172 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 



DIGGING POST HOLES 



226. Is a part of fence building which may be performed at 

 " odd spells," and may be done by the forces of the farm which 

 are very awkward and unskillful in everything they attempt to 

 perform, providing the work is all laid out for them, so that it 

 will be barely possible to do anything wrong. In the first 

 place, set two stakes and plow a deep trench, as stated, if the 

 saving of labor is any object, and then stretch a line four or six 

 rods long, and have a little pole as long as the distance is to be 

 between the posts, from centre to centre, and measure along the 

 line, and stick a little stake exactly where the centre of every 

 hole is to be made. With the spade cut a circle in the sod or 

 dirt around these little stakes, and throw out the dirt with the 

 spade for one foot or so in depth, if the earth is not too hard to 

 be spaded with facility. Let the digger be careful not to work 

 the holes so far on one side of the centre that the posts cannot 

 be placed in range with each other. There is no necessity of 

 digging the holes for ordinary fence posts more than one foot in 

 diameter. If the ground is very hard and dry, it must be picked 

 up with the crowbar or spud, and taken out with the dirt-spoon. 

 If the ground is not stony, the post-hole augur (Fig. 99) may be 

 used to great advantage, especially after a hole is two feet deep. 

 In digging large holes for gate posts, or straining-posts for wire 

 fence, which are to be four feet deep, an expert digger will sink 

 such a hole much the quickest by stepping down into it, and by 

 making it at least thirty inches in diameter at the top and nearly 

 two feet at the bottom. The hole for fence posts should be large 

 enough to admit the rammer freely all round them when they 

 are being set. 



SETTING FENCE POSTS. 



227. Let the post be placed in the hole so that it will almost 

 touch both the upper and lower line, (see mode of adjusting the 

 lines, par. 152,) and throw in a little dirt, say enough to fill the hole 

 around the post not more than two inches after it is well rammed ; 

 put in as much more and ram it. and the post will stand without 



