FARM FENCING. 53 



This plan, which will not take five minutes to arrange, will 

 relieve the gate and post of much strain. 



Wherever a permanent gate is needed it will pay to have a 

 good post well set. It is of more importance to have it of good 

 size below ground than above. A locust tree that will square 

 six or eight inches, dug up by the roots, will have a base large 

 enough to set firmly. It should be put in the ground not less 

 than forty inches and well tamped. Always hang the gate 

 high, not less than eight inches above the level, and then with 

 broken stone and fine gravel make an easy grade on both sides 

 to the gate. This will prevent it from dragging or being im- 

 peded by snow and will insure a solid road-bed through the 

 gateway, and drainage which will lead the water away. I think 

 that nine gates out of ten are hung too near the ground. The 

 best fastening for a gate is a wooden latch made of hard wood 

 and so hung that, whenever the gate is swung to, it will spring 

 into the mortise in the post made to receive it. 



A gate properly made, well hung to a good post, with a 

 well graded roadway, will cost quite a sum, but will last for 

 years and be a comfort every time you must pass through it; 

 and counting time lost and repairs, the gate illy made and badly 

 hung, which must be dragged around through a mud hole, will 

 cost more in the long run. I find it a decided advantage 

 to have small gates at the barn-yard to pass through to milk 

 and feed, and to turn the cattle in and out. For this purpose a 

 gate three and a half feet wide is as good as a wide one and is 

 much easier to handle and not likely to get out of repair. By 

 having gates of this kind at the barn-yard, lift-gates can be used 

 for the wagon- way. 



