400 ARID AGRICULTURE. 



holes bored near the top of the post. Such bucks 

 of pine merely rot off slightly at the bottom 

 where they come in contact with -the ground, and 

 get about four or five inches shorter in twenty 

 years' time. 



Many methods of treating fence posts have 

 been devised and recommended. Most of these 

 methods, such as treating with creosote or corro- 

 sive sublimate require the use of large tanks and 

 careful attention to the proper recipes. In ex- 

 periments carried on by the author in treating 

 pitch pine posts, he found that the life of the post 

 was indefinitely extended by the following treat- 

 ment : Paint or dip the lower end of the post a 

 little higher than it is to go into the ground with 

 crude petroleum. Place in small piles of half 

 a dozen posts and burn off the petroleum. Do 

 not let burn too long. They should get hot 

 enough to force the oil into the wood and pro- 

 duce a slight blackening on the outside. Posts 

 treated in this way seem to be so well protected 

 from dry rot that they will last many times as 

 long as untreated posts. The treatment costs 

 but a few cents for each post, and saves both in 

 cost of renewal and the work of building new 

 fences. 



GATES The ordinary barbed wire gate is an abomi- 



nation and an expensive nuisance if where it 

 must be used several times a day. To make a 

 good gate out of timber and swing it on a post 



