may be opened. It may be fastened with a latch or hook. SELF-SUSTAINING GATEWAY. 258. Fig. 95 represents a gateway which some men prefer to all others, because it has many things to recommend it which are not available where nothing but bare posts are used. It is selfsustaining, and may be successfully used in localities where rock lies near the surface of the soil, where it would be impracticable FIG. 95. e SELF-SLISTAININ'G GATEWAY. to dig post holes. It may be made as ornamental as desirable by casing the posts c c and the plate d. One gate, or two, may be hung to the posts, and by having the hooks (hinges go through the posts, and fasten with nuts and screws on the outside, 194 [// - -S THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. the hooks can be taken out with facility and put into holes one or two feet higher in the winter when the snow is deep, which is a convenience of no trivial consideration in many localities where snow is liable to drift about the gate. The bed-piece a should be of durable timber, and extend a little on the outside of the posts and braces. The sills b b shouId be let into the bed-piece about two inches. The posts need not be more than six inches square, and the plate four by six. The gains, tenons and mortises should all be painted well, or smeared with coal tar. By attaching a piece of plank each post may be used as a strainingpost for wire fence. The bed-piece a may be a round log, flattened a little on the upper side, with the surface not less than three inches above the surface of the ground. The sills should not be set on the ground, but supported with flat stones. RAILWAY GATES. 259. It may be asked why I do not give an illustration of a railway gate, since there are so many different styles of them. If I had ever seen one that I truly admired as economical and convenient, I would not fail to give a description and illustration of it, but I have never seen one that I liked half as well as a hinge gate; and I never have known one instance where a man had used a railway gate for a few years who did not utterly dislike it, and wish a good hinge gate were in its place. An illustration of one looks well, and a new gate looks well, and if well made will work well for a few seasons; but if it is used very much the wheels will soon rub hard against the wood, and will make it run hard; and in wet and wintry weather the wheels will be frozen fast, and a man's strength will be required to open it; and, more than all else, a railway gate is more expensive than a hinge gate. A good stick of timber, more than enough for two gate posts, is required for the track, and as it is laid near the surface of the ground, it will not last but a few seasons. A man will make and hang a good hinge gate with less timber and in less time than a railway gate, and when it is fiuislhed it will outlast the railway gate by twice the number of 195 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. years, and be twice as convenient. A railway gate is always getting off the track, or something else, and the proprietor is always wishing that he had never seen such a vexatious nuisance. SECTION 8.-HEDGES FOR FENCE. " In rural shades,'mong rural hills and dales, The Osage Thorn supplies the place of rails. The Yellow Locust, with far-reaching roots, Of rapid growth, and thorny, numerous shoots; Or the Red Cedar, with its ugly arms, Guards safe the way between adjoining farms." —EDwAnRDs. 260. On the subject of hedges I shall be unusually brief, because at the present day many writers, and experimenters, too, of unquestionable authority, pronounce hedges a total failure, while, on the contrary, others, of equally good authority, speak of them in the most approved terms. It cannot be denied that good hedges have been made in America, and that there are now hundreds of miles of hedges which will turn, effectually, every kind of animals that are allowed to have their liberty on the farm. It is granted that there have been very many total failures in making hedges, but the cause of failure could not be attributed to the materials employed, but to the manner of arranging and disposing them, and to the improper treatment which they received at the time of transplanting, and for a year or two afterwards. The first steps in making a hedge decide the question whether it will ultimately prove a failure or a success. Because one man has failed in his attempts to make a hedge, the beginner should not be deterred from exercising his ingenuity and skill, if he wishes to have a hedge, by endeavoring to produce one that will not disappoint his expectations. Hedges require care and protection, and sometimes a little skillful pruning and other treatment, in order to render the plants even, vigorous and strong. There are miles in length of most beautiful hedges, in many of the older States, which have stood for years a* an impassable barrier to every animal that it is desirable to turn on 196 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. a farm, besides being a most beautiful appendage to a well cultivated farm. - And, without doubt, more than an equal number of miles of hedge can be found, which, on account of its having received improper treatment and cultivation during the first years of its growth, stand, not only as a complete failure, but as a nuisance on a farm, and an eye-sore to a skillful farmer. 261. The first step in making a hedge is, to prepare the soil where the hedge is to stand. If the soil be wettish it should be thoroughly drained. It would be folly to attempt to grow a hedge in a locality where it would be too wet to raise good winter wheat. But few kinds of trees will flourish well where there is an excess of water in the soil. If the soil needs a ditch where the hedge is to stand, a portion of the distance, or all of it, commence preparing the ground the season previous to planting the hedge, in order to have a deep, well pulverized soil for the roots to ramify in. The use of the ground need not be lost while the hedge is growing, but it will be an advantage to raise a crop every year, until the hedge is sufficiently large to turn animals. Stake off a strip where a hedge is to be planted, about sixteen feet wide, or wide enough to have, at least, two or three rows of potatoes on each side of the rows of hedge plants. It is better to have the strip unnecessarily wide than to have it too narrow, or so narrow that the ground on each side of the hedge cannot be cultivated with a horse and scarifier of some kind. Commence plowing this land early in the fall. If there is sod on the ground, commence in the spring. Plow it four or five times, at least, before winter, throwing the furrows outward at every plowing. This process will produce a deep middle furrow, and the deeper it can be plowed the better. After working the land as deep as is convenient with the plow, make a ditch in the middle so that it would be not less than three feet deep on a level. Tile it or stone it well, having a good outlet for the water. Fill the ditch with dirt, and let the whole remain exposed to the influence of the frosts and rains of winter, which will make the whole soil very mellow. This operation is very important, where the soil is inclined to be lumpy during the summer, and where 197 THE 5 OUNG FARMLER'S MANUAL. the subsoil is very stubborn. On gravelly soils, or on any other soils where the roots of trees strike deep readily, where the subsoil has not been pulverized, this operation is not necessary. The operator must exercise his own judgment, whether or not his soil would be improved by such a process. In many localities, such a preparation of soil for a hedge would be injurious, and a hedge would not flourish as luxuriantly on it as it would have done had the subsoil been allowed'to remain untouched. Where a soil can be benefited by fall plowing, such a preparation is vry necessary. 262. On the succeeding spring, as soon as the soil is dry enough to plow, plow this strip of land by turning the furrows inward at every plowing, until it is six or eight inches higher' over the ditch than it is at the sides. Level it with a harrow and mark out the rows with a plow, and it is ready for the plants. 263. When the soil is not of a uniform quality throughout the whole distance, care and pains should be taken to make it so, as far as practicable. In crossing a field forty or fifty rods in width, for instance, a portion of the distance may be a deep, mellow, and very fertile soil, where almost anything would flourish rapidly, while, perhaps, only a few rods from this fertile soil, on a little rise of ground, for a number of rods in length, the soil is very compact, stubborn and barren. When this is the case, a few loads of the good soil should be hauled, and well mingled with the poor soil before the plowing is finished; and there should be enough spread along on the top to set the plants in. Besides mingling the different kinds of soil, some parts of the land should be well manured, and plowed in at the last plowing. The idea to be kept in mind is, to have the soil, for the entire distance as nearly as may be, of a uniform character, so that the hedge will be of a uniform height throughout. If the soil be barren in one place for a few rods, and very fertile in another place, it will be impracticable to produce a hedge that will be at all beautiful, and efficient for the purpose of turning animals. If the soil is not sufficiently fertile to produce good crops of grain, it shoud be well manured with chip manure where the soil is compact, if it 198 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. can be obtained, or with well-rotted barnyard manure. It would be great folly to transplant a lot of quicks in a soil where they would not make a good growth the first season. It is no uncommon thing to meet with barren spots in fields that are considered to be in a good state of cultivation, and whenever a hedge is to be made through such a place, it must be plowed and pulverized, and enriched thoroughly, or we may rest assured that in such places hedges will prove a complete failure. HOW TO OBTAIN THE QUICKS. 264. When a farmer contemplates making a hedge, he should sow the seed in drills in the nursery, in a soil which is not in a better state of cultivation than the soil where the hedge is to be made. If quicks be taken from a nursery where the soil has been manured very highly, and transplanted where the soil is of an inferior character, they will not grow as much in a season, if they grow at all, as if they had been taken from a soil inferior to the soil into which they are now to be transplanted. The practice of taking plants from a rich, well-cultivated soil, and transplanting them into a soil inferior to the one from which they were taken, operates like taking a well-fed animal from his regular allowance of grain and good hay, and compelling him to subsist on straw only. In order to have the quicks grow well, the soil where the hedge is to be planted should be quite as rich, mellow, and fertile as that soil is from which the quicks are taken when they are to be transplanted. For this simple reason the farmer will succeed much better in his attempts to grow a hedge if he sows his own seed and raises his own quicks, than he will to purchase of professional nurserymen, whose grounds are kept in a high state of cultivation by an abundant supply of good manure. Farmers often purchase quicks-and the same thing holds good with fruit-trees-of men whose grounds have been made as rich as they could conveniently be made with manure; and although they have transplanted them in the best manner, and have cultivated the soil on which they stand in the moot thorough 9 199 THE YOUNG FARMFR'S MANUAL. manner, still, during the first season or two, many of them barely live, without growing two inches. 265. Does the beginner ask, Why not sow the seed where the hedge is to grow? One reason is, the quicks would not be as well protected from cattle, usually, as if they were in the nursery; and another reason is, it would not be as practicable to produce a hedge with the quicks of so uniform size and distance apart from planting the seed, as it would to grow them in a nursery, and then transplant them. Were it not for the fact that plants of almost every kind, when produced from the seed sown in drills, will in some places be very vigorous, while others will not grow as rapidly as they ought to in order to keep of a uniform size and height, and were it not also for the failure of some of the seed to grow, and the liability of the quicks to be of unequal distances apart, and to stand not in a line, as they should, it would be as well to sow the seed where the hedge is to be made. It will, as a general rule, be found to be the most convenient, economical, and best, to grow the young plants in a nursery, and transplant them where the hedge is to stand. The soil should be prepared as for carrots or beets, and sowed, with a drill or by hand, in rows from thirty to forty inches apart, to suit the pro prietor. It is best to have them far enough apart to allow a horse and scarifier to pass between them. In clayey soils that are inclined to bake over the seed, the drills should be covered with black dirt or mould, or fine chip manure, tan bark, sawdust, or such like. The seed is usually sown thicker than the quicks should be allowed to stand, and must be thinned out so as to stand from two to three inches apart. Let them be nursed, and the ground kept clean and mellow about them; and remember, that weeds in some States will grow four times as fast as the young plants, and if not kept down the plants will soon be smothered. TAKING UP THE QUICKS. 266. When the young plants are dug up, if dug with a spade, great care should be exercised by the laborers not to mnutilate 200 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. the roots more than can be avoided. When there are many to take up, it can be performed very expeditiously with a plow and team. Let the tops all be cut off within about four inches of the ground with a stiff very sharp grass scythe; and then, if one has a subsoil plow, let the plow run about eight or ten inches deep, if the roots run as deep as that, on each side of a row, about eight inches from the row; and then a third furrow, with the handles of the plow leaning to the left, will loosen all the plants so that they can be taken up with the hands without any spade or mattock. When the roots run very deep, those who raise many thousands of plants have a plow made almost expressly for such a purpose, with a very wide wing to the plow point for the purpose of cutting off the long tap roots; but ordinary farmers may use any plow, and hitch on a strong team to plow up the row, and if half of them or more get covered up, let them be hauled out with manure hooks. After they are all taken up, they should be assorted, and no little care should be exercised to keep the roots from being injured by sunshine or drying winds while they are out of the ground. If thought best to take them up in autumn, and to keep them in the cellar during winter, as many prefer to do, the roots should be well covered with sand or loam to keep them from wilting. ASSORTING THE QUICKS. 267. The object of asserting quicks for a hedge is, to have all those of a uniform size planted together. If they be transplanted without any regard to size, with the small ones mingled with the large ones, the large ones will most certainly overgrow the puny ones, making a weak place in the hedge. There will be many quicks which are not fit to transplant into the hedge row, and which should be rejected as worthless, or left in the nursery to grow another year. If such quicks be planted with others which have strong, healthy roots, the roots of the large quicks will spread all around where the roots of the small weak plants should be, thus robbing the small ones of their necessary nourishment; but by transplanting those of a given size together, i. e., those having 201 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. roots and stems about of an equal size, the hedge will grow up of a uniform size and strength. If, for instance, there are quicks enough in one lot to make a hedge row four or six rods in length, let the smallest ones be set together in the best soil, if there should be any difference in the quality of it, and the largest ones in the poorest locations. Assorting the quicks properly is one of the most important parts of making hedges. It requires the exercise of keen and quick perception, and good discrimination and judgment. In assorting them the operator should select one of the largest and most vigorous quicks in the lot, and lay it by itself. Then select as small a one as is fit to be transplanted. Select one or two, if there be much difference in their sizes, of a size between those already selected. These will answer for a common standard. Distribute the quicks, with the large ones by themselves, and the small ones and those of medium size by themselves. One must be guided in assorting, not only by the size of the stems alone, but by the size of both roots and stems. Should a small quick have very strong and vigorous roots, it would be better to rank it with those having roots of about an equal size. If a large quick has but few roots, it should not be placed with the large ones because it has a large stem, but it should be placed with those having roots which correspond in size the nearest to it. The operator cannot be too particular in this operation, for not only the beauty and evenness of a hedge de pend on a judicious assorting of the quicks, but their efficiency is involved in it. If quicks be transplanted without the foregoing considerations, gaps and weak places in a hedge will surely follow. SECTION 9.-TRANSPLANTING QUICKS. "Beneath the sunny, vernal sky, Now scoop the mellow earth aside, And bury in the fertile soil The tiny rootlets spreading wide."-EDWARDS. 268. In the first place take the plow, adjusted to run about three inches deep, and turn two furrows fromn each other, where 202 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. the hedge is to be planted. Next, with a shovel, clean out the trench, three or four inches deep, and wide enough to receive the roots of the largest quicks, when they are fully extended from side to side, without their being bent sideways. The roots should spread out as far as they will reach, and all the little roots and spongioles should be spread out to their full extent, as they origin ally grew. Cut off all tap roots smoothly, and cut off the ends of those roots that have been mutilated in digging up the plants. Stretch a line about three or four rods long, about an inch on one side of the place where the row is to stand. Have it high enough so as not to be in the way when hauling in the dirt. Let knots be tied in this line, as far apart as the quicks are to be planted. Set each quick about an inch from the line, at every knot. When two rows are to be planted, the quicks of the second row should be placed opposite the spaces and not opposite the other plants. When three rows are set out there should be two lines stretched, one for each outside row, and the quicks in the outside rows should stand opposite the spaces in the middle row. When the stems of the quicks are cut off, the line may be stretched where the rows are to stand, and a quick placed under every knot of the line. If the dirt is not mellow and fine in every place, it would be well to have a load hauled by the side of the hedge row; and when one man places the quicks, let another man throw a few shovelfuls on the roots. Manure should never be applied directly to the roots. A few inches of mellow earth should be applied first, and then manure, and then more dirt, when manure is applied at transplanting. The quicks should never be transplanted, when the soil is too wet to be worked in for other purposes, lest it bake around the root. 269. When the quicks are all transplanted in a workmanlike manner, the hedge is by no means finished. Indeed, this is but a good beginning. From five to ten years, according to the soil, the kind of plants used, the kind of hedge to be made, and the training and cultivation it receives, will require strict care and protection, to render it an impassable barrier to stock. The first thing will be, if it has not already been decided, to determine 203 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. what style of hedges shall be adopted, as different styles of hedges require very different treatment. STYLE OF HEDGES. 270. Hedges may be made to grow in almost any form desired, but it is always best to imitate nature, as far as convenient and practicable; and, especially it is best, when greater efficiency is secured by adopting a given style. The tops of all trees and plants assume a conical form more than any other, in their natural state. If some other form for the tops of trees were more desirable, they would unquestionably assume that form. But, as a hedge cannot be trained in a conical form, we must adopt the style nearest to it,-that of a pyramid. The quicks are trained to a single stem, sometimes, for a few feet high, and then the top is sheared in the shape of a pyramid. Sometimes two or three rows of quicks are transplanted in a hedge row, in which instance they are trained to a thick mat, as it were, from the ground, with sides perpendicular, sometimes, for a few feet high, and then of a pyramidal form; and sometimes it is trained of a pyramidal form from near the ground to the top. Sometimes the sides are kept perpendicular, and the top is square across, or flat. But this style is considered objectionable by our best hedgers. Sometimes the hedge is trained or sheared in the shape of a sharppointed egg, with the point upwards. But whatever style may be adopted, THE PRUNING AND TRAINING 271. Must be attended to in a proper season, or one may at once abandon the idea of making an impassable barrier for even small stock. We must not be afraid to cut off a fine growth of sprouts for fear it will require a year longer for them to attain that height again. Depend upon it, this is the most important operation in rearing hedges. The quicks need to be cut off, time after time, in order to give them size and vigor. If they are allowed to grow, from year to year, without being cut down, the hedge will be thin in places, and the sprouts will be tall, slim, and easily demolished by animals. 