AGRICULTURAL MECHANICS AND RURAL ECONOMY. 



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stack-yards or other small enclosures. In exposed situations, the posts or standards may rest 

 upon stones, and be connected therewith by metal pins, inserted in the stone and bottoms of 

 the posts. The metal connection readily bends, accommodating itself to any desired angle, as 

 at posts 2 and 3, fig. 1. The posts may be made of split logs, the convex surfaces being placed 

 in contact, the panels united, and the required angle given, as above described. 



The great advantage of this invention consists in the peculiar-shaped standard or post, so 

 connected with the metallic fastening, that the fence will sustain itself without having its posts 

 set in the ground. These posts will enable the builder to make almost any kind of a fence, 

 from almost any variety or form of timber whether boards, bars, rails, poles, &c., or mostly 

 of wire or pickets, if desired, rendering the same a portable or hurdle fence, easily and quickly 

 transferred from place to place. The work of construction, very conveniently for the farmer, 

 can be performed mostly in winter, as it is formed of separate panels or lengths, ready for 

 setting up in the field. By adding a different connection, any panel will serve as a gate a 

 fact of much importance to the farmer. To make small enclosures, such as stack, sheep, and 

 poultry-yards, is but a few moments' labor with this fence. 



Thompson's Circular Self-Acting Gate. 

 Fig. 1. 



THE accompanying engraving is a perspective view of an improved peculiarly self-acting 

 gate, recently invented and patented by William Thompson, of Nashville, Tenn. 



The invention relates to gates for farms, parks, and'enclosures of any kind, and consists in 

 constructing the gate A of a circular form like a wheel, as shown, and allowing it to rest, when 

 closed, on a vibrating rail D, which is operated by a person, wagon, or carriage on the track, 

 to make the gate roll to the one side and open when approaching it, and then roll back when 

 the carriage or wagon has passed through to close it. 



A A is the gate ; B is a post formed in two separate pieces to leave a channel d between them 

 from the bottom to the cap-piece. F is a double fence at one side, to allow wheel A to roll 

 through the qjiannel of the post B to the left-hand side, as shown by the dotted lines A when 

 the gate is open. C is the right-hand post, with a channel in it, but not through it, to receive 



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