THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 



125 



fence, by wrapping one end two or three times around it, and 

 then by passing once around each of the other wires, being careful 

 to keep them at their proper distance apart. 



158. The final operation now will be, to cast up a ridge of 

 earth along the fence, twenty or more inches high, and seed it 

 with grass seed. A wire fence should seldom be made without 

 such a ridge. 



159. Another mode of building wire fence, where posts of wood 

 are scarce, and iron and stone abundant, is, to use iron posts and 

 stone sills for the intermediate posts. Figure 45 represents an 

 iron post, which is made of wrought iron, about three-eighths of an 



FIG. 45. 



inch thick at the lower end, and three-six 

 teenths thick at top, and three-quarters wide 

 at top, and an inch and a half wide at bottom, 

 with shoulder on each side of the tenon, which 

 is passed through the sill and fastened with a 

 key, or nut and screw. A shoulder one-fourth 

 of an inch deep on each side is sufficient, 

 and the tenon may be tapered from the shoul 

 der to the lower end of it, when a nut is used 

 to fasten the posts ; but an iron key is the 

 best and cheapest, in the end of tenon, and 

 is, usually, more convenient. The. best way 

 to obtain such posts would be, to give the 

 dimensions of them to the proprietor of some 

 manufactory of iron, and have them rolled out, 

 and holes punched for wires and keys, where machinery for such 

 purposes is used, and then the expense of them would be but 

 one cent or so on a pound more than for ordinary bars of iron. 

 The sills may be made of almost any kind of stone. A sill six 

 inches wide and four thick, and three feet in length, is a good 

 size. Stone for flagging, which are not more than two inches 

 thick, may be used for that purpose, providing they are not less 

 than three feet long and eighteen or twenty inches wide. Bowl 

 ders and blocks of square stone, weighing several hundred pounds 

 each, may be used by drilling holes in them three or four inches 



IKON POSTS FOB 

 WIEE FENCE. 