204 THE YOUNG FARMER S MANUAL. 272. In order to make a thick, impenetrable hedge clear to the ground, the quicks standing in three rows, as has been previously stated, should all be cut off two or three inches from the ground, when they are one or two years old. It is desirable that they should be cut off with some instrument which gives a drawing cut, as a crushing cut is very liable to injure the stems. If they grow up again very soon, they should be cut off aoain, the same season, in the latter part of July, some five or six inches higher than the first cut. At every cutting a thick growth of sprouts is produced, which interlace each other so closely that it is difficult for a small bird to get through it. If any sprouts shoot off laterally several inches beyond the majority of the side sprouts, they should be clipped. The sprouts should all be cut off at least once every year, six or eight inches higher every year, until the hedge is four or five feet high, training the hedge in the form of a pyramid. (See TOOLS FOR PRUNING HFDGES, Par. 360.) 273. Another mode of training is, to have but a single row, and not cut off the tops until they are all about two feet high, when the limbs are all interlaced with each other, by hand, and the ends of those which grow at right angles to the hedge row are sheared off to an even length, making the body of the hedge from two to three feet through. This interlacing the limbs is continued, as the height of the hedge increases from year to year, until it is five or six feet high, when the top is simply pruned in the form of a pyramid. LAYING AND PLASHING. 274. "The operation consists in first removing the thorns and prickles, and cutting away all the needless branches and stems, and leaving straight upright stems in the middle of the row. The best and straightest of these are left for stakes, and their tops are cut off at the height of about four feet. If possible these should be at equal distances of about two feet apart; but as they cannot always be had so regularly distributed, stakes may be driven in the ground to supply their places. The rough 205 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. est stems are then cut out, and those that are left are bent over to an angle of about forty-five degrees, and a hack is made in them near the surface of the ground. They are then woven backwards and forwards in a slanting direction. When a portion of the hedge is thus treated, long slender sticks are cut and ?Pattled in among the stakes, within an inch or two of the tops, by twisting backwards and forwards, and crossing them on alternate sides of the stakes. The live stakes, in consequence of being surrounded by the hedge, are apt to send out shoots thickly at the tops, and not below, unless prevented by being cut half through at the ground. Strong leather mittens, with long sleeves, are needed by the man who does the work."-Albany Cultivator. CULTIVATING THE SOIL ALONG HEDGES 275. Must be thoroughly performed yearly, until the hedge is large enough to turn cattle. The soil should be plowed every spring, just as if no hedge were there, and some hoed crop planted by the sides of it. If corn be planted there, a row of potatoes, or carrots, beets, turnips, or the like, should be planted on each side of the hedge between the corn and it, never nearer to it than three feet. Let a horse scarifier be run along the hedge row as often as you can find leisure during summer; and keep the ground mellow and level, and free from grass and weeds, during the entire growing season. Never allow plants of any kind to cast their seed near the hedge row. If weeds or thistles are allowed to grow among the quicks, they will soon choke them, and produce a thin, weak place in the hedge. If some parts of the hedge do not seem to grow as fast as others, give the small parts of stinted growth a liberal dressing of well-rotted chip manure, or sawdust, or well-prepared compost, and work it in with a hoe. If the soil in places seems to be so hard that they do not grow as fast as other parts of the hedge, let mellow dirt be spread on each side two or three inches deep. There will be a great many times during the growing season, when, for an hour or two,-and perhaps for half a day, the work hands will have nothing which 206 THE YOUNG FARMERT'S MANUAL. they can do advantageously. Let all such leisure hours be occu. pied with a hoe at the hedge. Let the farmer keep an eye on the hedge and see that it is not neglected in autumn, and that a lot of weeds do not go to seed, so as to keep one weeding for seven years. Remember, that 276. " One year's seeding makes seven years' weeding." Never think of making an impenetrable hedge in less than a decade of years, when only a little strip two feet wide on each side of the hedge is scratched over a little once or twice a year. If land is cheap, and it is no object to cultivate a crop by the side of a hedge, let the work of cultivating be performed with plow, harrow and cultivator, without a crop. Another thing which is too commonly neglected is, PROTECTING HEDGES FROM CATTLE, 277. While they are too small to protect themselves. Young steers, especially, and bulls, delight to plunge into a hedge row to hook, and horses and sheep like to nip off the tender shoots; and, if it is not protected by a good fence, it is all folly to attempt to grow a hedge. Nor should we delay to fence a hedge row for the first year or two; for cattle are very liable at any time to get on forbidden ground, wben they would quickly make irreparable breaches in it. Should there be no sheep kept on the farm, the expense of protecting a hedge would be trifling. A fence on each side of it, like Fig. 22, even if the posts were not of the most durable timber, would subserve a good purpose until the hedge should be strong enough to turn cattle without any protection. It is always advisable to keep cattle away from hedges, until there can be no risk in permitting them to hook into it to their satisfaction. REPAIRING HEDGES. 278. Should a breach be made in a hedge, or should it become so thin and weak in places as not to be strong enough to turn cattle, if the stems are not healthy, it would be best to remove them entirely for a few feet in length, and commence anew with 9* 207 THE YOUTTNG FARMER'S MANUAL. young quicks; or, if thought best, the stems should all be cut off a few inches from the ground, when new sprouts will spring up, which must be treated like a new hedge until the gap is securely closed. Wherever thin spots occur in a hedge, it is a pretty sure indication that the soil is not as fertile as it should have been made previous to transplanting, or that roots of the quicks were mutilated, or that they did not have an equal chance with the rest of the hedge. HEDGES FOR WET GROUNDS. 279. It is frequently the case, that lands on the borders of rivers and lakes, which are liable to inundation in the spring and in autumn, are so wet that none but aquatic plants would flourish w.ell there. In such localities an impenetrable hedge may be made in a very few years with the branches of the yellow willow, or of any other kind of trees the limbs of which will take root when stuck in the ground. The limbs should all be cut of a uniform length, say five or six feet long, with a saw, as an axe is very liable to split and sliver the ends. The upper ends should be sawed off slanting, for a slanting cut will heal over more readily than a square cut. The lower ends should not be sharpened by cutting off the wood all around them, because the ends will be very apt to rot as far up as the bark is all taken off, and sometimes farther, endangering the life of the plants. But the sharpening should all be done on one side of the limbs, and then roots will start from the ends, and a portion of the lower ends will not decay. Take the limb in one hand, when it is to be sharpened, and set it on a block, and make a clean slanting cut, only on one side. Limbs that are less than two inches in diameter should not be sharpened at all, because they will take root all round better than if they were sharpened. Let limbs of a uniform size be planted together, and never stick small ones and large ones indiscriminately together, lest the large ones overgrow the small ones. Let all the branches remain on them for interlacing, except such as grow on the parts which are to be below the surface of the soil. 208 &-L THE YOU[NG FARMIER'S MANUAL. 280. In sticking them, draw a line and make the holes with a crowbar, directly unnder the line, about ten or twelve inches apart. For large limbs let large holes be made, and for small ones do not make the holes so large and deep that the limbs will extend downward so that the lower ends will all decay. If they are planted ten or twelve inches in depth, unless the soil is very deep, they will flourish better than if they were planted twenty or more inches deep. Plunge them in the holes to the desired depth, with the hands, and never drive them. If, then, any of them do not seem to stand sufficiently firm, place a good sod on each side of them, and stamp it down well. After the limbs are all stuck let the branches on them be interlaced, by commencing at the bottom and weaving them back and forth, forming a kind of lattice work. Should the whole seem not to stand very firmly, let long slender branches from the trees of some other kind of wood, be interwoven at the tops. Such a hedge should be made early in the spring in preference to the fall; and it will require shearing at least once a year, to keep it even, and to prevent its growing too high. WHAT KINDS OF PLANTS ARE USED FOR HEDGES. 281. "The selection of suitable plants for hedges depends, in a, very great degree, upon the locality. In some localities one kind of plants will flourish very luxuriantly, and make the best of hledges, while only a few hundred miles distant from such location, thiat kind of plants will not succeed at all in hedge-making. Some species of plants are not at all adapted to the climate where they are to be used; while some others, which flourish well in a given climate, are so liable to be attacked by the borer or blight, as to be of no value whatever for hedges. The English hawthorn, for example, has been found entirely unsuited to most parts of the United States.* Some plants do not seem to be hardy enough to endure, without injury, the extreme cold of our northern winters; and such plants, although they may have a great reputation for_ * Albany Cultivator. 209 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. making hedges, in some localities, should be tested with caution, where any doubts are entertained of their success. 282. In searching for information in regard to hedges in the agricultural journals of the present day, the young farmer will be puzzled, beyond measure, to know what to do in regard to mak ing a hedge of any kind. One article, penned by a man who professes to have been successful in making hedges, will state, in most unequivocal language, that "every farmer may raise hedges." Another writer, of very reliable authority, will assert, with the strongest confidence, that it is by no means practicable for American farmers to make hedges, with a view of enclosing and dividing their fields, which shall be cattle proof. One writer will recommend a certain plant for hedges, with the most confident assurance that it will ultimately be universally adopted for fencing the western prairies, where timber is not abundant, and that such a plant succeeds for hedges remarkably well; while, on the contrary, another man will declare, most positively, that such a plant can never make a good hedge; and that he will defy the world to produce a solitary instance where an efficient and impenetrable hedge has been made of that kind of plant. Amid such a conflict of opinions, on a subject apparently so full of doubt and uncertainty, the farmer must exercise a little good common sense, and let the bugbears and sharks go to the winds that brought them. 283. It cannot be denied that there are miles in length of the most efficient and impenetrable hedge, in nearly every State in the Union, through which an American bison could not pass, and which has been produced with but a small degree of expense and care. And, if a few enterprising farmers have succeeded in making a good hedge, the arguments and assertions against hedges, of a man who has failed to produce a good hedge, from utter neglect, or from local causes, should have no influence in deterring the young farmer from making a hedge, if he desires one. 210 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. RED CEDAR FOR HEDGES. " On barren cliffs, the hardy cedars red, Clinging to crevices, lift up their heads."-Turi-.." 211 284. The red cedar is acknowledged, by the most reliable authority, to be one of the best plants in America, for both ornamental and field hedges. It has more desirable qualities to recommend it than any other known plant which is used for making hedges. If it only bore thorns, it would be incomparably better for hedges than any other plant whose merits have been thoroughly tested as a hedge plant. It is extremely hardy, and adapts itself to both barren and fertile soils, although it flourishes on a rich soil as much better, as any other plant; and it attains a great age, is as highly ornamental as the most fastidious can desire; and is not liable to blight, or winter-kill, or to be injured by insects. No other plant bears shearing any better, or with less injury, than the cedar; and a hedge of this kind of plants may be sheared into almost any form with great facility. 285. The best mode of obtaining the young plants is, to gather the berries or seed as late in autumn as possible, before the ground freezes, and sow them in drills, covered about one inch deep with some very light mellow earth. But few seeds will vegetate the first season, but if the soil be kept well cultivated and free from noxious weeds during the growing season, the second season they will appear in abundance. If the soil be deep, mellow, and rich, they will grow from one to two feet in height the first season; if the soil is rather poor, and the little quicks are obliged to grow or die among weeds, if they grow six inches high the first season, it will be all that can be expected. The plants should be thinned out when they stand too thick, and transplanted in rows for a year or two. When they are from two to three feet high, they should be planted out for hedges, in soil prepared as recommended, as early in the spring as it will answer to work in the soil. If they are set in only one row, they should be not less than twenty inches apart, and if in two rows, two feet apart, with the plants of one row THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. opposite to the spaces of the other row. Let all the limbs on all the insides of the trees be interlaced, as neatly as may be; and let the limbs on the sides of the hedge row be sheared to a uniform length, from six to twelve inches in length, according to the length of the limbs. During the first and second seasons, or perhaps longer if necessary, let the tops be sheared of a uniform height. As the hedge grows higher, let the inside limbs be interwoven from tree to tree, backwards and forwards; and do not fail to keep the soil well cultivated on both sides of the hedge row, for at least six or eight feet on each side. If everything is performed in a workmanlike manner, a complete lattice-work, impenetrable by any domesticated animal, will be formed in a few years. 286. As the red cedar bears no thorns, and as cattle are so much inclined to hook and thrust about in evergreen plants, the red cedar may, upon trial, succeed better by training the young trees to bare stems about four feet high, and then allow the tops to branch out, so as to be sheared in the form of a pyramid, or in the shape of an egg, with the little end upwards.-(See paragraph 270.) In this style of training the inside limbs should be interlaced, from a point two feet above the ground to the top of the hedge. 287. A little skill and judgment, and the exercise of a little common sense, are indispensably requisite in pruning the young cedars. If the trees are two or three feet high it will not answer to cut off all the limbs the first season, and leave but a little bush at the top. The first season that they are transplanted in the hedge row, the lower limbs, for about six inches along the bottom of the stems, may be cut close with a sharp knife; and if the limbs above this point be more than a foot long, the ends may be clipped off to a foot in length on each side. The next spring trim off the limbs a few inches higher, close to the stems. If the plants have grown six inches or more in height, it may answer, if there is an abundance of limbs, to cut off smoothly all the limbs for six inches more. The growth of the plants upwards will usually determine how much of the limbs may be cut off belowv in one season. 212 kq- THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. THE YELLOW AND HONEY LOCUST FOR HEDGES. " The fair Queen of Spring, as she passed down the vale, Quaffed the nectar of locusts in every mild gale: Its fragrance and odor replenished each breeze, And lily-white glory environed the trees."-CAXPBsELL. 288. The yellow locust and honey locust are indigenous in the United States, and flourish luxuriantly in almost every locality where there is not an excess of water in the soil where they are planted. They are among the most beautiful ornamental trees, and when in full bloom the yellow locust seems most delightful. Both of the kinds already mentioned are very hardy and great feeders, the roots of the yellow locust growing to an almost incredible length in one season. The honey locust bears bunches of long and sharp thorns, from two to three inches in length, presenting such an ugly appearance as to deter almost any animal, man not excepted, from climbing up into it; but the thorns of the yellow locust are small and short, and deciduous on the main stem and limbs of the trees when they are a few years old. The honey locust is said to be a very common tree in the forests of some of the Western States, and when found on rich bottom lands, it attains a growth equal in height to most other trees which surround it. The timber of the honey locust is somewhat hard, and rather porous, and is sometimes made use of for cabinet purposes, and sometimes for posts and rails for building fences. The timber of the yellow locust, of thrifty trees, is remarkably tough and firm, and durable when exposed to the influences of the weather. On account of its excellence in resisting the action of moisture, it is used in preference to almost any other timber for pins and wedges, and such like, in ship-building. For fence posts it is not inferior in point of durability to white oak, and for carriage hubs it is not inferior to the best of birch. In sonre localities the yellow locusts have been entirely destroyed by the ravages of the borer and the large green caterpillar. But the borer seldom attacks any other part of the tree excepting the body, for six or eight feet from the ground. But if the epidermis or dead part of the bark be all scraped off or shaved off, to the 213 THE YOUNG FARMER7S MANUAL. live bark, once in four or five years, or as often as any signs of the borer are discovered, and the bodies of the trees smeared with a daubing made of three parts of pitch or rosin, and one part of tallow, melted together and applied warm with a brush, the borer will be most effectually excluded. 289. Neither the yellow locust nor honey locust have been tested satisfactorily for hedging purposes. It has been used to a limited extent in a few instances, and there are at the present day many young hedges of both kinds which promise to be in a few years most impenetrable barriers against any kind of stock. I am able to discover no good reason why the locust may not be used most successfully for hedges, with proper treatment and care. It grows quickly even on poor soils; is easily propagated; bears shearing extremely well; and is very tenacious of life. The locust will probably succeed better when planted in a single row and plashed, than in two or three rows and trained in a mat hedge. The locust flourishes best solitary; and when the art of hedge-making shall arrive to greater perfection, the locust will rank among the first plants for hedges. 290. Both kinds of locust bear seed contained in long pods, which may be gathered late in autumn and kept in a dry apartment until the succeeding spring, when, to insure their vegetation, the seed is put in a vessel of some kind and boiling hot water poured on them while they are stirred lively for a few moments, and then allowed to remain in the water for a day and a night, when most of them will be swollen to twice their original size. All such seed is sure to grow if planted in a soil that will produce good corn, and covered about as corn is covered when planted. Those seeds which have not swollen during the operation should be treated in the same manner the second time. The object of scalding the seeds is to soften the hard and tough skin which envelops the germ, so that moisture can enter the seed. If the seed is planted as soon as it has arrived to maturity early in autumn, before the skin on them becomes so dry and tough, most of them will vegetate in the succeeding spring, when they may be treated as has been recommended. 214 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. THE OSAGE ORANGE FOR HEDGES. 291. The Osage Orange, a cut of which is here shown (taken from the Albany Cultivator,) has been used extensively for FIG. 96. OSAGE ORANGE. