96 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 



be displaced by the frost. The only portion liable to rapid decay 

 are the ends of the braces, which may be cut off after the ends 

 have rotted, and bolted to the uprights lower down from the top. 

 Board fence may be built after this style, of any desired height 

 or width of boards, and it will be difficult to displace or knock 

 off the boards, as they are well battered on each side of the 

 fence. The foot of the braces need not be more than twenty 

 inches from the blocks. The cost of such a fence will depend 

 upon the value of timber. In my locality, good fencing can be 

 obtained for seventy cents per hundred square feet, and about 

 thirty square feet will make a rod in length. The labor of erect 

 ing will not amount to more than six cents per rod. This is the 

 most permanent and substantial straight fence for the surface of 

 the ground, that I have met with ; and I have no hesitancy in 

 recommending it to my brother farmers. 



SECTION 2. BOARD FENCE. 



" Where towering pines and rugged oaks abound, 

 With pales or boards the fields are circled round : 

 The royal oak supplies both posts and rails ; 

 Hemlock and tulip furnish boards and pales." EDWARDS. 



118. There is no limit to the different styles of board fence. 

 Boards of all widths and lengths have been worked into fence ; 

 and in half the instances, the builders have never stopped to 

 inquire whether they are using up their timber in the most 

 economical manner or not. I have no apprehensions of being 

 charged with making a random assertion, when I affirm, that 

 were all the boards which are worked up through the country, 

 in building board fence, sawed in the most economical forms and 

 sizes, just twice as much fence could be made with them, and 

 the fences would be just as permanent, efficient and durable as 

 they now are. There is not half the economy exercised in pre 

 paring the materials for a board fence, that there is in building 

 fences of other descriptions. Farmers too often trust to a saw 

 yer to saw their fencing of the different sizes, which they (the 

 sawyers) may think most convenient and suitable ; and in too 



