THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 107 



build a zigzag board fence, over and above what is required to 

 build a straight fence. After this, calculations may be made for 

 posts ; and the cost of posts for a straight fence compared with 

 the cost for a redundant quantity of lumber for a zigzag fence. 

 A zigzag, self-sustaining fence cannot be made without using up 

 lumber of some kind for locks and cleats, nearly as many feet as 

 there are in a post. And so with a straight fence : there must 

 of necessity be about so many square feet of lumber for the 

 standard, and cross-pieces and sills, or locks and stakes, as the 

 case may be ; and there is more or less waste in working up such 

 material, and by close calculation it will, in most instances, equal 

 the amount of lumber in the posts required for a panel. If self- 

 sustaining fences would continue to be permanent for as many 

 years as a post fence, there would be some good encouragement 

 for adopting that style of fence, but the standards will shrink, and 

 the locks will become loose, and if the cross pieces are not painted 

 where they are joined together, they will soon rot away; and the 

 stakes, or pins, unless of the best of timber, and nearly as large 

 as a fence post, will soon become loose and rotten, and the first 

 heavy gale of wind will scatter the fragments as if it were a little 

 boy's cob house. Patentees of self-sustaining fences will denounce 

 me as a ninny for such words against their fences ; but unless 

 there shall a style of fence appear, which has never come under 

 my observation, entirely different from any that is now in use 

 what has been penned will prove true to the letter in the experi 

 ence of every one who may give such fences a fair trial. A good 

 post and board fence is the fence for thrifty farmers; one that will 

 stand firmly and erect, without repairs, for a score of years ; and 

 one that will not crouch, like a sneaking cur before a bullock, 

 when he shakes his horns at it. "When fence posts can be pur 

 chased for ten or twelve cents each, it will be the wisest policy 

 and the cheapest, and infinitely better in the end, to make post 

 and board fences, instead of being perplexed with such vexatious 

 appendages as self-sustaining board fences. 



126. But as there is such an insatiable thirst in many Ameri 

 cans for new things, I deem it best to furnish some specimens of 