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I '~ X hedges, so that its success is no longer attended with doubt. It is found wild in Arkansas, Mexico, Mississippi and some other $ I .t 215 ;I/ THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. States, where it grows from twenty to thirty feet high. It flourishes well in most of the States and Territories, and with proper treatment has never failed to make an impenetrable hedge. Many failures have been reported respecting the Osage for hedges, but in all probability the failures could be traced to improper management, such as neglecting to shear down and to keep the soil in good condition, or assorting the quicks and transplanting them properly. We need apprehend no failure in making a first-rate hedge of the Osage, if the course is strictly followed which has been marked out in the preceding pages. We copy from the American Farmers' Enacyclopedia the following description of the Osage Orange: "It is very branching, each branch being armed with numerous sharp thorns. The wood is remarkably tough and solid. The male and female flowers are on separate trees. The fertile, or female tree, bears fruit abundantly in a few years. These are round and rough, and greenish colored, resembling somewhat an orange, and weighing from twelve to eighteen ounces, containing from one hundred to one hundred and fifty seeds." 292. The best manner for any one to obtain the quicks for hedges is, to procure the seed in some locality where the Osage flourishes in a wild state, and sow them in autumn in well-prepared ground. The seed, like many other kinds of seed, will vegetate better after having been exposed to the frosts of winter in the soil. It is said that there are about eight thousand seeds in one quart, and that they may be obtained in Arkansas for the mere expense of gathering them. When they are obtained of nurserymen the cost is from two to four dollars per quart. It is recommended by some farmers to scald the seeds of the Osage in the spring, at the time of planting them. Hedges made of the Osage Orange require trimming twice a year, and some, who have experimented with it extensively, say that three trimmings are necessary in one season. The farmer must exercise a little judgment with reference to trimming a hedge. Should the growth be small, it would not be proper to cut off as much as if there were a very great growth. 216 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. BUCKTHORN FOR HEDGES. "What a thorny maze we tread I Thorns beneath and overhead I How they pierce, and scratch, and tear I Cursed thorns grow everywhere."-II-AMLET. 293. The buckthorn is pronounced by some writers to be the most suitable plant for hedges that can be found in the United States. It makes an efficient and impenetrable hedge when properly treated, and grows very rapidly, is very hardy, and almost entirely exempt from disease and from the attacks of insects. There are hedges of the buckthorn in some of the older States, which have subserved the purpose of an impenetrable fence for more than forty years, and are now free from gaps and weak places. The buckthorn bears pruning very extensively without any apparent injury, and is never injured by the most intense cold of winter. It vegetates early in the spring, and does not cast off its verdure until late in autumn. 294. The figure here shown represents a branch of the buckthorn. The seed may be sown early in autumn in mellow soil, covered about one inch deep, when most of them will vegetate the next spring, if the seed is good. It is best to have at least two rows, or three, in a hedge row of buckthorn, and train them by shearing down, so that the hedge will be an impenetrable mat clear to the ground. There are several other kinds of thorns, such as the Washington, Newcastle, Hawthorn, and some others, which have been used for hedges, and sometimes successfully; but they are so liable to be affected by blight, or insects, or something else which is very injurious to them, that it is not safe, except in a few localities, to experiment with them. The various kinds of thorn are propagated by gathering the haws or seed, and divesting them of the skin and pulpy matter, and sowing them in the fall, so that they may freeze and thaw during the winter. 217 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. FIG. 97. BUOKTHORN. REC-KPITULATION AND GENERAL REMARKS. 295. After the farmer has fully concluded to raise a hedge, let him secure good seed, which is generally distinguished from an 218 I 11 k -/ . THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. inferior quality of seed by its weight. Poor seed is usually rather light, and feels dry to the touch, while good, plump, bright and heavy seed seems to be colder, when handled, than it really is. Let all seed that is more than one year old be rejected, and none but new seed sown. Bear in mind, that as seed advances in age it looses its vitality. Seed is many times injured, and often the vitality is entirely destroyed, in preparing it for use. The pulpy matter which encircles the seed is usually removed by placing them where they will rot gradually, and afterwards washing the pulpy substance from the seed, and then by spreading out the seed where they will dry. But they should not be allowed to become too dry, as that will injure the germ. If they are permitted to lie, while rotting, in piles so large or deep that they will heat and mould, the germs of such seed will be liable to be destroyed. I must be il fr)wed to insist that it is important that every farmer grow his o Li,, quacks, on soil of about the same quality of that where the hedge is to stand. (See Par. 264.) 296. When the quicks are cut off in autumn it would be a good practice to have a vessel of equal parts of melted pitch or rosin, and tallow, and smear the ends with it, applied with a paint brush. The most expeditious mode of doing it would be, to hold as many in one hand as is convenient, and then apply the brush. Even after the quicks have been transplanted, a man with a small brush would smear the ends of a long row in a few hours. It would not be practicable to perform such an operation after the first shearing, or cutting down, on account of the great number of stubs, although such an application will be found very useful in preventing the stumps from drying and cracking, to the injury of the quicks. Any instrument, in pruning, shearing, or slashing, which cuts the stems square off, with a crushing instead of a drawing stroke or cut, is quite apt to shiver the butts or stumps of the quicks, so that they will not heal as readily as if they had been cut with a slanting and drawing cut. (See Par. 543.) 297. On the subject of pruning, too much care cannot be taken, for rules and practices which would be all-important for raising al cfficient hedge in one locality, would be very deleterious to a 219 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. hedge in another region. In some regions the sprouts cf the Osage Orange grow so rapidly as to attain the height of four to seven feet in one season, while in other places they would not grow as many inches. Where they grow so rapidly the roots become proportionably strong, and shearing must be resorted to. But when the growth is very small, and the stems slender and weakly, it might be the wisest policy to allow them to grow unmolested for one season. It is not easy for one to tell, with pen and ink alone, whether a hedge should or should not be cut down at a certain stage of its growth. Sometimes it might be very advisable to trim or shear a hedge twice in one season; but the probability is, that in our climate it is best to clip but once a year, and the best and most natural season for this operation would seem to be in the spring. I know many recommend late autumn, and others the month of July, for this purpose, as being the best, but it appears to me that unless the ends of the quicks are smeared with something to prevent the weather from drying them, it would be best to do it in the spring, about the time the buds begin to enlarge a little. If some of the quicks grow too rapidly during the summer, the top ends may be pinched off a little. This will check the tendency to shoot upward tall and slim, and will tend to enlarge the stem and side branches. If it is desirable to have limbs clear to the ground, the side branches should not be clipped until they have grown, laterally, not less than two feet on each side of the row. In order to have the branches low, the quicks must be clipped near the ground the first time they are cut off. If they are clipped high the first time, it will be impossible to produce limbs near the ground, unless the whole top is cut down, when, if the roots are strong and healthy, many sprouts will start from the stumps, both upward and horizontally. (See Par. 301, 302.) 298. Hedges oftener prove a failure in consequence of neglect than from any other cause. Hedges cannot grow, they will not grow well among weeds and grass, and those who expect them to flourish will be most certainly disappointed. The soil on each side must be kept loose, mellow and clean, for at least half a rod 220 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. from the hedge row. When only a narrow strip of two feet or so on each side is scratched over occasionally, it would be no more beneficial, in many localities, than if the soil were not broken at all. On prairies and bottom lands, where the soil is deep, always mellow, and fertile, preparing the soil as recommended in paragraph 261 is not so very important as on stubborn, clayey and calcareous soils, in which localities the directions should be followed up to the very letter. 299. I have never, as yet, met with any writings in which it was recommended to transplant the quicks as suggested in par 268. The more usual practice is to dibble them in with a kind of paddle, or to thrust in a spade where a quick is to be set, and, thrusting the handle forward, the quick is set behind the spade in a wedge-shaped hole, without any spreading of the roots. But it seems to me that, if it would pay in transplanting fruit-trees, which none will deny, to spread out the roots, it would be time profitably spent in transplanting the quicks for a hedge in the most workmanlike manner. According to the modus operandi in par. 268, a long line of hedge could be put out in a day by a faithful laborer and a small lad; and in such soil as we find, for the most part, in central and western New York, and in some of the New England States, no one who is acquainted with their character, and with the most proper manner of working them, will wish to deny that this is the better mode of transplanting the quicks. It is most certain that the more the roots of a tree or quick are spread out, in transplanting, the better the tree is transplanted; and the more they are crowded into a small compass, the less liable they are to flourish luxuriantly for the first year or two after transplanting. If a quick has side-roots, nature and common sense teach us that it is better to spread them and extend them in their full length, than to double them and crowd them into a small hole. 300. The proper distances apart for plants to be set, is a very important question in growing a good hedge. For my own part, I am fully persuaded that hedgers, as a general rule, plant too close. It is a most common fault, in transplanting all kinds of 221 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. fruit-trees, to plant too close together; and, although very close planting is recommended, on good authority, for hedges, it is my candid conviction that if those hedgers who advocate and adhere to very close planting, and who succeed well in raising efficient hedges when planted very close together, would plant the quicks farther apart, they would meet with still better success than they do in very close planting. No one will deny that quicks for hedges may be planted too closely together, and we all acknowledge, without any argument, that it is not difficult, in the least, to plant them too far apart. Now, then, if there is a point beyond which, in one direction, it may be said the quicks are too near together, and, in the opposite direction, they are too far apart, that is the point which will determine most accurately the most proper distance apart for transplanting the quicks, in order to make the best and most efficient hedge. The distance that might properly be called close planting when one kind of plants is used, might not be said to be too close for another plant. The kind of plants used always should, in a great measure, determine the proper distance for the plants to be set apart. We consider eight inches apart too close for any plants, and for any style of hedge, although some hedgers advocate a distance of only four and six inches apart. But when plants are set so very close together, the shoots are very apt to be small and slender, with not sufficient space for the lateral branches to attain suitable size for consistent strength; and, more than all else beside, when they are crowded so closely together they are quite liable to die, in consequence of being deprived, by those on each side of them, of their necessary nourishment at the roots. We consider one foot sufficiently close for any plants in a hedge row, and for some plants one foot apart is just twice as close as they should be. When plants are set closer than one foot, or even one foot and a half, let a few plants be placed in a row at such distances apart, and see how little space they have for branching out. Look, for example, et the sprouts around stumps which stand very close to each other. 222 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. They are tall, slim, and not half as strong as they would be if they were not half as numerous; and, more than all else, their lateral branches, if there are any at all, are very slender, and will very soon decay; whereas, if the plants stood twenty or thirty inches apart, the lateral branches-which give the greatest efficiency to a hedge-will be large, strong, and not liable to premature decay, as in close planting. It is better to have one strong, healthy, lateral branch, than three, or even four branches in the same space, which are slender and liable to decay in consequence of close planting. Strong, stiff, lateral branches, with the ends clipped off, and having thorns on their sides, are very repulsive things for stock of any kind to plunge into. But when all the sprouts grow erect and slender and smooth, bullocks with very long horns will delight in the fun of thrashing them to the ground. Any one who is well acquainted with the habits of the red cedar, or the hemlock, or American arbor vitae, will, I doubt not, fully coincide with me, that when planted very close together they could not be relied upon for making an efficient and impassable hedge; but if transplanted at about thirty inches apart, they will make, in some localities, a more efficient and impassable and durable hedge than any other plant which has as yet been successfully cultivated for hedges. Of these three plants last mentioned, the red cedar is most preferable. The honey locust, the yellow locust, the Osage orange, and, in fact, almost every other plant which has been and is now cultivated for hedges, will flourish best when standing nearly or quite solitary. Therefore, to close this subject, we lay it down as our candid conviction, that all the plants just mentioned will flourish better, be more durable, be stronger, less liable to premature decay, be trained with less difficulty, make an impassable fence sooner, be kept within the desired limits assigned for the width and height of the hedge, after the hedge is completed, and be grown at a much less expense, and by laborers possessing inferior skill in the business of hedging, when the plants are set from sixteen to twenty tnches apart, in some instances thirty inches, than if they were set from six to twelve inches apart. I have 10 223 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. planted some red cedars for a hedge fence, and I place them thirty inches apart, believing that at that distance they will make a better hedge than if set any closer to each other. PHILOSOPHY OF PRUNING. 301. Why do we prune trees and plants? Trees and plants are pruned for several reasons. They are pruned sometimes for the purpose of removing the dead branches, and sometimes to make a tree grow higher, and sometimes to make it grow broader and lover; and sometimes for the purpose of making the fruit grow larger and fairer, by removing the redundant branches. If the ends of all the limbs of a tree should be clipped off two or three times during the growing season, and they were not allowed to grow only so high and so far laterally, a tree would soon send out sprouts or suckers all over the limbs, and in a few years a tree would be a complete mat of brush. If all the topmost branches are clipped off about as fast as the ends grow, the greatest part of the sap will be driven or thrown into the lateral branches, and they will shoot off horizontally with great rapidity. On the contrary, if one bud or stem is allowed to shoot up in the centre of the top, and all the others are kept back by clipping off the ends as fast as they grow, there will be an unusual amount of sap flowing to this centre stem, and it will run up tall and slim. When young fruit-trees are inclined to grow slim and tall, we clip off the top buds, which will throw the sap into the lateral branches, and the trees will begin to thicken. Although pruning fruittrees is not intimately connected with the subject of this section, still I cannot forbear to notice, briefly, some things connected with pruning trees.-(See Figs. 125 and 150, TOOLS FOR PRUNING.) 302. In forming a head to young fruit-trees, the young farmer should aim to have one stem run up in the centre of the tree, and then a system of two or three or four limbs extending horizontally from the upright stem, about thirty or forty inches apart, Blear to the top of the tree. The first system of branches should be about five or six feet from the ground. If they sould(l be inclined to 224 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. sag down too much, they might be well shored up, or tied up with wires extending from the top of the tree to them, during the growing season, when they would probably remain in that position. 303. It is bad policy to allow trees to grow at random for a number of years, and then give them a severe pruning. It in jures a fruit-tree to cut off a large limb as much as it hurts a man to have a limb amputated. Fruit-trees should always be pruned so that a man can easily get around in the tops of them, without the assistance of a ladder. Small branches should be left all along large limbs, so that a person may go on them when plucking fruit. Many people have clipped off all the branches on the large limbs of their apple-trees, so that nothing but a bare limb is left for ten or fourteen feet, with the fruit branches all at the ends of the limbs. This is a very objectionable manner of pruning. The heads or tops of fruit-trees should always be formed as low as will be practicable, and not be too inconvenient getting around beneath the lowest limbs. It will be far better to have the branches low, than it is to prune them so that a man will need a sixteen feet ladder to get on the limbs. The higher the trees are, the more, by a great deal, will fruit be injured when it falls to the ground, when it falls on any hard substance or against each other. WVhen trees are low, they will produce quite as much, and even more fruit than they would if the same tops were elevated on long limbs sixteen feet higher. When they are very high, much more of the fruit is blown off by high winds, sometimes before it is ripe; and a greater portion of it cannot be plucked when the trees are high; whereas, if the trees were low, almost every apple could be plucked. 304. Many good orchards have been almost ruined by employing a raw "bushwhacker" to prune their fruit-trees, who knew no more about the correct principles, according to which fruit-trees should be pruned, than the skillful paddy did whom a certain farmer employed to prune his young orchard, who, on being asked at noon how his pruning progressed, replied, "And I have prmned none at all yet, but have cut them all down." Get J. J. 225 I ITHE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. Thomas' Fruit Culturist, and learn to prune according to the most approved principles. 305. As soon as a tree has been pruned-the limbs having been cut off smoothly-a little kettle of liquid grafting cement should be at hand, and with a brush every wound that is as large as a man's thumb should be smeared, and a piece of coarse paper put over it before it becomes hard, and pressed into the wax. Have a little basket with square pieces of paper in it; and if the paper is a little larger than the wound, it will do no harm, for the rain and wind will soon carry away all that does not adhere to the wax. I have and do now practise these directions. THE HEDGE COMPLETE. 306. "The following figure will give the young hedger the most approved manner of pruning a hedge, which is made to assume the form of a Gothic arch, as shown by the curved lines o n and o m, the apex of the hedge. The dotted line c represents the point where the hedge should be clipped the first season, if it is large enough. The dotted line d shows the place for the second clipping; e is the third clipping, h the fourth clipping, and o the hedge complete."* 307. Since penning the preceding thoughts on hedges, I have read "Warder's Hedges and Evergreens," a most useful treatise for every one who ever contemplates raising ten rods of hedge. When I penned this article on hedges, I did not know that such a book was in existence, and am much gratified to learn that our views on the subjects connected with hedging should coincide so well, especially in regard to the distance apart at which the quicks should be set. I have to acknowledge, with gratitude, my indebtedness to the Country Gentleman and Albany Cultivator, published by Luther Tucker & Son, for some of the ideas in composing this Section. When anything has been copied, due credit has been given. * Dr. Warder's Hedges and Evergreens, price one dollar. 226 ~ tDX P4 ;A Ex t/ ~ ~ ~ ~ j, WARDE}tRS MANNElt OF PRUNIiG A HELDGE. 