THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 91 



if it is enclosed with such a fence, any animals that are let loose 

 within such an enclosure are obliged to remain there until they 

 are allowed to go out at the gate. 



THE GUARD FENCE 



108. Is sometimes one of the most economical rail fences that 

 can be erected. "When one has but few rails at hand, and a tem 

 porary fence is needed for a few weeks, the guard fence is a very 

 economical and convenient mode of fencing. It not unfrequently 

 occurs that it is necessary to fence a narrow way across the end 

 of a field, where the cattle are to be driven to a distant field every 

 day to pasture or to water. Sometimes, also, it is very desirable 

 to have a temporary fence through a field, for the purpose of al 

 lowing a team to graze for a few hours where there is good pas 

 ture, while there may be grain in one part of the field. This 

 style of fence is not designed to turn cattle only while the eyes of 

 some one is on them. It is made two or three rails high, zigzag 

 or straight. Stakes, or crotches, are driven into the ground, so 

 that the bottom rail, when resting on them, will be about two 

 feet from the ground. Stake them with anything that will not 

 decay while the fence is needed, and lay on one rider, or two, as 

 may seem best. If two riders are used, the lower rider should 

 be laid with one end in the crotch of one pair of stakes, while the 

 other end is under the stakes. This style of fence will often sub 

 serve as good a purpose as one which would cost four or five 

 times as much as this. 



POST AND BAR FENCE 



109. Is a style of fence which many farmers seem to admire 

 more than almost any other, but it is not economical, as a general 

 rule, because of the great amount of labor required to build it. 

 The posts are mortised similar to bar-posts, and the rails are split 

 from five to six inches wide, and about two inches thick ; and the 

 ends of two bars, one on each side of the post, are dressed off so 

 that two of them will enter one hole. There can be no objection 



