134 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 



are to extend, supporting it in the middle, if it sags a little, with 

 a picket slightly tacked to the rails. Dress out a space-board as 

 wide as the spaces, and be particular to have both ends of an ex 

 act width. Drive a long nail in one side of it, near the top, so 

 that it can be hung on the top rail ; now nail on the first picket, 

 and plumb the edge on one side. Hang on the space-board, and 

 put up another picket to the side of the space-board, with the top 

 barely to the line, and hold it with one knee while nailing it. 

 After two or three pickets more have been put up, apply the 

 plumb-rule and see if the pickets are perpendicular. After the 

 pickets are all nailed on, the bottom board, the top edge of which 

 is planed bevelling, as shown in the figure, may be nailed on the 

 outside of the pickets. The lower ends of the pickets need not 

 be sawed off even, as they are not in sight; and the bottom 

 board may be nailed to the lower rail, subserving the additional 

 purpose of a batten or ribbon ; or it may be two or three inches 

 below the rail. A ribbon about one inch by an inch and one-fourth 

 square may be nailed on the pickets into the upper rail. But if 

 each picket is nailed with two sixpenny nails to each rail four 

 nails in a picket if the rails are of hard wood, a ribbon will be of 

 little utility. A half round ribbon would look better than a 

 square one. Near the middle of the bottom boards a few pickets 

 may extend to the bottom of the board on the inside, and be 

 nailed to it to strengthen it. The bottom board may be from 

 eight to ten inches wide ; or there may be two narrow boards 

 four and a half or five inches wide, with a three or four-inch space 

 between them, which is in quite as good keeping with a picket 

 fence as one wide board. If it is desirable, the posts of such fence 

 may be cased. But if the gate-posts and posts at the corners of 

 the yard be cased, like those at Fig. 32, the fence will probably 

 suit the majority of people quite as well as if every post were 

 cased. 



SELF-SUSTAINING PICKET FENCE. 



173. Fig 50 represents a style of fence but little different from 

 the one shown at Fig. 49. The pickets, bottom boards, rails and 