4 taq cq 0 I CHAPTER III. THE PRINCIPAL TOOLS FOR FENCING. THE fencer comes, in order well arrayed, His little kit, and saw, with glittering blade, With piercing crowbar, spade and spud and rammer, With plumb-rule, line, and auger, axe and hammer, Not strewn in wild confusion in the track, But neat and clean, supported on the rack. 308. It is a trite but usually true maxim, that "a workman is known by the chips he makes and by the tools he uses. A good workman, as a general rule, will not work with poor and awkward tools, because it is bad policy. He knows that with poor tools, he is required to exert much more physical strength in doing a given job; and that he makes little progress, and many times cannot do a piece of work in any other than a very inefficient manner. Some men always use poor tools. A good tool of any kind, with them, is the exception and not the rule; and if they chance to get a good tool, it is of short duration, for it is soon broken or stove up, or injured in some manner, so that it is a poor one. On the contrary, other men will always keep their tools good until they are worn out; and one will seldom find a poor tool in their possession. Good tools, many times, cost no more than poor ones, in dollars and cents; and the loss sustained by using poor tools would often amount to more than enough, tin dollars and cents, to purchase good ones. It will not be denied by the great majority of workmen, that a laborer will be able to do twice as much in a given period of time, with less force and fatigue to his powers, with a good tool than with a poor one; and many times the difference is even four or five times in favor of good tools. The best of tools are often rendered no better than very (228) THEI YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. poor ones, by neglecting to keep them in good order; and they are often allowed to be used in that unworkmanlike condition, because those who use them do not know how to keep them in good order. And good tools are often very much damaged by neglecting to take care of, and keep them fr( m the influence of the weather. This leads me to speak of THE USE AND CARE OF TOOLS. 309. It is not always those who break and wear out the greatest number of tools who perform the most labor, but the opposite of this; for those who are in the habit of damaging, staving up and breaking the most tools, are usually those who do a very limited portion of labor. One-half of the laborers-yes, more than that proportion-do not seem to think but that they may pry and lift with a spade, shovel, or hoe-hiandle, as they would with a crowbar or handspike. For this reason, the handles of both spades and shovels become so badly sprung, if they are not broken, as to render them very inefficient, and almost worthless. The beginner should learn to exercise a little judgment in regsrd to the strength of the materials of which tools are made, and to protect them from the injurious influences of wet and dry weather, which will rust, warp, distort and rot them, to their injury more than all the wear of them when in actual service. THE FENCE TOOL-RACK. 310. When laborers are digging post holes, it becomes necessary to use several different tools, at various times, in digging one hole, and when there is nothing to lean them against, a workman will spend a portion of his time in picking up his tools and changing them; and in some places, where the surface of the ground is covered with mud and water, tools will be falling into the mud, and then a laborer must spend time to wipe off the mud. All these little points of time will soon consume enough to dig a hole or two. A workman needs all his tools close by his side, where he can lay his hand on them without stepping away from his work. To aid him in having his tools all at hand, and for keeping them out of the mud, a tool-rack, Fig. 98, is a very 229 230. THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. important implement in fence building. It should be made very light, so that one will not dread to move it when necessary. FIG. 98. A ci a -~ X_?b TOOL-RACK. A is a piece of scantling, two inches square and two feet long; b is a light board, one foot wide and two feet long, screwed to the sills; c c are standards, round, two feet long and one inch in diameter; D D are guard-pins, one foot long and one inch in diameter, for keeping the tools, as they stand on the platform b, from falling on the ground. On this platform should be kept the shovel and spade, the auger and spud, the crowbar and spoon, and the rammer, and then no time will be spent in picking them out of the mud; and it should be borne in mind, that this little light bench is not strong enough to be used as a heavy saw bench. THE POST-HOLE AUGER. A Post-hole Auger here we view, Without a pod, or worm, or screw. See AUGERS, Par. 588. 311. Fig. 99 is an illustration of a dirt auger, which is a very useful tool in digging ordinary holes for fence; and when the stones are all so small that they will pass between the lips, a workman can bore a hole three times quicker than he can dig it with other tools. When the ground is very wet, one can make a hole three feet deep in less than five minutes, should the auger not hit any stone. When there are many stones, they must be taken out by hand. But few men know how to use such an auger. Many will insist upon having a arge screw on the end, to draw it into the ground; but such a thing THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. would be impracticable, because the threads of a screw would immediately clog with dirt, and be worse than a small plain FIG. 99. a C THE POST-HOLE AUGER, point, such as they should always be made with. In using such an auger, dig a foot or so with the spade, and then with the crowbar make a hole six or eight inches deep for the point of the auger to turn in, if the ground is hard. When the ground is soft, a hole made with a crowbar will not be necessary. Bore in six inches, and with the rammer pack the dirt a little on the auger, so that when it is lifted out it will bring all the dirt with it. In dry dirt, if it is not rammed a little on the auger it will fall back into the hole when the auger is taken out. Make a hole with crowbar again and bore as before. Have a little paddle at hand to clean off the auger when the dirt adheres to it. Never strike an auger on a stone for the purpose of knocking off the dirt. It should be kept so bright that dirt will seldom stick to the lips. Bear in mind, that a post auger is not a crowbar nor a sledge, and when made as light as it ought to be it can be easily broken. When the lips hit a stone in boring, let the auger be taken out, and pry out the stone with the crowbar. 10* 231 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 312. Description.-a is the handle, two feet long, which passes through an eye in the shank b, which shank is made of threequarter-inch round iron, about three feet long, screwed into the socket of the auger. c c are the cutters or lips, which are all lips and point, which point cannot be seen, cast in one piece. The lips at d are from one and a half to two inches apart, according to the size of the auger, although two inches is large enough in the widest place. The lips should not be more than onefourth of an inch in thickness, tapering to the edges, which should be chilled when they are cast (see paragraph 312). The point should not be more than two inches in diameter, terminating with a point about three or four inches long, made of a true, round taper. As such augers are seldom kept on hand, and where they are kept for sale the price is from $3 to $4, the farmer can employ an experienced pattern-maker to make the pattern, and he can get such an auger fitted up at a machineshop for about $1 50, handle and all. Treman Brothers, of Ithaca, sell them, ready for use, at $1 25. The whole of the boring portion should be kept as bright and smooth as a plow, and never allowed to become rusty. When not in use it should be washed and wiped clean and dry, and kept where it will not rust, because if it becomes rusty it will not work well, any more than a plow that is not scoured so bright that the dirt will slip in plowing. THE SPUD. 313. For digging post holes, a spud, Fig. 100, is frequently the most convenient and efficient tool that can be used. Where FIG. 100. THE SPUD. there are but few stones, and the earth is too hard to spade it up, a spud is very useful. In digging holes twice as large as the dirt auger will bore, the spud is brought into use, and withit the sides of the holes are cut down and dressed twice as quick, and 232 0 - -- ti I THE YOUNG FARMER',S MANUAL. twice as easy, as it could be done with spade or crowbar. For digging up the earth in the bottom of post holes, when no dirt auger is used, a spud is far better than a crowbar. Any good blacksmith can make a spud, and the cost will be from $1 50 to $2 50, according to the size and weight of it. 314. Description.-a is the blade, from two and a half to three inches wide, and about half an inch thick and a foot long, and of the best of iron, and the edge or lower end of the blade, for two or three inches, all steel, properly tempered for cutting stone and gravel. The edge is bevelled from both sides like a crowbar. b is the socket, large enough to receive a handle two inches in diameter, and not less than four inches deep. The handle c should be round and tapering, and made of the firmest and toughest timber. If it is two inches in diameter at the socket, it will be of a fair proportion if it is made of a true taper to the upper end, which should be about one inch and an eighth in diameter. The whole tool is about six feet in length. Remember that a spud is not made to pry or lift with, like a handspike, but to cleave off the dirt, and to dig it up, so that it can be taken out of the holes with the dirt spoon. Let the edge be made as thin as will be consistent with sufficient strength. If it is too thin it will soon break or bend. THE RAMMER. 315. The rammer (Fig. 101) is used for packing the earth firmly around posts. In using it workmen are too apt to FIG. 101. Lo______________ THE RAMMER. pack the dirt close around the posts and leave much of it utntouched with the rammer. The dirt should be well rammed from the post to every side of the hole. The rammer should be about-five feet in length. The large part of it should be about four inches in diameter and twenty inches long, and the 233 -. —I THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. lower end mounted with an iron plate over the end, and a good band around it to keep it from splitting. It should be made of heavy, durable wood. The upper end of the knob need not be but one inch in diameter. Rammers are often made by boring a hole in a piece of scantling, and putting in a handle. But a turned one is a little neater. A handle may be turned of the proper size, and driven firmly in the head, after which the head may be turned. Recollect that a rammer is not a tool to pry with, nor to strike sideways with. T-HE CROWBAR. "Behold here the crowbar, a lever for prying And lifting stone, standing or lying."-EDWARDS. 316. Here we have something that you do not break and stave up without some extra exertion. This is not a shovel! lift FIG. 102. with it as heavily as you please! It is not a spade! . pry with it till you are tired! It is not an axe-helve, nor fork-handle! And now, friend, you who are always breaking and staving up tools that were never designed to pry with, when you have anything to pry, get the crowbar. A crowbar is a very useful tool, and its efficiency depends, in a great measure, on its form and size. For ordinary purposes on the farm, a crow bar of the following dimensions is of a fair proportion and good form and size, and as small as one ought to be. For handling heavy stone, crowbars may be heavier than this, but never lighter. It is better, for gene 20 ral purposes, to have the basil from a to the edge tapering like a wedge, instead of being pointed. From a to the edge, four inches, made of steel, and -. tempered as hard as it can well be and not break 8 when punching on stone. From a to b eight inches) a...... and one inch and three-eighths square. From b to the upper end, which is about one inch in diameter, round, it should be of a true taper. From b to c it is twenty TBE CiROW - BAFW inches, with the corners hammered, as in the figure. 234 0 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. From c to the end, thirty to thirty-four inches, round and smooth. The upper end should be laid with steel, so that it will not become battered up in hammering or driving stone with it. Let the edge of the crowbar be kept sharp, and it will not be difficult to work a hole in almost any soil. 317. The most efficient and proper manner of using a crowbar when making holes in the ground is, to clasp it with both hands close together, when it stands perpendicularly before the workman, with the hands about as high as the elbows, and then lift it perpendicularly, and plunge it down perpendicularly. By handling it in this way, it is easy to thrust it straight in a hole at every thrust. But when a man attempts to make a hole by taking hold of the crowbar as he would take hold of a pitchfork or spade, he finds it very difficult to thrust twice in one place. In digging up the earth in the bottom of a post hole with a crowbar or spud, first make a hole three or four inches deep in the centre of the post hole, and then thrust in the bar about three inches from this hole, and pry the dirt towards the centre of the post hole. Let the dirt be loosened all over the bottom of the hole, and then take it out with THE DIRT-SPOON. "There is a choice in spoons."-BARLOW. 318. A dirt-spoon (Fig. 103) is not calculated to shovel dirt, nor to spade with; its office is to scoop out the loose dirt in dig FIG. 103. THE DIRT-SPOON. ging post holes. It is better for such a purpose than a spade, or any kind of shovel, because it is not so pointed as some shovels, and has a deeper bowl, like a scoop shovel. They are seldom made to hang correctly, and the bowl is usually too long to do 235 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. good work. The bowl is frequently made in a straight line with the handle, whereas, there should be so much hang to it that when it is full of dirt there will be no tendency to turn over in the hands of the workman. (See SHOVELS, paragraph 323.) There should be so much hang (see HANG, in the next vol.) or crook to it that, in filling it with dirt, it must be carried to the opposite side of the post hole from where the digger is standing, and then crowded down into the dirt, not by thrusting, but by the weight of the operator, and as it enters the dirt it should be carried back to the other side of the hole. Fig. 104 represents a side view of the dirt.spoon, by which it FrIG. 104. -ifi — SIDE VIEW OF DIRT-SPOON will be seen what is about the correct shape for the bowl, and crook of the handle. Our old-fashioned ladles for scooping boiled beans from the dinner-pot come nearer to a dirt-spoon than any other implement, and when a ladle hangs correctly for dipping beans out of a dinner pot, it may be used as a model for making a post- or dirt-spoon. The handle of the dirt-spoon may be of wood, and bent like a shovelhandle; or the spoon may have an iron shank, a foot or so in length, bent in proper shape, like Fig. 104. Let the bowl be kept bright, so that dirt will not adhere to it, and clean it with a little paddle, instead of striking it on a stone or block to knock the dirt off. When it is struck on a stone to clean the dirt off, the edges will soon become all stove up, and the dirt will not slip off readily. THE PLUMB RULE. "From the zenith above to the nadir below, A plumb in a vertical line will go."-GRAY. 319. The plumb rule, Fig. 105, is made of a strip of board 236 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. about four feet long and three inches wide, and scalloped or forked at the bottom, as in the figure, so that it may rest on the points, while the plumb c swings freely. The rule must be planed as straight as can be with the jointer, with the edges parallel, and FIG. 105. I I I la l I I I I Il PLUMB RULE. a mark made with the gauge along the centre, as at the dotted line a; b is a screw to which the plumb line d is attached; c is the plumb, made of lead, about two inches long and one inch in diameter. To make a plumb, bore a smooth hole in a hard stick of wood, and fill it with melted lead; as soon as the lead is poured in, hold a little wire staple in the melted lead, with the pinchers, until the lead becomes solid. Split the stick, and attach the plumb by the staple, to a piece of small cord d. Place the edge of the rule against the side of a post, and if it is plumb the cord will hang exactly over the dotted line a. Such a rule is usually quite as convenient as a spirit level and plumb, which will cost ten times more; and it is often far more correct, and will show any slight variation with more accuracy than many spirit rules. 2 "O' 7 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. THE SPADE. "Hurrah for the spade, and a workman to use it I It turns the black glebe into bright shining gold I What could our fathers have done, boys, without it, When the fields lay all bare and the zephyrs blew cold?"I-DWIGHT. 320. Fig. 106 represents a good spade, in one sense, but be F 106 107 cause it hangs so awkwardly it is worthless. It would be almost impossible to spade with such a tool, because there is no hang to it. The names of the principal parts of the spade are, b, the handle, a, the hilt, c, the X stamp or shoulder, d, the blade. Fig. 107 shows a side view of a well-hung spade. It will be discovered that a line cutting the middle of the straight portion of the handle will strike the edge of the blade, as shown by the dotted line, and the upper end of the blade should set back of this line about two i iinches, in a spade about a foot long. When ' the blade hangs in such a position that a I line cutting the centre of it would be par I} allel with a line cutting the straight part of the handle, (see Fig. 108, OF SHOVELS,) it will not work easily, because the laborer will be obliged to make an extra effort to prevent a spadeful from slipping off the end BPAD of the blade. When a spade has as much hang as a well hung shovel, a spader is obliged to reach forward with the handle so far that the motion is awkward, inefficient, and not easy. But when a spade has about as much hang as is shown at Fig. 107, a workman is not obliged to use up any of his energies in an inefficient manner. It is much better to have a spade-handle entirely straight, without any hang at all in a spade, than to have the edge and the bitde stand at such an angle as is represented by Fig. 106. A spade 238 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. with a handle entirely straight, and straight with the blade, is not an awkward tool to spade with until one attempts to lift a spadeful, then we shall see distinctly the necessity of having a spade hung in the most proper manner. Manufacturers would do well to make two kinds of spades, one kind very neat and light, but sufficiently strong for skillful laborers, and another kind unnecessarily heavy and clumsy, for the special benefit of those stupid dolts who use a spade as if it were a crowbar, and who cannot use a spade a half day without bending the blade, or breaking or springing the handle, or staving it up into some unde sirable shape. 321. In using a spade, especially in spading sod, the operator should always remember to cut a spadeful loose on both sides before it is thrust in to take up a spadeful. When a spade is thrust in its whole length into hard soil, and the force of a laborer applied to the handle to loosen the spadeful as if it were a lever, if it is not made too heavy and clumsy for a skillful laborer, it must break or bend, so as to be unfit for use. In spading we cannot avail ourselves of any advantage by resting the handle across one knee, as in shovelling; therefore a spade should not be one ounce heavier than is necessary for consistent strength. The blade should be made of steel, because a steel blade is much stiffer than an iron blade of the same thickness. A man whose mind is enlightened with a knowledge of mechanical principles, will never bend nor break a spade; his keen perception will tell him, even if he were blindfolded, when the strength of the spade is unequal to the force applied to the handle. 322. In spading the soil in gardens, when a plow is not used, the laborer takes a spade-slice six or eight inches wide and spades clear across a given plot of ground, leaving a furrow about half as wide as the furrow made by a plow. The narrower the spadeslices are the more completely the soil will be pulverized. When manure is worked into the soil in spading, it should be spread in the furrow, and every spadeful turned upside down on the top of it; and if the dirt does not all fall to pieces, a thrust or two with the edge will pulverize it sufficiently for raking. When spading 239 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. soil of a clayey or adhesive character, after the spade has been thrust in, instead of prying the spadeful loose by prying down on the handle, the laborer should thrust the handle from him, forward, so as to loosen the spadeful. This operation will not require half the force for spading that is necessary where the spading is all done by prying down on the handle to loosen the spadeful. A skillful spader will wear out his spade; but an awkward Jonathan will break and stave up twice as many spades, and will not perform half the amount of labor, as he who handles a spade with a little skill. In spading in ditches where the soil is quite wet, ninety-nine diggers in one hundred will put their whole weight on a spade-handle in order to pry a spadeful loose; whereas, if they would loosen it by thrusting the handle forward, it would not require one-fourth the strength, and it would be loosened in less than half the time. By prying down on the handle to loosen a spadeful where there is water, a spadeful is not easily pryed loose, because in separating the spadeful from the unbroken ground there is a tendency to form a vacuum; but by thrusting the handle forward enough to loosen the spadeful, air and water will find their way behind the spadeful, and it may be easily lifted from its place with the spade. Remember, that a spade is neither a crowbar nor handspike. If the edge and blade of a spade are made of steel, as they should be, and polished on the grindstone, and the edge ground up sharp, if the edge has a good temper, so hard that it will not batter when it touches stone, nor break when thrust on a flint, it will not require much force to drive in the spade when spading. But when the edge is all battered up, and towards one-fourth of an inch thick, spading is a very laborious operation. A good steel spade should never be allowed to become rusty, nor to be exposed to heavy rains, as bent handles in spades are quite apt to spring straight when left in wet places. A few drops of oil will keep the blade from rust ing, and it will not require half as much time to clean a spade and oil it and put it under cover as it will to scour it fit for use after it has become rusty. If the edge of a steel spade is toosoft, it may easily be tempered again as hard as may be desired, by 240 THIE YOUNG FARMER7S MANUAL. heating about two inches of the edge. (See TEMPERING TOOLS, 532.) SHOVELS. " O give me a shovel! There's magic about it I And the laborer skilled will teach us to use it. "-EDwARDs. 