60 THE YOUNG FAKMER'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 after- 

 treatment 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 im 

 portant 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 

 of 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 split 

 ting 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 under 

 stand 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. 



