THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 



121 



of a large post may decay, and it will be injured but little. In 

 termediate posts for wire fence should never be smaller than 

 three by four inches at the lower end, and one and a half by 

 three inches at the upper end. But if they were one inch or 

 more larger than this each way, they would last many years 

 longer, provided they have been cut at the best season of the 

 year for cutting timber, and seasoned a year or more previous to 

 setting them in the ground. 



THE PRINCIPAL MANIPULATIONS IN MAKING A WIRE FENCE. 



150. Suppose, for example, we wish to make a wire fence 

 thirty or forty rods, more or less, in length : let a stake be set at 

 each end, and then set a dozen or more stakes in range with 

 these, one or two feet high ; plow a furrow where these stakes 

 are standing, as deep as practicable, and straight as a line ; by 

 using a double team and a large plow, very much of the labor of 

 digging the holes may be saved in a little time, by plowing a fur 

 row twenty inches deep, or more (see DIGGING POST HOLES, 226). 

 Set the straining-posts, Fig. 42, three and a half or four feet 

 deep; they should be made of good timber, not less in size than 

 three inches by six square, with two-inch auger -p . ~ 

 holes in one of them, and holes two inches 



square in the other. In order to have the 

 holes correspond exactly with each other, the 

 square holes should be made before the post is 

 set, and after they are set the auger can be run 

 through the square holes in order to bore those 

 in the opposite post. These posts should be _ 

 set at least three inches apart. 



151. The strainers are represented at 

 which should be made of the most firm and 

 tenacious wood, about one foot in length, 

 with four inches of one end four square, and 

 the remainder turned round. The wires are 

 put in a small hole through these strainers, 

 and wound up with a wooden wrench b, three 