323. The great excellency and efficiency of shovels, and the ease with which they may be handled, depend almost entirely on the correct hang of the handles and blades. If a shovel or spade be made of the very best materials, and is defective in the hang of the blade and handle, it is a poor tool; and the intelligent farmer would find it for his interest to dispose of such tools to those who seem to contend that a laborer can perform just as much work with a tool having a straight handle as with a tool correctly hung, providing he is only accustomed to using such tools. Shovelling dirt, or manure, or anything else, is very laborious work, even when the very best kind of shovels is used; but when shovelling is to be performed with a poor tool, the laborer is sure to be greatly fatigued, while he performs but a light day's work; but when a shovel is made of good materials, is light and bright, and correctly hung, a man will be able to perform twice the amount of labor, with half the fatigue that he would experience with a shovel improperly hung. Shovels are too frequently made unnecessarily heavy in order to be of consistent strength, because the materials of which they are made are very poor; but if they were made of good steel they might be often full one-third lighter, and sufficiently strong for any skillfill laborer to use without fear of breaking. When the blades are made of poor iron, it is necessary to make them nearly twice as heavy as if they were made of steel; and more than this, iron blades will not wear as smooth, and will not enter the dirt as easily, as a steel blade; and dirt is far more apt to adhere to an iron blade than to a steel one,all of which require the exercise of more force in using a shovel. It is no uncommon thing to find shovels from one to two pounds heavier than is necessary. Suppose, for example, a laborer will. throw up ten shovelfuls in a minute; at that rate he will throw up six thousand shovelfuls in a day of ten hours. If his shovel 241 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. be two pounds heavier than is necessary, he will in ten hours exert a force, which is entirely lost in handling a heavy shovel, which would have been sufficient to have thrown up twelve thousand pounds of earth, with no more fatigue than he experiences, had he used a lighter shovel. The laborer will discover from this fact the importance of having shovels as light as will be consistent with necessary strength; and the better the materials are of which shovels are made, the lighter they may be, and the more a workman will be able to perform with a certain amount of force. In using a shovel, all the force which a laborer exerts should be turned to the most efficient purpose. It requires but little force to shovel a ton of earth when a man handles a good shovel with dexterity; but if a laborer must bend his legs and back very much in order to bring his shovel in the best position to enter the substance to be shovelled with the least force, the fatigue produced by bringing his body into such a position, and straightening up again, will be greater than that caused by thrusting in the shovel and lifting a shovelful. For this reason it is very poor policy for a laborer to use a shovel with a very short handle, like the handle of a spade, for shovelling any length of time, because it is very laborious and fatiguing. A man may shovel with a short handle for an hour or so as fast as he would with a long handle, and not discover any difference in the fatigue produced or force expended; but let him continue to use a shovel with a short handle all day, and if he does an honest day's work, unless his powers of endurance are very great, he will pronounce shovelling very laborious business. In shovelling dirt or manure with a short-handled shovel, the operator usually places the hand which holds the hilt of the shovel against the inside of one thigh, and bends his knees and body forward, and in this position, by no means an easy one, thrusts in the shovel. The simple act of bringing the body into such a position, and bringing it again erect, will require the expenditure of more force than the shovelling alone. In order to shovel with the least fatigue, a laborer needs to stand almost erect, with his back straight and knees bent but little; and then, with the handle resting across one knee, the shovel is thrust into tlihe 242 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. dirt by a forward motion of the body; and by straightening the knees and keeping the arms stiff, with the shovel across the knee, the shovelful is lifted a few inches with the least possible fatigue. Then, by making a fulcrum of the knee across which the handle is resting, and by thrusting the upper end of the handle down with one hand, the shovelful may be raised nearly a foot high with the greatest ease. It must then be lifted by the arms. But a man's back should be always kept about straight in shovelling, as he will be able to work much longer and with less fatigue than would be possible when he is constantly bending and straightening his back. The knees should always perform the most laborious part in shovelling dirt, and the arms should be kept as closely to the body as is convenient.- My apology for being so particular on this subject is, few laborers, old or young, know how to use a dirt-shovel with the greatest ease, and to perform the greatest amount of labor with the least fatigue; and they often labor very hard and accomplish but little, because they do not understand handling the shovel with dexterity or because it is not properly hung. I shall now treat more particularly of THE RULE FOR HANGING SHOVELS IN A WORKMANLIKE MANNER. FIG. 108. CZ.. C - - t - SAW-CLAMP. END VIEW. necessary, a perspective and end view of which is represented by Fig. 169, with a saw in it. a is a heavy plank, two inches thick or thicker, a foot wide and three feet long. Fig. 170 is an end view of the same. b b are four standards, one and a half by four inches square, of hard wood, driven into mortises in a, and are about eight inches long. c c are the jaws, about four feet long, and fastened to the upper ends of b b, by mortise and tenon. d d are screws, which pass through b b. They may be nothing but iron bolts. The standards b b should be about one-eighth of an inch apart, to give room for a saw. Put the saw in the clamp and screw up the jaws, and if the clamp is not heavy enough to remain still when filing, bolt it to the bench. If the jaws are straight and true, they will press against the saw from one end to the other. If the saw rattles or works between the jaws, they are not true, and must be straightened. PUTTING HAND-SAWS IN ORDER. 613. Put the saw in the clamp with the teeth extending a little above the jaws. Always have the clamp set as level as practicable, and never attempt to file a saw in a place where it is not as light as is desirable. It is very important to have 411 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. enough light, that the points of all the teeth may be seen distinctly. No man can expect to file a saw well when the light is dim. Sometimes one can file by candle-light, if he has good sight, quite as well as by daylight. In dark, cloudy days, the clamp can be carried out of doors when filing; but it should always be placed in a level position. 614. Now, the idea is, to file just so deep between every two teeth, and to file the face and back (see TECHNICALITIES, Par. 602) at a given angle, and to have the teeth on both sides of the saw of equal length and size. Cast the eye over the teeth, and if some of them are longer than others the teeth must be jointed. HOW TO JOINT SAWS. 615. Put a saw in the clamp as for filing, and, holding a large file in the hands with the flat side down, and level, run it along as you would a plane on the points of the teeth, until the long ones are all filed off on the points even with the short ones. Great care should be exercised in jointing a saw, and not joint off the teeth on one side of the saw more than they are jointed off on the other side. Run the file from end to end of the saw, and examine it at every stroke to see if the teeth are not jointed off enough. One careless stroke in jointing, or one stroke too much, will cause much unnecessary filing. 616. To joint a circular saw, set it to running moderately by hand backwards, and hold a large file on a plank placed close to the edge of the saw, so that the longest teeth as they revolve will touch the file. Place the edge of the plank at a right angle with the saw, in order to have some guide for holding the file at a right angle. If this particular is not strictly observed, the saw will not be round. I have seen workmen, when jointing circular saws, hold their file so unskillfully that all the short teeth as well as the long ones, were jointed off, and the saw was no more round than it was when they commenced jointing it. Hold the file firmly, and move it towards the teeth only a hair's-breadth at a time. FILING SAWS. 617. After having put the saw in the clamp, as in the figure, 412 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. and placed it on a bench that will bring the teeth about as high as "the pit of your stomach," put the shank of the file in a handle not less than one foot long, and put it in as true as practicable. The beginner will be able to hold his file more correctly with a long handle than with a short one. Now, hold the file firmly, so that it will not turn to the right nor to the left, and file every tooth to a point; and as soon as a tooth is filed to a point, do not give it another stroke. Great care and skill are necessary when filing with a triangular file, lest while one tooth is being filed, the tooth on the opposite side of the file should get filed off too much. Always make the strokes from you; and when a tooth is almost to a point, make each stroke with precision and care, and rather slowly. THE PROPER ANGLE FOR FILING THE FACE OF THE TEETH 618. For cutting across the grain, varies very much among different filers. The work to be done with a saw must determine, in a measure, the proper angle for filing the face of the teeth. If the wood be hard, and knotty, and gnarly, the teeth must be filed for chipping or removing the sawdust. And the best kind of tooth for removing sawdust is one that is filed square across on the face. But a tooth filed square across on the face of it will not cut off the fibres of the wood well; therefore, the face of the teeth must be filed more or less diagonally. If filed very diagonally on the face, the teeth will be very fleaming, or fleampointed. (See TECHNICALITIES.) When filed of this shape, they cut very fast, but they remove the core very slowly. Some men prefer to file four teeth or six teeth very fleani-pointed, at an angle of about forty or forty-five degrees on the face, and then file one tooth square on the face for taking out the core, leaving the point a little shorter than the others. For all kinds of work, for hard and for soft wood, when a man keeps but one saw, if the teeth be filed at an angle of about ten or fifteen degrees on the face, it will be found to subserve the best purpose for hand-saws. If a man keeps a slitting-saw, his crosscut hand-saw may be filed a little more fleaming on the face of the teeth. When the wood 413 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. to be sawed is all soft wood, a saw will cut the fastest if four teeth-two on each side-are filed quite fleaming on the face, and every fifth tooth filed square across it on the face and back, without setting them. When teeth are all filed very fleaming, and none filed square to clean out the chip or core, it will be necessary to bear on in sawing. 619. Slitting-saws are always filed square across on the face of the teeth, and usually square on the back of them; although some filers contend that it is better to file a little fleaming on the backs at the points. As it is very difficult for beginners to retain the proper angle in all the teeth, and to file every tooth of exactly such a size and form, with nothing but the eye for a guide, A SAW-FILER, 620. A perspective view of which is shown at Fig. 171, is found to be a very useful implement. With such a filer, any FIG.( 171. x p UP HL LII~d._~...- ~ ——,~r?... ~.....~,di -a..... -- W 'irjb FRGUSONIV.,L~ —'A - 7.. SA,%'-FILER. farmer can file his saws in a most complete manner, giving every tooth exactly a certain angle, both on the face and back, and of a given hook, and just so long and no longer, nor shorter; and besides, if every tooth is filed to a point, the saw will be neatly jointed. It consists of a clamp like Fig. 169, with an iron plate, a, screwed firmly to the jaw of the clamp. b is an iron slide, which is neatly fitted by notches or gains to the true edges of a, which is slid along the jaw, back and forth, from end to end, by the endless set-screw and wheel c, fastened in front of the iron plate a. d is the handle of the iron plate which holds the file which plays back and forth in the iron post E, which is fastened to an Input tdi. - -'..... .f?__' D —'- I i.. -' -_ 414 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. adjustable iron plate, which is bolted to the slide b. f is a thumb set-screw, to regulate the proper depth to file the teeth. H is another set-screw, for holding the file at any desired angle. 621. When a saw is filed with such a filer, put it in the clamp very true, with one end just as high above the jaws as the other. Adjust tlhe file to file hooked or not, and, with the set-screw and wheel, run the slide b to one end of the clamp. Now, adjust the post E by the thumb-screw on the lower end, to hold the file at the desired angle. File the teeth on one side of the saw, and carry the post E around, so as to bring the file at the same angle in the opposite direction. After having filed one tooth, turn the set wheel around once or twice, more or less, according to the size of the teeth, which will draw the slide b along just so far. If the slide is drawn along only a trifle too far at one time, and not quite so far the next time, the teeth will not all be of a uniform length. The file is so hung that in thrusting from you it will cut, and can be raised a little when drawing it back. There are several styles of patent filers. The proprietor of this one is Mr. H. Miller, Ithaca, N. Y., who will furnish both filers and rights to manufacture. 622. Fig. 172 exhibits a section of a slitting hand-saw well filed. It will be seen by the figure that the faces of the teeth FIG. 172. I I I I I ) I I I I I SITRNG-SAW WELL FILED. are at right angles to the cutting edges, or points, and are all filed square across. It is not practicable to saw across the grain with a saw filed in this manner. 613. Fig. 173 is a crosscut section of a hand-saw well filed. The faces of the teeth are at right angles with the dotted lines - along the points. Many filers contend, that if the faces of the 18 w - - S~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~. 415 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. teeth are filed at right angles they will be too hooked. But if filed in this style a saw will cut much faster and easier, and it FIG. 173. :!i iiiit CROl'OSCUT WELL FILED. coincides with the manner of filing adopted by our best mechanics. 624. Fig. 174 shows a saw badly filed; but it is an exact rep FIG. 174. I_ BADLY FILED. resentation of many saws that have been filed by those who do not understand the princzple on which saws are sharpened. By a glance at the dotted line along the edge it will be seen that a few teeth only must do all the sawing. (See Par. 611.) I have taken this figure from a saw that was brought to me to be filed; and some parts of it had been filed worse than this. It had been filed with old worn-out files until its proprietor found it impossible to cut off a narrow board with it. 625. Now in order to put it in sawable order it was put in the clamp and jointed, and all of the teeth started in filing of the proper form, and then the teeth were set. It is not always most advisable to restore such teeth to the most proper form at one filing unless one has much sawing to perform. If a saw-filer is used it will be much easier to restore the correct form of the teeth than it will be when filing by hand. WVhen filing such a saw by I - .. I I ...1 416 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. hand, after it has been jointed place a try-square against the edge, and with the sharp point of a file make a scratch across the blade or the face of each tooth, as shown by the dotted lines Figs. 172 and 173, and then file the teeth only in part to a point the first time across from end to end. Some filers always change ends with a saw after filing one side. But it is of little consequence how a man files, if he only does it in a workmanlike manner. After a saw has been filed, in order to have it cut a kerf a little wider than the blade the points of the teeth must be set. SETTING SAWS. FIGS. 175, 176, 1.t} 4t, _ _ CROSS SECTIONS OF SAWS. 626. Fig. 175 represents a cross section of a saw with the points of the fleam-pointed teeth set, showing the cleaners, or teeth that are filed square across. (See Par. 653.) 627. Fig. 176 is a section of saw in which all the teeth have been set. When a saw is well filed it will appear like these figures when viewed endways, and a cambric needle may be slid along between the points of the teeth, from one end of a saw to the other. 628. Fig. 177 is a section of a saw, the teeth of which are set mnore than they ought to be for the thickness of the plate; and the whole teeth having been set too much, the points have been worn off, so that it will work very hard, and perhaps not at all without great power. This shows the importance of setting as little of the points as practicable. 629. There are two kinds of set for saw teeth,-bent set and 417 177. TIE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. swedged set. Bent set is used for both crosscut and slitting-saws; but swedged set is used only for saws that cut lengthways of the grain. There are two kinds of bent set, but we shall notice but one in this work. 630. The least possible amount of set, in either a crosscut or ripping-saw, and have the saw work easily, is the best. The greater the amount of set the wider will be the kerf; and the wider the kerf the greater must be the power to drive a saw. Soft wood requires more set than hard wood. A good saw often does bad work in consequence of too much set. If there is too much set, a saw will sometimes run in consequence of it; and sometimes, especially if tie feed is heavy, if there is too much set, a saw will often make a rough and jagged cut, which makes a saw run hard. 631. The rudest and simplest mode of setting a saw is, to lay the blade of it on a smooth end of a block of hard wood, and with a punch and hammer bend the point of every other tooth by a single blow, and then turn the saw over and set the other side, being careful to place the punch on each tooth in the same place, and to gauge the force of each blow as nearly as may be. If the FIGs. 178, 179. punch is placed near the points of some teeth and near the roots of others, the teeth will be set very unevenly. Two or three teeth on each -~ i side should be set near the end of the saw first; and then, if there appears to be too little or too much set in these teeth, let the blows be lighter or heavier, as may be necessary. 632. Fig. 178 represents an edge-view of a slitting-saw having the teeth set by bending the /;; points. 633. Fig. 179 is an edge-view of a slitting -~ i saw having the teeth set, or spread, by swedging. _ It is not practicable to set small saws by swedg DE VIEW OF SLIT- ing the points. TING-SAWS. 418 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. SAW SETS, 419 634. Of many different styles, may be obtained at hardware stores. It matters little what the set is, if it will only set all the teeth true. Bow-saws, billet-saws, and all other saws having a very narrow blade, must sometimes be set with a punch, or nail set. (See Par. 631.) 635. Fig. 180 represents a punch for setting a rip-saw, which FIG. 180. ;. i- i - -- 1 -_I is made of steel, and well hardened, with an iron band around it, near the crotched end, to prevent its splitting. The fork is made with a triangular file, while the steel is yet soft, of an angle more obtuse than the saw teeth, and left a little crowning at the bottom of the fork, from side to side. Before the set is hardened, make the crotch a little deeper with a sharp cold-chisel, to prevent dulling the points of the teeth. 