132 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 



adding at all to its beauty or efficiency. The plainer the work is, 

 in making a picket fence, and the less cut work in the shape of 

 gains and moldings there is about it, the neater it appears. 



170. The width of pickets, and the width of spaces between them, 

 is a consideration which affects the symmetry and expense of a 

 fence far more than most people are wont to suppose. Pickets 

 are often made one-third or two-thirds wider than is necessary for 

 strength, to say nothing for or against their beauty ; and the 

 spaces between them are too frequently twice or thrice as narrow 

 as they might be, without detracting at all from the efficiency of 

 the fence, or from its real beauty. Pickets are often four inches 

 wide, fnd the space between them but two inches ; in which case 

 a width of pickets eight inches wide is required for every foot 

 in length of a fence. But if the pickets were two inches wide, 

 which is sufficiently wide for ordinary fences, with two-inch spaces, 

 there will be a saving of just one quarter of the lumber for the 

 pickets required for a rod in length. But when pickets are a 

 plump inch thick, and not more than four feet long, a fence will 

 look quite as well when the pickets are an inch and a half 

 wide, with spaces two and a half or three inches in width. It is 

 a thing of rare occurrence, that pickets of the size last mentioned 

 are ever broken by animals thrusting against them, or by attempt 

 ing to pass them in any way. "When pickets are an inch and a half 

 wide, and the spaces between them two and a half wide, only a 

 width of four and a half inches of pickets is required for a foot in 

 length of fence. Spaces two and a half inches wide are narrow 

 enough to stop any kind of fowls, or pigs and lambs. 



171. Fig. 49 represents a neat, cheap, durable and substan 

 tial lawn fence, and may be three and a half to four and a half 

 feet high, to suit the fancy. The top of the pickets should extend 

 not less than eight inches above the top rail ; and if the fence is 

 four feet or more in height, they should extend not less than ten 

 inches above the rail. The rails should be about three inches 

 square, in which case the posts may be twelve feet apart, and 

 should be fitted to the posts as shown in the figure, so that the 

 pickets may be nailed to a corner of the rails instead of the side. 



