1 838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



55 



woiioniy wns necesdary — to say notliina: of the 

 c^iitieriiiii' of tlic poor man, or the anxiety anii oth- 

 er iroiiblcsoino iiici(lt.'nis. 'J'lie mislbrlune was, 

 lu 1)0 sure, not very serious, nor the loss very hea- 

 vy; yt*l, when it is consiilereil, tlini suuilar neu- 

 h'Ct was ihe occasion of re|>ealeil ilisasiers ol' ilie 

 same kind, and nhimately of the ruin ol' a wortiiy 

 lanniy, ii was deservinir ol" so/«e /,7//e attention." 

 'riuis endetli my iioauly, ami now ll)r my dcs- 

 cri|;lions. 



The first drawinir represents a gate nine lecf 

 wide from out to out, hy five leet hi<ih. The hin- 

 der upri^rht or stem is lour inches by three. The 

 cen're and front stem, are three hy two and a half 

 inches. All ihe bars are three inches wide; but the 

 up[)erone. is sipiare l)ehind, tapered to two and a 

 half inches belbre. The other bars are one irch 

 thick, at the hiniier ends, tapered to fivo-eifrhths 

 at the li-ont ent'.s. Each tenon has a shoulder 

 three-foiu'tlH of an inch deep; but the shoulders 

 behind shoidd be cut in the lower edjie of the liars, 

 and those before, in the upper edije, as indicated by 

 the dotted lines across the li'ont and hinder stems, 

 where the tenons of the bar, next the top, enter 

 them. These shoulders, thus cut, aid, both he- 

 fore and behind, in counteracting^ the tendency to 

 swag; which is common to all o:atcs. This ten- 

 dency, if not checked, always makes ihe an<rle A 

 greater, and the ancjie B Zess than a right angle. 

 The brace C, iherelbre, acts as a tie, while the 

 brace D, acts as a stretcher, and both co-operate 

 with the shoulders of tlie tenons, at the ends of 

 tiie bars, still liirther to counteract the swagging. 

 But the most eti'ectual counteraction of the whole 

 is the upper hinge, which is alike on both sides 

 the gate, and which will suffice of itseKj unless 

 the hall' inch iron bolts, that fasten tOijether by 

 screws and nuts the opposite sides of this hinge, 

 or tiie hinge itself, shoultl break, which it cannot 

 easily do, if made two inches wide and a quarter 

 of an inch thick. A gate thus guarded cannot 

 possibly swag, while the various guards, eigh- 

 teen in number, maintain their relative positions. 

 The shank of the lower hinge, should be made an 

 inch or two longer than that of the upper hinge, 

 and the hook on which it hangs should be driven 

 in the post at the same distance beyond the per- 

 pendicular line irom the upper hook. This fix- 

 ture, when the gate is opened, throws the lower 

 end of the hinder stem iarfher i'rom the face of the 

 post, than the upper, and consequently, the gale 

 will shut of itselt; if no obstacle interposes. Bv 

 tills simple contrivance the posts may be fixed 

 perpendicularly; otherwise they must incline con- 

 siderably inward, according to the common very 

 unsightly practice. This lower hinge should be 

 about one inch square next the shank, tapered to 

 five-eighths at the inner end, which should have a 

 screw and nut to li:i?ten it. The iron in the Ibrm 

 of a T, which liistens the centre stem, the upper 

 bar, and the upper ends of the braces together, 

 by half an inch iron bolts, has a correspondinir 

 iron on the opposite side of the gate, and aid in 

 making "assurance doubly sure" against swag- 

 gmcr. 



The handle of of the latch is two inches wide 

 by five-eigths thick, wliere it passes through the 

 upper bar; and three by two and a half inches, at 

 the lower end, through which the hinder end of 

 the latch passes, and is fastened in a mortice, 

 somewhat longer and wider than itself, by a 



wooden pin, smaller ilian ihe hole in lliai imkI of 

 the latch thron<ih \vlii;h liie t^aid |<iti passes. This 

 is necessary to give it play, and the samedilier- 

 ence, li)r liiesame purpose, truisi be made Itelween 

 tiie size of tlie hole through the upper end of the, 

 handle, and wooden pin which liistens ii in the 

 upper bar of the gate. Anoiher mortice is cut 

 throuoh the handle of the latcii, at E; also, some- 

 what longer and wider than the bar on which ir, 

 plays, and a pm must be fixed in iliis liar at 5'"', 

 to prevent ihe latch from' l)eing drawn out of its 

 mortice in the li'unt siem, unless ihe morlire 

 through the upjier bar be cut exactly in the oblique 

 direction indicated liy ihe dotted lines aiToss liiat 

 bar. If this mortice be not thus cut, another 

 wooden pin, in the latch iiself will he necrssary at 

 G, to prevent it fi-om being tbrced too (ar forwinvl, 

 by the spring H. This may be made of the 

 thinnest hoop iron, if not bent beyond its point of 

 elasticity; buc steel is best. To relieve the latch 

 from friction against the bofiom ol'ihe mortice 

 through the front stem, a round wooden pin mark- 

 ed I, is driven in, so that half" ol its thickness 

 shows above the bottom of the mortice, and sup- 

 ports the lower edge of the laich, which should 

 be roundeii for three inches, at this part, and then 

 the two surlaces would touch only at a single 

 point. 



'Jlie foregoing description, mayperharis appear, 

 to some, unnecessarily minute ; but, I mysellj 

 have so often l)een puzzled by two much brevity 

 in such matters, that I was determine<i to err, if 

 at all, on the safe side. In the gate here descrilied 

 I claim nothing as my own invention, but the lat(di 

 and tlie upper hinge, which last I have not used, 

 although previous use is not necessary to estab- 

 lish its value. 



A very brief description will suffice for the coul- 

 ter, the original contriver of which, I do not 

 know; for I met with itabout two years ago, on 

 board the Rappahannock steam boat, in posses- 

 sion of a tjentleman who could irive me no oiher 

 account of it, than that he procured it from the 

 late Mr. Georse Banks of Stafloi'd county. I 

 was so struck with its manifest superiority to any 

 coulter I had seen before, that I immediaiely 

 made a sketch of it; had one made as soon as I 

 could; and have been using them ever since, with 

 a decided preference lo all others. None, of which 

 I liave any knowledge, are superior to it, in any 

 one respect, while this is superior to them all in 

 two important particulars; you m;iy wear out 

 both points, by reversinij them, before you send 

 it to the blacksmith; and the point which works 

 behind, causes the coulter to run nuich more stea- 

 dily. A single horse will draw it easily in most 

 of our lands, after they have been well broken up 

 with the plough ; while lour, even of our misera- 

 ble half-starved Virginia oxen, will break or tear 

 up roots by it, as thick as a man's wrist, with no. 

 more " geeing" and "hawini;" than they require 

 to drag a load of wood to their master's door, or 

 to any other coulter, that I have ever seen tried. 



The lower part of the coulter is made out of 

 inch-square iron, flattened and well steeled at the 

 points, and is twenty-two inches long. The up- 

 right part is of bar-iron two and a half or three 

 inches wide, by a half inch or five-eighhts thick, 

 and should be seventeen or eighteen inches high 

 fi-om top to bottom, and left square both on the 

 front and hinder edge. A half inch bolt will suf- 