636. To set with a crotched punch after the saw has been jointed and filed, let the punch be held steadily and firmly against the point of the tooth, parallel with the side of the saw, and with light blows with a hammer weighing about a pound, (with a still lighter hammer if the teeth be small,) spread the points of the teeth like the tail of a dove (Fig. 179), both ways from the centre. Heavy blows will be liable to bend the teeth. As the crotch of the punch is a little convex lengthways of it, by varying the position of the punch the point of the tooth may be spread to the required extent. After the points are spread enough, the cutting edge of each tooth may be drawn out with the hammer by holding a heavy piece of iron firmly against the face or bottom of the tooth. This operation saves a vast amount of filing. In spreading the teeth of a circular saw, the set may be gauged by allowing the saw to revolve slowly, when every tooth must be spread sufficiently to just touch the end of a stick of hard wood. In ;, - -. -.1 -.- I -.,I o w d SAW SET. THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. case a tooth should get set a little too much, the side of the point may be dressed off a little with a file, being careful to have the side edge of the face of the teeth more prominent than they are back of the face edges. If there should be any play of the mandrel endways, it must be held against one shoulder of the bearing while it is being set. This mode of setting will make a circular saw of uneven thickness, or that has little kinks in it, cut much truer, and work easier, than if the set of the teeth were gauged by the side of the saw plate. The teeth of circular saws for cutting across the grain of wood, the points of which are spread by bending instead of swedging, may be gauged in setting by the end of a stick instead of the side of the plate. 637. A saw set that is used for bending teeth should have not only a set-screw to gauge the amount of set, but should have a brass or copper plate for the points of the teeth to rest against when the saw is being set, which plate may be adjusted to allow the teeth to enter the set just so far and no farther. A saw set that has no adjustable plate, but receives some teeth half their length, and only the points of others, is an improper instrument to set teeth with. If a saw set, for instance, takes hold of one tooth near its point, and bends it as much as the gauge-screw will admit of, and if the set is then put on the next tooth farther than it was on the first tooth, the teeth on which the set was placed the farthest, will receive the most set, even if the setscrew is made to touch the plate alike in setting each individual tooth. 638. There is great danger, in setting the teeth of saws which have a high temper, or which are very hard, of breaking them, especially in cold weather. Whenever a hard saw or a thick one is to be set, it should be well warmed before any teeth are set. The teeth of some good saws when they are very cold will snap almost like glass when we attempt to set them. The best way to warm the teeth is, to pour hot water on them before settings unless the saw can be taken into a warm room. This applies not only to circular saws, but to all kinds of long saws; and theyro will ever regret that he did not warm his saw previous to setting 420 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. the teeth, after having broken several teeth of a good saw in consequence of not warming it. 639. The teeth of a very soft saw will require more set than a hard saw of the same thickness; because, in the hard saw the edge is more perfect, and the cut of such a saw of course will be cleaner and smoother. On the contrary, a very coarse edge, instead of cutting the fibres of wood smoothly, tears them in two, leaving the sides of the kerf very rough, whi(h makes a saw work hard. Avoid setting the teeth too wide in any saw. 640. To take the set out of a saw which has too much set in the teeth, lay it on a smooth stick of timber, and lay a hard, smooth plank on the sides of the teeth, and strike on it with a heavy hammer; or, use a set. TWO-HAND CROSSCUT SAWS. 641. Fig. 181 represents a two-hand crosscut saw, with teeth of a proper form at one end, while at the other end they are represented as they are too often filed in old saws which have been filed with old files. The dotted lines show how much should be filed out in order to make them of the proper form. Although there is the same number of teeth per foot when filed at such an obtuse angle as is shown at the left hand, the teeth will not cut half as fast as they will when filed like those at the right FIG. 181. A CROSS-CUT SAW. hand. When teeth are filed short and blunt, they require mnore force to make a saw cut, on the same principle that a man with a thin axe will be able to chop faster than he will with one having a very thick blade. 642. The teeth in crosscut saws are almost always too far apart to work well. Many a good saw has been spoiled by some knowing know-nothing, who has cut away every alternate tooth 421 THE YOUNG FARMIER'S MANUAL. with a view to make a saw cut faster. Suppose, for instance, that we cut away four-fifths of the teeth, how fast will a saw cut? For sawing timber of ordinary size, the teeth should not be more than one inch apart. When a saw jumps and jerks along, it is very certain evidence that the teeth are too far apart. The smaller in diameter the timber is, the closer together the teeth should be, in order to work best and smoothest. As the teeth of two-hand crosscut saws are filed without any hook, they should be filed rather slim and narrow at the base or roots, in order to cut the fastest. 643. Improved two-hand crosscut saws are now manufactured with every third tooth formed like a cat's claw, and filed square across, and about a sixteenth of an inch shorter than the others, which are filed very fleaming. They are much superior to the common kind of saws. PUTTING TWO-HAND CROSSCUT SAWS IN ORDER. 644. Dress out two strips of board, with one edge of each one of the same circle as the cutting edge of the saw, and screw them together with the saw between them, like Fig. 182, which shows a combined clamp and jointer, with the longest teeth of a saw extending above the edges of the clamp. The screws are FIG. 182. CLAMP.AND JOINTER A CROSSCUT SAW WITH HANDLES. put between the teeth. Adjust the clamp so that the long teeth will extend a little above the edge, and with a file dress them off even with the edge of the clamp. After it is jointed take out the screws, and place the saw in the bench-vise, and file,t. 645. In filing, always endeavor to file the spaces as deep or I . I -...... -G' 422 C) THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. deeper than they were originally made. This will keep the teeth of a good length, and a saw will never need to be gummed. Never file with an old worn-out file; because, although the teeth may be filed to a point, the spaces will not be deepened; and in a short time it will cost far more to gum a saw than it would to keep the teeth of a suitable length by filing them. If the teeth are filed very fleaming, or diagonally, it will be necessary to file about every seventh tooth square across, and a little shorter than the others. When all the teeth are filed fleaming, if they are filed at an angle of about ten or fifteen degrees with the face of the teeth, they will remove the core or dust as fast as they cut. 646. After filing, set the points of the teeth a very little. The least possible set, and have a saw work easily, will cause it to run the truest and the best. If a saw is kept as sharp as it ought to be, it will seldom need any more set when cutting soft wood, than it will when cutting hard wood. When a saw cuts a jagged, rough, uneven cut, it is a sign that the saw is not set trtue, or that the set has been taken out of some of the teeth. 647. When the whole tooth is set, the set is very liable to be taken out by allowing the saw to be pinched between the ends of a log when it is nearly sawed in two. This may be the cause of its running. Perhaps a few teeth are a trifle shorter on one side than on the other, made so either by filing or dulling. In this case the teeth should be jointed and filed of an equal length. If the set is out and the saw runs towards the top end of the log, give the teeth on the opposite side a little more set. In sawing logs for staves, spokes, and shingles, it is important that the saw run true, else there is danger of sawing one side of the log too short. HANDLING A CROSSCUT SAW 648. Requires the exercise of a little activity and agility, else the work will be rendered laborious. The hands of the sawer should merely hang loosely on the handles, allowing the handle freedom to play up and down, as the saw adjusts itself in its passage through the log. After a saw has entered a log sufficiently 18* 423 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. to keep itself erect, if a sawyer is inclined "to ride," as it is called, it would be well to pass a rope or strap of leather around the handle for him to pull by. A good sawyer must make long, elastic motions with the arms, and let the saw play lively, lightly, and freely through the log, and if the saw is in good order, the ends of the log will be as true as if they had been turned off. Let the saw be kept well-jointed and properly set, and not allowed to become rusty, and it will work easy and cut fast. THE MANNER OF FILING COMPASS SAWS. 649. Compass saws, and billet-web saws, and such as are used in a frame, for sawing felloes, and other circular work, cut as much lengthways of the grain as they do crossways; and if filed for crosscutting, they do not work well in sawing lengthways of the grain; and if filed exclusively for ripping, they will not work at all when they come to that portion of the circle which crosses the grain of the wood. Most mechanics file such saws but a little fleaming, but I think they will cut smoother and faster by filing every third tooth for rippirng, making it a little shorter than the teeth filed fleaming. The object of this is, when the saw comes to that part of a circle which runs lengthways of the grain, teeth filed fleaming will not chip well; tjierefore, every third tooth being filed for ripping, and not set, will cut away the centre of the kerf as fast as the fleaming teeth cut the sides of it. Compass and billet-saws being so narrow, they cannot advanitageously be set with an ordinary set, but must be set with a nail set, or punch and hammer, by laying them on the square end of a block of hard wood, and by giving each tooth an equal blow with the hammer. 650. The blades of compass and all other saws for cutting circular work, should be thinner on the back than they are at the cutting edge. When of this form they will turn in sawing a small circle with less set than they possibly can when the blade is all of a uniform thickness. 424 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. CIRCULAR SAWS. 425 651. Fig. 183 represents a circular saw with four different kinds of teeth. Three kinds, C B, B A, and A D, are for ripping, and the portion between D C is for cutting across the grain. To find the angle for filing the face of the teeth, strike a circle, the dotted line a, half the diameter of the saw, and a line from the points of the teeth to one side of this circle, will give FIG. 183. B :2>7 A CIROULAR SAW HAVING FOUR KINDS OF TEETH. the hook of the teeth. The marks may be made with the sharp point of a steel file. The angle for the hook of the teeth may be more obtuse or acute, as at b, from A to D. The teeth between B and C are kept in order with less filing than those with circe THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. lar backs between A and B. Those teeth between A and B are the strongest, and if the spaces at the roots of them be filed with a half-round file, the teeth will be still stronger. The backs of the teeth for one-fourth or half an inch back from the points, according to the size of the teeth, should be on a line drawn from the point of one tooth to a point as much below the point of the tooth behind it, as each tooth is required to cut in depth, as at c c. If, for example, a saw cuts one inch in one revolution, and has forty teeth, the teeth back of the points must be filed below the points, so as to be on a line drawn from one-fortieth of an inch below one point, c c, to the point of the tooth forward of it. Such a shape will allow the teeth to cut just as easily as if the backs of them were like those between C and D. The filer should be very careful to have the points of the teeth more prominent than they are just back of the cutting points. These teeth, that are formed like those between A and D, will cut very much faster, and with less power than either of the other kinds. They seem to cut a kerf through a stick, while teeth with less hook scrape or file out the kerf. But teeth of such a shape must be made only in a saw of the very best materials, and for sawing hard and knotty wood there is great danger of breaking them. For all soft wood such teeth work most admirably. Such teeth must never be bent in setting, but swedged with the swedging set, Fig. 180. The teeth between C and D are for cutting across the grain. The correct hook is found by drawing a line from the points of the teeth to the centre of the saw; or, at a right angle to the cutting edge of the saw. This is allowed to be the best angle for the face of all crosscutting saws, except such as have no hook to the teeth, like Fig. 181. It is of very little consequence so far as cutting is concerned, what the shape of the back of a tooth is, if the part back of the point is far enough back of, or below the line of motion, in which the points move, for all the teeth to enter the wood freely. If the back of a tooth be higher than the point, a tooth must wear its way through a stick instead of cutting t,hirogh.. 426 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. JOINTING A CIRCULAR SAW. 652. If a circular saw is not as round as may be, the teeth on one side will cut too deep at each revolution, and on the other side will not cut as deep as they ought to cut; and, therefore, at every revolution one side will sometimes take such a rank hold as to produce a jar, or spring the teeth, thus making a rough cut. Some mechanics use for jointing circular saws, a kind of templet or template, one end of which is rested on the collar of the mandrel. But that is not as correct and easy for beginners as the manner recommended at Par. 616. When a large circular saw is jointed by being made to revolve backwards while a file is held against the points, the impact or friction is so intense, that the teeth will wear out a file wherever it touches the saw. When large teeth need inuch jointing, hold a bar of lead near the points for every one to touch as they pass it; lead will not dull them: and then file off the points of the long teeth until the facet made by the jointing-file on the ends of them, will be even with the points of the shortest teeth. Now, set it and file it. FILING CIRCULAR SAWS. 653. The best and most convenient place for filing a circular saw is on its mandrel, providing there is sufficient light to enable one to see the points of the teeth. Some mechanics always take the saw off the mandrel and put it in a vise when filing. But any contrivance which will hold a saw firmly on the side which is being filed is all that is necessary. I always have used for this purpose two sticks, one on each side of the saw, extending from the saw to some part of the frame. Every tooth should be brought to the top of the saw when it is filed; because any one can file better on the top of a saw than on the sides of it. And, if every tooth is brought to just such a position before it is filed, they are more likely to be filed alike. If the teeth are to be filed square across, every tooth may be filed while standing on one side of the saw; but if the teeth are to be filed fleaming or bevelling, it is better to file the teeth on one side while standing on 0 427 THE YOUNG FARM ER'S MANUAL. one side of the saw, and to file the other side when standing on the opposite side. The same rules hold good for filing circular saws that ale served for filing long saws. A circular saw for cutting across the grain should have not less than four teethone on each side of the saw-filed square across, and a little shorter than the others, to cut out the chip. These teeth should have a good hook. All the teeth should be kept as nearly of a size and length as possible; and for this purpose the templet (see Fig. 184) should be placed on every tooth before it is filed, in order to show whether or not a tooth has the desired shape. It is sometimes a very good practice in filing any kind of saw, and especially if it is a very soft saw, to go over all the teeth with a very fine file, or with one that is nearly worn out, after they have been brought to an edge with a sharp file. This process gives the teeth a more perfect edge. A good fine edge can never be obtained with a coarse file, if the strokes be made ever so light. The finishing strokes with the file should always be made from you, and if the teeth be fleam-pointed, the strokes of the file should be made in the same direction that the teeth are bent in setting. My twenty-four-inch circular saw, for cutting fire-wood, with teeth an inch and one-fourth apart, is filed fleaming, at an angle of about forty-five degrees; and every fifth tooth is filed square, and a sixteenth of an inch shorter than the others; and I have never met with a saw before which will run through large knots and gnarls so noiselessly, and with so little power, and cut so neatly. 654. There are several styles of saw-filers for filing circular saws. But a man should have more saws to file than a common farmer usually owns, in order "to make it pay" to purchase a filer, which costs from $10 to $15. A little practice and skill are more important than a saw-filer, unless some cheaper article shall be invented than any with which I have ever met. WHERE TO OBTAIN THE BEST PATENT GROUND SAWS. 655. The best saws of every kind with which I have eer met, waere manufactured by R. Hoe & Co., 29 Gold st., New 428 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. York city, and by Andrews & Burbage, Elmira, N.Y. Their patent ground circulars sustain an unrivalled reputation throughout the States, not only for sawing lumber, but for farmers' woodsaws. The patent ground circulars are thicker in the centre than they are at the cutting edge, and are ground of a uniform taper from the centre to the edge, which shape renders them stronger than those which are ground in the usual manner; and they require less set, and, as a consequence, less power is required to drive them; and they are less liable to become heated; and they do not wear out so many files, because the teeth are thinner; and, more than all, they possess a superior temper; and are made of the best of steel. I have two of them in use, and although I am a stranger to the manufacturers of these saws, I would not exchange one of these saws for a gross of common saws. If a farmer desires a good saw of any kind, and made of any thickness, or of any style of teeth, or if he has an old saw which needs to be re-toothed, or re-tempered, or straightened, he need not fear to confide in either of these companies. HANGING CIRCULAR SAWS. 656. It is a pretty nice piece of work to hang a circular saw just right. It is an impossibility to make a saw mathematically true, or to hang it to run with mathematical precision; but it is easy for a good mechanic to approximate as near perfection in this respect as is of practical use. A good saw is often condemned when the whole fault is in the mandrel on which it turns; and a badly fitted mandrel is liable to spoil a good saw. 657. The idea to be kept in mind is, to have the collars or flanges turned as true as possible; and any deviation in the collars from trueness, will multiply this deviation in the saw just as many times as the saw is larger than the collars. The bearings of the mandrel should be turned first, and then the face of the collar should be turned off very true, without changing ends of the mandrel in the lathe. Sometimes the centres or points in a lathe deviate a trifle, and by changing ends with the mandrel, and finishing a part of it with the ends in opposite directions, the 429 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. bearings will not be true with the collars. If the lathe be rather light, and it springs when the collars are being turned, the mandrel should be put in the lathe, and the face of the fixed collar turned while the mandrel revolves on its own bearings, and not merely on the centres of the lathe. Sometimes the collars must be turned a little concave, to fit the saw well, and sometimes one must be a little concave and the other one correspondingly convex or straight, as the shape of the saw requires. The mandrel should fit snugly the eye of the saw without any play. When the saw is placed on the mandrel, if it deviates any in revolving, it may be adjusted by a piece or two of paper, between the collar and the saw, and be made to run with the greatest precision. The bearings should be so neatly fitted to the boxes, that there will be no working of it up and down, nor any play endways. (See FITTING UP MACHINERY, in the next volume.) In sawing anything where exactness is not necessary, if there should be a little play of the mandrel endways, it matters not; but in sawing to a gauge, if there be much play of the mandrel endways, some pieces will be thicker or longer than others, according to the amount of play. BALANCING SAWS. 658. When saws are hung on a mandrel having a fly-wheel on it, if it is not well balanced the saw will vibrate or flutter at the edge, and the frame will shake like a person who has been attacked with the quotidian ague. When a saw is well balanced the frame will not tremble, even when the motion is very high. (See How TO BALANCE A SAW, in next vol.) GUMMING SAWS 659. Is the act of making the teeth longer by making the spaces between them deeper. This is performed in several ways. The best mode, but most expensive, is, to gum with a file; be. cause by gumming with a file there is no danger of breaking or bending a saw, nor of stretching the edge. And if the spaces 430 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL; were filed deeper, as the points wear off there would be no necessity for ever gumming saws at all. 660. Gumming is often done with a cold-chisel and hammer while the saw lies on the smooth face of an anvil, or an equivalent to an anvil. If gummed in this way, it must be done with a thin, sharp chisel and a rather light hammer; and the operator cannot be too particular in having the part of the saw opposite the chisel rest level on the anvil. One careless blow has often broken a good saw, or damaged it by kinking it or cracking a tooth. Both ends of the saw should be supported as high as the surface of the anvil, and then, with a narrow cold-chisel, about one-fourth of an inch wide, work crossways of the saw, with the edge of the chisel parallel with the edge of the saw. Never cleave at one cut more than one-eighth of an inch, unless the chip be cut loose first on the ends. If the chisel stands crossways of the saw, in working the spaces deeper there is great danger of stretching the edge of the saw, or of starting the teeth near the roots. 