09 



to admit of their being sharpened at each end. They 

 will last twice as long when so cut ; and they cost but 

 a trifle more than the common kind. 



Posts are so liable to rot, and break off, that in some 

 parts of the country, where timber is plenty, crooked or 

 worm fences are made of rails without posts. An obtuse 

 angle is made in each length of the fence, and the rails 

 are placed one upon another as children build cob houses ; 

 the smallest rails being placed at the bottom, and the 

 largest at the top ; five rails are thus placed one upon 

 the other. When heavy rails are placed at the top, they 

 will often remain in place without staking up ; but it is 

 more common to set a pair of stakes at each angle, and 

 tie them together at the top, with a withe or a little yoke. 

 The Virginians have very generally used their rails in 

 this manner ; and at the north it is called Virginia fence. 



In speaking of the importance of letting timber for 

 posts become dry, before it is put into the ground, we 

 ought also to name in connection with it, the importance 

 of suffering the sills of a house and other buildings, to 

 become dry before they are used. It is true we now set 

 buildings higher than we formerly did, and we take 

 smaller timber for sills, and both these practices tend to 

 favor the durability of the timber yet we are often 

 obliged to put in new sills ; and this labor may be saved. 

 In ancient times, the largest sticks of timber that could 

 be found were placed at the bottom, on the principles of 

 pyramid building : it seems to have been supposed that 

 this gave the building strength. And it is not uncom- 

 mon to find, on pulling down an ancient meeting-house, 

 sills twelve inches square. There was not only no need 

 of such timbers in such a position, but they were not 

 worth half as much as timbers half their size. When 

 the building was set low, the sill would never become 



