76 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 



from the panel. Locking a fence is adopted more for a temporary 

 fence than for one which is to remain for a number of years ; and 

 when stakes are at hand for locking, and a fence encloses a field 

 of grain, it is more safe for the security of a crop to stake it, even 

 if it were to remain but one season. A locked fence is always 

 getting down ; and when a fence stands in a very bleak situation, 

 where the wind is liable to prostrate it, it is folly to attempt to 

 keep it up without having it firmly staked. Locking a fence ac 

 cording to the first mode of locking may be adopted with safety, 

 providing the last rails, which extend from panel to panel, are 

 very heavy, and the locks well rammed into the ground. 



STAKE AND CAP FENCE. 



86. Fig. 18 represents two different modes of staking a zigzag 

 fence. The black dots show the situation of the stakes. After 

 the foundation has been laid the stakes may be driven, or the 

 fence may be made four or five rails high before the stakes are 

 stuck. In either case the holes should be made with a crowbar, 



FIG. 18. 



STAKE AND CAP FENCE. 



at least twenty inches deep ; and then, as one man stands on a 

 bench, and drives them with a sledge-hammer, another man should 

 keep them erect. In order to expedite setting the stakes, let the 

 holes all be made first ; and then let one hand get the stakes and 

 place them in the holes, and hold them while another man lays 

 his sledge hammer on his bench and carries them along, from 

 joint to joint, and drives the stakes. Let the stakes all be sharp 

 ened for driving, and the top ends dressed off, so that the caps 

 will go on readily before they are brought on to the ground. The 

 most expeditious way to sharpen a lot of stakes is, to have a 