661. Gumming saws with a machine is done with a kind of punch playing in a die of the shape of the spaces, which is attached to a strong lever, and the saw is placed between the die and punch, and the spaces are worked deeper by nipping a little at each descent of the lever. In gumming with a machine every alternate tooth should be gummed with the saw the other side up. If the gumming be all done on one side it is apt to bend the saw; and straightening it back stretches the edge; and, in stretching the middle, by striking the saw a few smart blows on opposite sides with a hammer having a roundish face, when the saw lies on a true anvil so as to make the edges straight, there is great danger of breaking a saw. The cutting edge of the punch should have about three-sixteenths of an inch bevel, so as to make a cleaner and easier cut when gumming it. 662. There is always more or less danger of damaging a good saw while gumming it; therefore it is far better to expend a dollar in gumming with a file than to pay a dollar for gumming with a chisel or gummer. 663. In order to have all the spaces and the teeth of a uniform 431 'THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. FIG. 184. MANEER OF MARKING OUT TIHE CORRECT SHAPE OF SAW TEETH size, they should be marked out with a templet, shown at Fig. 184, which is made of a piece of sheet-iron, or a thin piece of hard wood, and is placed with one end on the collar against the side of the saw; and as each tooth is filed the templet may be placed against the saw, in order to determine whether the face or back of a tooth requires more filing or not. 664. Fig. 185 shows the form of a templet for marking out FIG. 185. new teeth on a saw like the shape of the teeth at b, Fig. 183. The templet may be formed to mark out any style of teeth. MILL SAWS. 665. Why is lumber often sawed of all shapes and of variable thicknesses at the great majority of saw-mills? In most instances it is in consequence of the saw being in improper order. Should the set get out of any of the teeth on either side, by passing a hard knot a saw will most assuredly run, and make the lumber thicker or thinner in the middle than it should be. From what has been said of filing and setting other saws, the tyro will be able to file and set a mill saw in a proper manner. Where both hard and soft logs are to be sawed, it would be good policy to have a saw for each kind of wood. For sawing hard wood logs the plate should be rather thick and stiff, with the teeth nearer together, and rather short, to retain the set longer, than in a saw designed solely for soft wood. In order to saw lumber or timnber of an exact size, and very true and smooth, the saw or saws must 432 PC E —ITLET|=-i THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. be in perfect order. A few practical directions may not be amiss on the subject of FORMS OF TEETH IN SAWS WHICH WORK UP AND DOWN. 666. Fig. 186 represents a mill saw having five different forms of teeth. At a the teeth are filed on the face, at a right angle with the cutting edge of the saw, and the backs, or upper sides, at an angle of forty-five degrees. This is the oldest and most common form of teeth, and whether filed square or bevelling, more power is required to drive a saw having this kind of teeth, unless they are hammered as at e. Teeth of this form remove the sawdust by scraping instead of cutting. It requires less skill to keep such teeth in good order than either of the other kinds. 667. At b much the same kind of teeth is shown, with the faces filed at an acute angle, giving them a greater hook, while the backs are of the same angle. If the motion were high, such teeth will cut much faster, with the same power, than the kind at a. But if the motion be very slow, teeth with much hook are liable to draw into the log farther than they are able to cut without staggering or trembling, as if having too much feed. 668. At c and d are two different kinds of teeth, which operate with far less power than those at a and b, but they require much more skill to keep them in order. But by using a templet (see Fig. 185), any one who is able to put the teeth F FIG. 186. . 1) L_ --------- -_-__ e . ~~~~~e ----------- --------------- -------- -------- -s -------- --- -- --- -- - X " X —---- n~1 A of any saw in order will find little difficulty with tb(hese. The 433 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. teeth at c should be filed so that the cutting points shall be onesixteenth or one-twentieth of an inch more prominent than they are back of the points. (See Fig. 183, c.) If the material to be sawed be such that each tooth is required to cut one-sixteenth of an inch, by filing the ends of the teeth so that a line drawn from the point of one tooth would strike one-sixteenth of an inch below the point of the first tooth back of it, the saw cannot draw into the log any farther than it will cut without trembling, even if the teeth be filed very hooked. 669. At d is a form for teeth having a heel or guide to prevent the saw from drawing into the log when sawing. The guides or heels are dressed in a line with each other, at a given distance back of the cutting edge. If, in sawing, the saw is inclined to haul into the log, the heels prevent its entering any farther than is desirable. 670. At e teeth are represented with the points hammered; i. e., with repeated blows on the hack of a tooth, near the point, with a light hammer, the edge is turned downward. There is a saving of nearly one-half the power by hammering the teeth, if it be performed very skillfully. If this spur should not all be worn off before filing again, it is necessary to hold a smooth and square piece of steel against the face of the tooth, and with a few blows of a hammer upwards, bring this spur on a line with the face of the tooth, so that it will not be filed off in dressing the tooth. 671. As hammering teeth, either for the purpose of setting them or turning down the points, refines the steel and renders it harder, the cutting quality of an inferior saw is often improved by working the points with a hammer when cold. 672. It is of primary importance that a saw which works up and down, should be jointed straight on the edge. If a saw is allowed to become hollowing on the cutting edge more than onefourth of an inch, if everything is not made doubly strong, we may surely expect that the saw or something else will break. If the cutting edge is crowning from end to end, a saw cannot be made to work up to its greatest capacity. A jointer for a mill 434 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. saw may be made with its edges straight and square, like the jointer for a crosscut saw. (See Fig. 182.) In order to have a saw work well, it should be jointed every alternate time it is filed. A skillful filer will take a square block a foot long, and one by three inches square, and place the fiat side of it against the side of the saw, and, holding the jointing-file on the edge of the block, joint the teeth very true. LENGTH OF THE CUTTING EDGE OF A SAW. 6721. When a saw is worked by a crank and pitman, all the teeth beyond a given point had better be cut away; because, it is only a waste of time and tools, to keep them in order with the teeth that do all the sawing. The teeth below the rabbet on the head-block, when the crank is up never cut any, unless in sawing a log with a bow downwards. If the stroke of the crank be twenty-four inches, and the logs one foot in diameter, three feet of the cutting edge is all that is brought in contact with the log; and a cutting edge of greater length would be useless. If the logs be two feet in diameter, and twenty-four-inch stroke of the crank, the cutting edge should be four feet long. If the logs be three feet in diameter, the cutting edge of the saw should be not less than four and a half feet long. When the crank is down, all the teeth above the log are useless. 673. This rule holds good in regard to saws that are worked horizontally. In sawing off logs two feet in diameter with a crank having a twenty-eight-inch stroke, the cutting edge should be four feet and four inches long. With the same crank, for sawing off logs only one foot, three feet four inches of the cutting edge is all that saws. 674. There is, many times, two or three inches in length of the cutting edge of hand-saws near the handle, which never saws any, and is worse than useless; because, the teeth must all be filed off in order to keep them of the same length as those in the middle of the saw. These suggestions will enable the young filer to understand how large a number of teeth near the ends of his saw are useless. 435 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. RAKE OF SAWS. 674~. Saws are hung in a gate working up and down, not only for sawing logs, but for sawing out boat-knees, sleigh-runners, felloes for wheels, wagon thills, scrolls, and other circular work, and they are always dressed to cut only when they descend. If the material be forced on to the saw when it is ascending, unless it should be very heavy, the material with the carriage will be jerked up and down in a most frightful manner. To avoid this difficulty the saw is hung with a rake, (see TECHNICALITIES, Par. 602,) in order to allow the material to be brought up to the saw with facility when it is ascending. 675. I knew a mechanic once who got up a little saw for sawing out felloes and sleigh-runners, and not understanding this principle, he hung his saw without any rake. He could not make it operate with any degree of satisfaction until he hung the saw with a rake. 676. The amount of rake which should be given to a saw, should be equal, usually, to the greatest amount of feed, measuring from the tooth which is found at the upper side of the timber when the crank is down. Many sawyers hang their saws without any rake. 677. To ascertain the amount of rake, set the crank up, and suspend a plumb, P, Fig. 186, with a small line from the upper tooth, and lean the saw forward as far as isdesirable, as shown in the figure, and fasten it there. 678. Rake, in saws which work horizontally, is something which is seldom recognized or even thought of. But when a drag or a butting saw is attached to a pitman, and it is filed to saw only one way, if the cutting edge is not exactly parallel with a line cutting the centre of the pitman, it may or may not be hung with a rake. If the farthest end falls below a parallel line cutting the centre of the pitman, it will have a rake just in proportion to the distance it falls below a parallel line. RANGING SAWS 679. Is a very important consideration where a carriage or 436 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAI, table is used. The carriage or table should always move parallel with the sides of the saw. An ingenious sawyer will be able to determine, by simply glancing his eye along the sides of the saw to some point on the carriage, whether the saw and carriage are in range or not. When the carriage or table is fitted up, the saw must be hung to correspond with it; but, when the saw is already in the desired position, the table or carriage must be fitted to the saw. To determine whether the carriage or table of a circular saw for cutting wood is in range with the saw, push the carriage back as far as it will go, and then place a board having a straight edge on the carriage, with the straight edge as close to one side of the saw as it can be and not hit it. Move the carriage back and forth, with the straight-edged board on both sides of the saw, and if the board remains just so far from the saw, it is all correct. When there is a long carriage, run one end of the carriage to the saw, and stick a nail where the edge of the saw hits. Now, move the carriage so that the other end will be at the saw, and stick another nail. Now, hold a long straight edge against the side of the saw-plate; and if in range, the straight edge will point directly to these nails. If the feeding-table of a circular wood-saw does not range with the saw, it will be almost impossible to saw off a large stick, because it will bind against the sides of the saw, and almost stop the motion of it if the power is limited. THE VELOCITY OF THE CUTTING EDGE OF SAWS. 680. There is little danger of having the teeth of any saw move too fast. The faster the cutting edge moves. the more work a saw is capable of performing. When there is an abundance of available power, it is well to have a buzz-saw run with a frightful velocity; for it will saw much smoother and faster than if it moves with less rapidity. But when the power is limited, and it is desirable to lose none of that power, it is very important to have the cutting edge move at the mnost effective velocity for the power which drives it. Sonme engineers say that the cutting edge of a crosscut circular saw should move about seventv-five 437 THaE YOUNG FARMtER'S MANUAL. feet per second, while others, of equally good authority, say one hundred feet and more per second. The diameter of the saw has much to do in this respect. A circular saw, twenty-two inches in diameter, has a cutting edge of sixty-nine inches. Now, if it revolves twelve hundred times in one minute, the cutting edge will move one hundred and fifteen feet per second, or six thousand nine hundred feet per minute; and if the wood to be sawed be as large as that saw will cut in two without turning it over, by putting another saw of the same thickness, having teeth the same distance apart, which is twenty-six inches ill diameter on the same mandrel, the same amount of power will saw more than it will with the saw twenty-two inches in diameter. It will require a little more power to drive the twenty-six-inch saw, because it is a little heavier; but the difference is so small that it cannot be perceived. And the diameter of the saw being greater, there will be a greater leverage to absorb the driving power. But the velocity of the cutting edge of the twiienty-six-inch saw being (at 1200 revolutions per minute) one hundred and thirty-six feet per second, together with the greater diameter of the saw, by reason of which, in sawing materials of the size already mentioned, fewer teeth cut at the same time, both operate in favor of the large saw. Consequently, a twenty-six-inch saw will do more with the same power than a twenty-two-inch saw, in sawing wood that is nearly all as large as a twenty-two-inch saw will reach through; the teeth and thickness of the plate being the same. If, now, the speed pulley on the saw mandrel be made so large as to give the cutting edge of the twenty-six-inch saw a velocity of one hundred and fifteen feet per second, the same amount of power will saw more than when the velocity of the teeth was one hundred and thirty-six feet per second. If the tyro should have much sawing to do, and his power limited, it would be well worth while to have two or three different speed pulleys to put on the saw mandrel. The size of the pulleys would very soon decide whether too much of the power was absorbed in producing a higher velocity than will be most ffective for the amount of power employed. The driving wheel may 438 'II-E YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. be so large and speed-pulley so small, (in a one or two-horse power,) as to absorb all the available power in getting up a good velocity. These should be just large enough to allow the horses to move with their ordinary gait. Intimately connected with this subject, as elucidating and rendering it more intelligible, is THE INFLUENCE OF THE THICKNESS OF THE MATERIALS TO BE SAWED. 681. Every one who has ever sawed a board in two with a hand-saw knows that it will require three times more time and power to saw off a board one foot wide, if the saw be made to cut entirely across the width of the board, than it does to saw it having the saw cut only across the thickness of the board at once. A man will saw in two with a hand-saw twelve boards one foot wide and an inch thick, twice as quick as he can saw in two a stick of timber one foot square. A man will saw with a slittingsaw, eight feet in length of a board one inch thick, quicker and easier than he can saw one foot in length of a four-inch plank with the same saw, unless the teeth were very coarse. 682. In sawing fire-wood with a two-horse-power, if the wood be nearly all from six to eight inches thick, by splitting it in two before sawing it can be sawed with the same power in about half the time that it would require, without being made smaller. With an abundance of power a cord of large wood could be sawed sooner than a cord of small wood. A span of horses on a twohorse railway power will do a good business at slitting boards and plank from one and a half to three inches thick. As the thickness of materials to be sawed increases, in order to do a fair business an increase of power is necessary. With a circular saw about one foot in diameter, driven by two horses, a man can saw seventy feet in length of hard lumber one inch thick-if he is able to handle the lumber as fast as the saw will cut it-sooner than he can saw through a plank twelve feet long and three inches thick. 683. A circular saw ten or twelve inches in diameter, for slitting boards and two-inch plank, will do much neater and smoother work than a saw twice as large in diameter. This is particularly 19 439 THE YOUNG FARMER?7S MANUAL. so with hard-wood lumber, for slitting which a saw that is just large enough to reach through a board or plank to be sawed will saw smoother than a larger saw, that will cut more square across the lumber. 684. In sawing logs into boards, either with an up-and-down saw or with a circular saw, the larger the logs are the greater must be the power in order to do a profitable business. A power that will do a good business at sawing logs from one to two feet in diameter into lumber, if the power be all absorbed in sawing such logs, will be insufficient to drive a saw at a good velocity through logs from three to four feet in diameter. It is all folly to attempt to do a fair business in sawing anything thick and heavy, with a weak or limited power. If, in erecting a steam saw-mill, the logs are of an average large size, it would be infinitely more profitable to the proprietor to have an engine say of not less than thirty-horse-power, that would drive a saw with a good speed through any log, however large and hard it might be, than it would to use an engine of ten or fifteen-horse-power. 685. In slitting lumber with my two-horse-power, with a cir cular saw one foot in diameter, I found by experiment that with a pulley six inches in diameter on the mandrel I could saw only about half as fast with the horses travelling at a given gait as I could when the pulley was about eleven inches in diameter. With the small pulley too much of the power was absorbed in producing a given velocity. The difference was not so percepti ble when sawing thin stuff as it was when sawing plank two or three inches thick. A WORD ABOUT FILES. 686. My rule in selecting files is, to choose those that have a clear, bright, and lively appearance, and that are well cut, having sharp corners. If the corners are full-which is of the greatest importance-the sides will be correspondingly sharp. If the corners are not full, it is a pretty certain evidence that the temlper is not right,-generally too hard,-and they will not do good ser 440 7; U (441) t t ws Jl - r A, oo - THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAIT,L. vice. Always examine the corners of files, and select those that have the sharpest corners. THE SIZE OF THE FILES 687. Should be in proportion to the teeth. Files about the size of the teeth to be filed are generally the most economical, because there are more corners in proportion to the sides. I always use very small triangular files for filing small teeth. The double-cut single files, although they cost a trifle more, are preferable to the single-cut ones, because they make a cleaner and neater cut when filing. 688. Save all the old files and have them cut over, in nearly any of our cities, at less than half their original cost. THE SLITTING-TABLE. 689. Fig. 187 is a representation of a bench and slitting-table for slitting boards, plank, and anything else of that character. When a man has a wood-saw, he may bolt two extension benches to the frame, as shown in the Fig., and put a small slitting-saw on the mandrel, and he will find it a most convenient arrangement for slitting all kinds of lumber. I have such a table, the frame of which is twenty-four feet long, and the movable carriage or table is sixteen feet in length. This table is moved back and forth close to the saw, on rollers in the frame, and boards or plank, when being sawed, are placed on the table and pushed towards the saw. With two horses I can saw lath, door-casings, stiles for doors, and such like, fatster, and very much truer, than ten active men would be able to saw with hand-saws. (See Par. 38.) The rollers-one of which is shown at the left hand in the Fig.-which support the table, are about five inches in diameter, sixteen inches long, with a gain in each one for the guide to run in, which is fastened to the under side of the table. A gauge is shown behind the sawyer, which is adjusted by two set screws, a a, which screws pass through a long mortise in the sticlk under the gauge. The ntt is beneath the long mortise. At 442 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. the left hand is shown a portion of the table, with an iron dog, d, screwed to the top of the table for holding the plank. SQUARES AND MEASURING RULES. 