840 



THE FARMERY. 



[Chap. III. 



Robinson's Farm Gate is the name given to one invented, and not 

 patented, l)y Dr. D. A. Robinson, Union Springs, N. Y., of which -vve think 

 pretty liighiy. One of its good jjoints is the clieapness of the liinges. These 

 are figured and fully described in that excellent pocket manual, the " Rural 

 Register," published by Luther Tucker, from which we copy the following 

 description : 



"This gate may be made of any light, tough, and durable wood, but an- 

 swers a good purpose when made of pine, with the upright or cross-bars of 

 white oak. The upper horizontal bar is 11 feet long, 3 inches wide horizon- 

 tally, and 5 inches deep at the hinge, and 2i at the latch. The mortises are 

 only two thirds through, to shut out rain, and f by 3 inches — except in 

 the heel-piece they are an inch and quarter. The lieel-jiiece is 3 by 5 inches, 

 and the four lower bars are boards 1 by 5 inches. The cross-bars, the 

 brace, and the two pieces forming the licad-piece are 1 by 3 inches. They 

 are secured at each crossing by wrought or annealed nails. The head-piece 

 consists merely of two boards, nailed on each side of the horizontal boards. 

 The hinge is made by driving an iron rod, at least three fourths of an inch 

 in diameter, into the top of the post, which turns in a hole seven eighths of 

 an inch, bored two thirds of the distance through the large end of the upper 

 bar. A short iron plug driven into this hole makes a hard resting point 

 that will not wear, for the gate to turn upon. The lower hinge is a wooden 

 lilock, attached to the lower part of the gate, and hollowed out so as to fit 

 upon the round post. The latch is not attached to the gate, but to the post, 

 so that it catches over the top rail, which is made to project beyond the end 

 of tlie gate for that purpose. If it is preferred to have the latch fastened on 

 the gate lower down, a pin can bo fixed in or one of the slats projected for- 

 ward. This gate is not liable to sag much, because there is no weight what- 

 ever straiiiinfj the hinges, except xohile the gate is open. A pin or spike is 

 driven into the post on which the hinges turn, just above the lower liinge, 

 to prevent hogs or other animals from lifting the gate, but which does not 

 ])revent it from being placed on its hinges while open. The post holding 

 the latch may be rough, except the face, and the other need be rounded only 

 where the hinge turns. > 



"Tiie whole cost of the binges need not exceed ten cents, and the gate 

 itself may be made at no greater expense than a common set of bars." 



An excellent gate-fastening is one in common use in Mississippi and some 

 other Southern States, which we have never seen in any of the Northern 

 ones. A gain is cut in the corner of the post, say three by four inches, and 

 in that is hung a piece of flat bar iron, say one inch wide and one fourth 

 of an inch thick, bent in somewhat the form and of the length of half a 

 horse-shoe, the upper end hammered thin and bent over a staple which is 

 driven in the upper part of the gain, so that the lower end of the bar rests 

 on the bottom, near the outer edge. An iron pin in the upright of the gate 

 strikes against this little bar and lifts it up and passes beyond the end of it, 

 when it falls back, and no power but a man's baud can open the gate — but 



