THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 173 



holding it. Be careful in ramming not to move the post by ram 

 ming too hard on one side of it. Be very particular in making 

 the bottoms of the posts firm. Let the dirt be well rammed in 

 at the top of the holes, by filling in a little at a time ; and let the 

 earth be raised around each post a little above the level of the 

 ground, with the hardest kind of dirt. This will keep the posts 

 from becoming loose. When small stones are used for filling 

 the holes around the posts, they should be placed with care, and 

 in such a position that, by being rammed a little, they will hold 

 the post very securely. "When there is water in post holes, it 

 must be bailed out, as it is not practicable to make a post stand 

 firmly when there is water in the hole. Posts are somtimes set 

 in grout, which is made of good sand and water-lime, and poured 

 among the stones which are placed in the holes around the posts. 

 This renders them very firm, but the frosts of winter are very 

 liable to injure it as deep as it freezes. 



228. Posts are often set by driving them in a hole made with a 

 crowbar ; but as a general thing I never could like it as well as set 

 ting them in holes that have been dug. I have often practised 

 driving posts in the bottom of the holes after they have been 

 dug two feet deep, and I have always found that this practise 

 saves much digging ; and the posts are more solid and quicker 

 set than when the holes are dug as deep as the posts are to be set. 

 By digging two feet, and driving one foot or more, posts will be 

 sufficiently deep for ordinary fences. 



229. In driving square posts a wrench is very necessary to keep 

 them from turning from a right line when they are being driven. 

 For this purpose an iron wrench, large enough to fit on the 

 post, may be used, or a mortise as large as the post may be made 

 in a piece of tough plank, or a gain may be sawed in the edge 

 of a plank, and the posts held in the desired position by one 

 workman while another drives them with a sledge. When 

 posts are driven without any digging, the workmen are too apt 

 to drive them only twenty or twenty-five inches, instead of thirty- 

 live and forty inches deep, as they should be. It is no easy job 

 to drive a post three feet into the ground in some localities, while 