690. A carpenters' steel square is an indispensable tool in laying out any heavy work. Steel squares are usually graduated correctly, and are as "square" as they can conveniently be made. The common iron squares are almost always a nuisance; because they are not square, are not graduated correctly, are always bending and twisting, and the edges are not straight. No one who is possessed of much mechanical talent, will be satisfied to use an iron square. Steel squares are usually graduated and figured on both sides, with a rule for measuring lumber on one side, which is many times very convenient. 691. In addition to the carpenters' square, a try-square and bevel are very useful, and it is not very practicable to perform many little jobs without them. These can always be obtained at hardware stores, of almost any desirable size. 692. A pocket rule is another very convenient instrument, both for laying out any piece of small work in the shop, and for taking the dimensions of anything that comes in our way that we wish to measure. Pocket-rules and carpenters' steel squares are usually graduated as small as sixteenths of inches, and the tyro should be careful to see that in purchasing a square he does not get turned off with an iron square. A good steel square will ring when struck while it hangs on one's finger, but an iron one will give a very dull sound. 693. Mechanics who make many patterns for moulding for castiron, when they wish to have their casting of a given size, use a graduated rule twelve inches and one-eighth in length, or oneeighth of an inch to a foot longer than the sealed or statute measure. The object of using such a rule is, to make the necessary allowance for the contraction or shrinkage of the iron in cooling. When such a rule is not at hand, it is necessary to make calculations for the contraction of the iron, by making the pattern twelve inches and one-eighth long, if the iron is to be just twelve inches 443 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. in length when cold. But when such a rule is used there is no allowance to be made and no liability to make mistakes. 694. Squares are not always "square" or true. They may be readily tested when purchasing them, by holding them against the straight edge of a board, and making a mark across it, and then reverse it; and if the arm of the square is exactly paral. lel with the mark, the square is true. Let squares and rules be kept bright by rubbing them with a piece of white chalk. 695. l~feasuring poles are very convenient many times. I have three of different lengths. One is six feet in length, threeeighths of an inch thick at the ends and an inch wide at the ends, and half an inch thick at the middle and two inches wide, graduated to three inch spaces at the ends. Another is ten feet long, one inch wide and half an inch thick at the ends, and in the middle two inches wide, graduated in feet. Another, of the same size as the ten feet pole, is sixteen and a half feet long, correctly graduated to half feet. These are all made of baswood, very straight and true, and varnished with three coats of shellac, (see next vol.,) and a piece of seet copper, just the size of the ends, is neatly fitted and screwed on the ends, to keep them true and square. All these poles have their appropriate place in the shop, where they will lie in a straight position; and when they are not in use they are returned promptly to their places. It will injure them very much to get very wet, by springing and warping them. 696. Instead of poles, many men have a graduated tape, two or four rods in length, which is wound up in a circular case of stiff leather, and can be carried in the pocket. In measuring, the tape is drawn out of one side of the case, a part or the entir-e length. The tape is usually graduated on one side into feet and inches, and on the opposite side is a graduation into links for measuring land. But for ordinary purposes, and especially for correct measuring, and for cheapness, poles are far the best, and the most convenient. One man can measure alone with a rod pole very expeditiously, while with a tape it would be very'ifficult for him to measure alone. 444 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 799. Mr. Louis Young has invented an improvement ill the measuring wheel, in which there is a neatly graduated circular disk in the end of the handle, which is moved by a pawl, working in a ratchet wheel at the disk, which pawl is worked by a cam on the shaft of the measuring-wheel. When the wheel is rolled forward, the distance traversed over is accurately indicated in feet, inches, and fractions of inches on the disk. But it is too expensive for farmers, otherwise I would have given an illustration of it in this place. 700. For measuring the circumference of small bodies, in the absence of a measuring-wheel, use a piece of small wire, and then take the length of it with the rule afterwards. There is a no more correct way to measure a round body than this. 701. This chapter on edge tools has been revised and very much abbreviated, and a goodly number of tools which every farmer ought to have, have been excluded in order to bring the chapter within a proper limit for such a work as this. But if the young farmer is possessed of sufficient skill to put these in order, he will be able to put all others in order. When tools of a desired form or kind cannot be obtained at country hardware stores, the young farmer will be able to procure anything which he may desire at R. L. Allen's agricultural warehouse, 189 Water st., New York city. 446 INDEX. A. PARAGRAPH. PAGE name o va194 153 526 368] prpe sp. 358 269 588 401 588 401 591 401 592 403 593 403 311 231 599 405 600 405 599 405 601 405 362 273 363 273 364 273 365 274 375 279 376 279 368 375 370 276 370 276 371 276 371 277 373 278 378 280 Abutments, how to make, Anvil, substitute for,. Auger, extension lip, with cut, and bits, with cuts, names of different parts of; how to sharpen, defective augers, boring holes with, post-hole, or dirt auger, with cut, Awls, with cuts of, 4 brad-awl, 4 harness-awl, scratch-awl, c Axe, with cut of, names of various parts of, proper shape of., most proper weight of, how to hang correctly, rule for hanging correctly, how to put in order, most proper form of blade, with cut, clamp for grinding of, with cut, axe-helve, how to make, why helves should be crooked, axe-helve pattern,. B. Barley, how thick to sow, * Barn, how to frame properly, with cuts, and houses, how to make higher, large and small,... floor for, how to make joints, with cut of, proper disposition of room, 19* how to handle expertly, . 611 48 . 56 19 . 21 25 358 49 55 37 39 40 (447) INDEX. PARAGRAPH. 26 35 *. 36 50 52 112 . 465 . 191 339 . 342 *~ 522 . 567 *. 588 . 358 *. 75 . 118 579 . 152 *. 121 *. 326 *. 353 . 356 293 9 1 *. 10 15 . 19 17 *, 44 19 Barn-yard, how to make, Baswood, value of, shingles made of, Balloon frames, cornice for, with cut of, Bars, sliding, with cut of,. Back-furrow. definition of, Bark, influence of on timber, Binders for stone wall, Beetles, with cut of, how to make, how to handle, expertly, Bench, Farmer's work-bench, with cut of, Bench-planes, Bits. cuts of, extension-lip, with cut of, Blocks for fence, hlow miade, Board fence,. Boards, how to joint, marking-board, with cut of, for fence, most economical size, Boot-iron for spading, with cut of, Boring-mnachine; with cut of, how to obtain one, Buckthorn, with cut of, howv to propagate, Buildings, how to erect,. where to locate, when to commence erecting, pitch of roofs of. out-buildings, how to frame to prevent spreading, how to move buildings, Braces, how to make, C. Cant-hook, with cut of, Caps for fence. how made, Cedars, red,... Cellar, how to make it, Chalk line and spool, with cut, Chisels, how made,... cold-chisel, how to grind, with cut, various kinds of. wvith cuts 448 PAG& 40 43 43 51 54 93 334 67 151. 257 260 367 387 401 269 69 96 396 124 101 246 267 269 218 31 28 32 35 37 36 48 38 . 206 88 . 284 11 . 330 ti3l . 563 582 160 79 211 32 251 .971 387 398 INDEX. PARAGRAPH. PAGE. 6 583 398 ~ 58 5,39 . 582 398 -586 400 ~ 587 401 559 385 . 535 57:5 377 280 464 33 3 462 331 . 49 51 316 234 Chisels, corner chisel, with cut of, duckbill do., with cut of: - framers and firmers, how to grind correctly, with cuts, turning do. and gouges, Clamps for holding tools, Charcoal vs. Mineral, Chopping, how to do it, Coulter cleaner. with cut of, how to adjust, Corn-house, how to make it rat-proof, Crowbar, with cut of, D. Ditches beneath stone walls, Draining, manner of cutting do., grading bottom of, depth and width of, . 195 154 395 287 401 90 403 292 d.hdi 407 295i 408 296 . 439 316 422 305 . 427 308 431 311 402 291 . 412 398 414 302 416 303 422 306 . 413 301 423 306 . 425 307 428 309 . 430 310 426 308 . 433 311 440 317 . 442 320 . 513 359 e, 1 1 32 how to determine depth of, cost of, per rod, side-hill drains, blow made, outlets for, how to tbornm, how to prevent gullying, plow for, with cut, Alden's, how to lay tile in them, manner of laying stone in, with cuts, improper stoning, with cuts of, how to stone through quicksands. boards beneath tile, bad policy, filling with straw and sods, not allowable, important considerations in filling, how to form watering pools in, open drains, how to make, how to find obstructions in, filling with wood, with cuts. recapitulation, concluding remarks, DI)itclhing with machines, D)rilling-in grain, 3 35 l)welling-liouse,. 3 44) INDEX. E. Edge Tools, tempering of, coarse and fine edges of, grinding of, F. Fencing, Fence, zig-zag rail, rule, with cut of, how to lay foundation of rail, how to make higher without rails, lock and rider, stake and cap, with cut, bunk and cap, with cut, straight rail fence, with cut, horse, or skeleton, with cut, log, or pole, with cut, rod fence. side-hill, or gun fence, Jenkins' improved, park fence, with cut; stake and rider, double stake and rider, post and bar, guard fence. post and rail, board fence, E. Nash's improved, with cut, highway fence, with cut, division fence, with cut, self-sustaining board, barn-yard fence, rib fence. wire fence, Lowell wire fencing, with cut, picket fence, do. lawn do. self-sustaining picket, poultry-yard picket, with cut,. PARAGRAPH. PAGE 527 3681 . 532 370 *~ * 543 378 . 548 880 59 57 76 70 . 77 71 * *~. 79 72 .80 73 84 74 86 76 91 80 92 81 94 82 * * s97 84 . 101 86 103 86 . 222 170 105 88 . 106 89 *. 107 90 . 109 91 108 91 . 110 92 118 96 . 117 95 122 102 . 124 105 125 106 . 132 112 133 113 . 185 114 163 128 . 167 130 171;33 . 173 135 175 137 450 INDEX. PAIAGREAPH. PAGE. Fene..ate. *183 142 ornaenta law180 141 stonefene. *186 145 A. B. Cnger203 157 las.bot. e. *389 285 *eg*. 393 286 *ec... 329 259 Unl.ls unm394 286 Fam.potngo.5 29 Free, a co s 87 78 Froslc de i. o456 333 Files hw 687 442 File... awwt620 414 Frit s hw to 305 226 Gates, with five cuts of, denominations of parts of, instructions to aid in maki g,ate-stile, with cut of, how to hang correctly, philosophy of hanging, wire gates, with cut of, iron lawn gate, with cut o railways why objectionabl . 236 den n pt 237 .srcn.. i238 gae e wh 240 hwtha co l. *241 *iooh.. *243 wie..aes wt255 *o.. wihcto256 raia. w 259 Gat y s..258 Gau.g...hl 459 ho to ue 463 Gn fl. w 212 t t. wtu350 Gr....5k * *624 Gn hw to 492 Grpp..ehok 208 G k wt ct 360 Grss...ed h506 541 ho.. agoo538 i e s. fr 540 *hul.. * *542 Gogs.. 587 Gru*i e wi cu 328 Grain, how to sow. Grapple-hook, with cut of,. Grass-hook, with cut of, Girass-seed, how to sow, Grindstone, complete, with cut of, how to select a good one, improved shaft for, with cut, 4,51 Fence, lattice, ornamental lawn, stone fence, A. B. Conger's, laws about fence, Ilei,ht of lawful fence, fence line, Uncle Will's buncombe Farm, plotting of,. Froe, a cooper's, with cut, Furrow-slice, definition of, Files, bow to select, Filer, Saw, with cut, Fruit-trees, bow to prune, G. 176 177 178 179 181 183 191 192 194 194 330 331 162 265 368 351 161 271 356 378 37,5 376 378 - 400 249 Gate-way, self-sustaining, Gauge-wheel, how to use two, Gin for loading stone, &c., with cut, Gluts, how to iiial,,e, with cuts, - Grab-liook,. should be protected, Gouges,. Grubbing-hoe, with cut of,. INDEX. H. PARAGRAPH. PAGE ho t331 252 w331 2 53 337 256 332 254 482 345 483 346 487 347 489 348 490 350 260 196 260 196 268 202 271 204 274 205 277 207 278 207 279 208 281 209 298 220 300 221 307 227 474 339 174 136 241 182 247 186 241 182 206 160 208 161 Hammer, improved claw, with cut, how to hang, and form of handle,. riveting do., how to use it, sledges, how to use expertly, Harrows, and harrowing., triangular hinge, with cut,. coulter, with cut,. Herald and Tompkins' iron, with cut. learning beginners to harrow, Hedges, style of, how to propagate,. preparation of soil for, how to plant the quicks, how to prune, laying and plashing, protecting from cattle, how to repair old ones, for wet grounds,. kind of plants for. causes of failure in raising, distance apart for the quicks, hedge complete, with cut, Headland, how to plow,. Hurdles, with cut, Hinges, with cuts of, forked, with cut, 1 how to draw from a post, Hook, cant, with cut,. grapple, with cut, I. Instruments for bending wires into loops, J. J, f u. 327 241 521 366 ~.. 571 390 672 391 . 579 V96 615 412 . 222 169 Jaws of work-bench, how to make, Jackplane, and bit, with cut of, Jointer iron, with cut, Jointing boards and plank.. Jointing saws, how done, Jenkins' iron post, with cut, 452 177 139 Jack, for fence, with cut, INDEX. K. PARAGRAPH. PAGE. 549 381 . 563 386 232 175 Knives, case knives, how to grind, most proper angle for grinding, Kyanizing timber, L. Laws, fence, Land, definition of, Lath, how to make,. Locust, yellow and honey, how to propagate, M. Machine for mixing mortar, with cut, Mandrel, for boring machine, with cut, Mallet, with cut, Mattock, with cut,. Maul, stone, Measuring rules, Measuring wheel, Mortar, how to make good,. N. 0. P. Nails, how to drive, how to draw, ag Orae 291 b... 292 Oil e i c 565 Pickets. forms of tops, with 11 cuts, Perch of fence, how much it is,. Platform for wagon, with cut, Plumb rule, with cut.. Pick, with cut, Planes, how to select good ones, Plane irons, with cuts, how to put in order, how to adjust the irons of,. 453, 285 334 44 213 214 . 389 465 . 38 288 . 290 40 . 358 338 . 328 336 . 692 698 . 39 45 270 257 249 256 443 445 45 331 253 Osage Orange, with cut,. 215 216 387 bow to propagate, Oil-stone, importance of, . 184 187 . 210 319 . 328 568 . 570 571 . 673 143 147 161 237 249 338 388 - 388 390 INDEX. Plane, defective ones, how to plane true, Plows and plowing, defective plows, which is the best, how to select a good one, characteristics of a good one, how to hitch a team to, how to adjust the draught of, steel plows. advantages of, how to hold, riding on handles, plowing lands and ridges, how to plow straight, how to finish a land neatly, Plowing headlands,. commencing in the middle of field, with cuts, Plowman, good and poor, Technicalities in plowing, Plowpoints, how chilled, coulter cleaner, with cut, gauge wheels for, Pools, in drains, Posts, how to split, with cut, for bars, with cut, fence, how to set in a line, to prevent their upheaval, with cut, straining-posts. with cut, how to set, large and small, posts for fence, length of, &c., kind of timber for, clamp for holding, with cut, how to sharpen correctly, with cuts, Jenkins' cast-iron, with cut, turned posts, iron post, for wire fence,. driving posts, charring, injurious, steeping, &c. to render durable, top end up vs. top end down, wrench for holding, when driving,. PARAGRAPH. PAGE. 575 391 576 391 444 321 445 321 446 322' 449 323 450 324 456 328 455 327 454 827 466 334 468 336 469 337 471 338 473 338 474 339 477 340 466 335 465 333 451 325 464 332 459 330 428 309 66 64 115 94 152 122 225 1I 151 121 227 172 149 121 216 165 218 166 220 167 220 168 221 169 182 143 159 126 228 173 230 _174 232 175 235 176 229 173 454 INDEX. Q. R. PARAGRAPHII. PAGE. 204 158 . 205 159 Quarrying stone, how done, wedges for,. Razors, how to sharpen,. Rails, splitting of. rule of, &c., with cut, length and size of, peeling, importance of, distributing for fence, fence, how to build,. different kinds in one fence, Rack, for tools, with cut of,.. Rake of saws, Rtammer, with cut,.. Ranging saws, Rollers, how to make a cheap. with cut, Giles' and Tompkins', with cut,. Rule, plumb, with cut of, * pocket, and other kinds, S. Saws, technicalities in relation to,. names of different kinds of, how to select good ones, external signs of good ones, number of teeth in. how to put in order, clamp for holding, with cuts,. how to joint, best angle for filing the face of teeth, cuts of saws well, and badly filed, setting of, how done, should niiot be filed with old files, patent saw-filer, with cut,. slitting saws, how to file, effect of setting too much,. sets, simplest form of,. three sections of, showing the set of teeth, bent and c.,wedged set, with cuts,. hoes to Ai!t saw teeth, . 602 406 603 407 604 407 605 408 * 606 408 611 410 . 612 411 615 412 618 413 622 416 626 417 611 410 620 414 619 414 * 628 417 34 419 626 417 631 418 . 640 421 455 550 382 . 63 60 67 65 . 70 66 71 67 . 77 1 1 73 69 . 310 230 674-1 436 2 . 315 233 679 437 . 516 361 517 363 . 319 237 690 443 I INDEX. Saws, how to set very hard saws, two-hand (or:ss-cut, with cut, improcve,' I how to put in older, how to l1iaiidle withl skill,. compass, b)illet-web, how to file, circular, with cut and forms of teeth, kow to hang circulars, jointing circulars. filing circulars. Andrews & Burbage's patent ground circulars, balancing, how done, (see next vol.) gumming saws, how to do it, how to mark out the teeth, mill saws, forms of teeth in up and down saws,. length of cutting edge, rake of saws, ranging, how done, velocity of cutting edge of, thickness of materials to be sawed, table for sawing, with cut,. Scythes, grass and cradle, with cut, microscopic view of edge, with cut,. how to grind and whet, how to spoil good ones, Seed, signs of good and poor, Sickle, D)utch, with cut, Shears, pruning, with cut of, wife's and sheep-, with cut of soection, Sheers, or gin, with cut of, Shingles, how to lay, Siding, how to nail on, Slitting table, with cut, Soles, for tile, Sowing grain, by hand, casting it all one way,. casting it both ways, by stakes,. by furrows and ridges, important considerations about, PARAGRAPH. PAGE. 638 420 641 421 643 422 644 422 648 423 649 424 651 425 656 429 652 427 653 427 655 428 658 430 659 430 663 432 665 432 666 433 6721 435 6741 436 679 436 680 437 681 439 689 441 551 382 552 383 553 383 557 384 295 219 360 271 547 380 566 388 212 162 18 37 22 40 689 441 413 301 492 351 498 352 499 352 501 353 497 352 6503 354 456 INDEX. PARAGRAPH. PAGF 504 354 ho t g505 355 506 356 508 356 car of,. * 509 357 510 358 a how tp. 513 359 514 359 .pe w.. *318 235 wl an 313 232 wih ct. 6580 39 534 372 535 373 205 1.59 206 160 565 386 187 147 191 151 204 158 208 161 256 192 418 304 323 243 324 243 323 245 325 246 63 60 240 179 320 238 320 238 321 239 322 240 329 250 690 443 694 444 693 443 543 377 635 419 Sowing grain when the wind blows, how to gauge the handfuls, how to sow grass seed, thick and thin seeding,. experiments in, the most proper quantity per acre, seeding with drill, most proper depth to cover, Spoon, dirt, with cuts, Spud, with cut, Squinting, how to do it, Steel, how to temper, should he heated with charcoal, Stones, how to break with fire, tools. for handling, oil-stones., Stone walls, with cuts., cobble do.1 how to quarry, windlass for loading, with cut, gate post, with cut, how to lay in ditches, with cuts,. Shovels, with cuts, 2 how to spade with skill, importance of, care of, keep bright, Spool for chalk line,. Squares, carpenter's steel, how to test their trueness,. graduated of different lengths,. strokes, sliding and crushing, T. Templet, with two cuts of,. Timber, best time to cut, 457 how they should be hung, how to shovel with ease, care of,. Stakes, how to split, &c.,. Stile for gate, with cut,. Spades, with cut. well and ill hung, Swedge, with cut, . 663 432 61 59 INDEX. Timber, treatment of, how to scarf, with cuts,. cause of decay, baswood,. how to cut down, how to saw down, Kyanizing and Burnettizing, Technicalities in plowing, with relation to saws, Tile, how manufactured,. signs of good, best form of calibre, branch pieces how made, how to lay, in a ditch, horse-shoe, how to lay, boards beneath, bad policy, how many per rod, cost of, Tools, edge, how to temper, how to grind, clamps for holding when grinding, mnost proper angle to grind, for building fence, rack for holding,. use and care of, PARAGRAPHII. PAGx 62 59 ..32 42 33 42 35 43 . 389 284 387 283 . 232 175 465 333 . * 602 406 436 315 . 437 315 438 315 ~. 438 316 412 289 . 413 301 413 301 . 435 313 527 369 532 371 548 381 . * 559 385 * 561 386 . 308 228 310 230 * *.309 229 U. V. ... 395 287 eoct... 680 437 Vie,h.. mk,521 366 Wax for grafting,. Watering-pools for stock, Wedges, with four cuts of,. for quarrying stone, f. 305 226 . 428 309 . 344 262 205 - 159 . 347 264 349 265 best form of, c. * t 2 recoiling of how to make stick, 2 458 Underdraining,. Velocity of saws, Vise, how to make, W. INDEX. Windlass, with cut, to load stone with, Wheels, gauge, large and small,. two on one plow, Wire, for fence, 1 sizes of the numbers, with cut, how to unite, with cut, how to fasten to posts, how to anneal, causes of failure in wire fence, to bend into loops for bfence, with cut, how to strain, with strainer,. contraction and dilation of, per foot, stay wires, section of wire fence, cut of, Lowell wire fencing, with cut of bale, manner of weaving the wires, with cut, Walls, stone, with cuts of section, properly and improperly laid, how to lay the stone of; cobble-stone walls, 1 half wall, 1 built of quarried stone,. why they fall down, Hon. A. B. Conger's, 5 how to have good, in a house, Water lime cellars, 1 Work-bench. with cut of, 459 211 161 459 330 461 331 139 117 141 117 142 118 146 119 140 117 136 115 176 138 154 124 154 124 157 125 161 127 163 123 166 129 187 147 187 147 188 148 191 151 198 156 201 1 11) f; 187 1 4, 203 1.57 3 7 44 1 3 34 522 367