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FARMERS' REGISTER— WATER RACKS. 



7. The general dissemination of periodical pub- 

 lications on agriculture and rural economy. 



R. N. 



ON THE PROPER CONSTRUCTION AND FIXING 

 OF WATER RACKS, SO AS TO PREVENT ANI- 

 MALS FR03I PASSING THE WATER GAPS. 



From the Soiithei-n Asjriculwrist. 



" Hockey Grove Abbeville District, } 

 Juhj 1, 1832. 5 



Dear Sir, — The upper part of Soutli-Carolina 

 being very hilly, and the rivers, creeks, and small 

 branches, or runs of water, finding their way to the 

 .ocean between hills ofconsiderable height and steep- 

 ness, the'natural consequence is, lliat after every rain 

 the smaller creeks and branches rise so i-apidly and 

 so high that no fence built across them can be kept 

 up. From this feature in the fl\ce of tiie country, 

 another consequence is, that so many small branch- 

 es or runs of water exist throughout it, that there 

 are few planters or farmers to be found, through. 

 some of whose fields these water-courses do not 

 pass. As fences cannot be kept across them, and 

 as it would be not only very laborious to build 

 fences on each side, but destructive to the rail- 

 timber, and prevent mucli valuable land from be- 

 ing brought into cultivation ; tlie agriculturists of 

 the upper country adojjt the plan oi'buikling their 

 fences only to the edges of the water-courses, 

 (commonly called water-gaps) at the spot where 

 they enter and pass out of ihe field, and then close 

 these water-gaps, by hanging racks across them, 

 the rounds of which, whilst they are placed sutfi- 

 ciently near to each otlier to keep out hogs, yet let 

 the ordinary water aiul much loose trash pass be- 

 tween them. But from the great and rapid rise 

 of the water after a rain, large logs and dead trees 

 are brought down these water-courses, which but 

 too oiten sweep away these racks, and often the 

 logs also to which they are hung, and thus, as well 

 as by sometimes lodging under the rack and pre- 

 venting it irom swinging back to its place, or in 

 some otlier way leave an opening, through which, 

 hogs especially, and sometimes perhaps, other 

 stock get into the fields. This inconvenience, (or 

 rather evil,) from sad experience, I know to be 

 great, ior I have no less than six of these water- 

 gaps to combat with, and v/ill soon add two more 

 and it requires the experience of years to enable 

 an upper country planter or farmer, (especially 

 one who has recently become so from having lived 

 llie early part of his life in the lower country, the 

 flatness of which exempts them from this pertijct 

 pest,) to give to these water-gaps even a tolerable 

 degree of security against hogs. 



When I first settled up here, I listened with 

 some surprise to the account of ditficulties my kind 

 '.icighbora told me my water-gaps would give me ; 

 but I soon ibund that these water-gaps were some- 

 thing more than bugbears. I adopted the plan re- 

 ■^'onaiiended to me of fixing tlie logs to whicli the 

 rack wei-e t& be suspended as high as I well could, 

 inai the drift timber might pass under tliem, and 

 tliejr raising the racks swung to these logs, pass 

 under them also, permitting my racks to swing 

 back to their places. Alas ! my water-gaps con- 

 tinued for years to occasion me no little vexation, 

 trouble,, and some loss ; and at last, and not until 

 within a year or two back, I found 1 had gone ex- 

 actly the wrong way to work. 



One of the most intelligent and respectable of 

 my neighbors, who to use his own language, " bad 

 " served an apprenticeship all his life in trying to 

 " make water gaps secure against hogs," told me, 

 upon hearing me utter some doleful con)})laints 

 against the unfaithfulness of my water-gaps; " In- 

 " stead of fixing your logs or timber to which your 

 " racks are hung high, you ought to place them as 

 " low as possible; for by so doing, from the rapid 

 " rising of the waters your log will be covered be- 

 " fore the creek has risen high enough to float this 

 •'' dri("t lundier from the place it occupies, which 

 " will, therefore, when it reaches your water-gap, 

 " pass harmlessly over log and rack ; whereas fix 

 " your log as high as you may, you can hardly ex- 

 " pect to get it out of the reach of high freshes, and 

 " even if you could, some one piece or other of the 

 "drift tindDer in passing under your rack, will at 

 " times be caught by it, or the vines by which it 

 " swings by a limb or prong, which will stop more 

 'timber and form a raft whose weight forced on 

 " by a rapid current will tear away your rack, se- 

 " cure it as well as you may," &c. &c. We then 

 discussed at length the best mode of preventing 

 hogs from pushing aside the rack sufficiently to 

 get into the field, or from getting under it by rais- 

 ing it, or diving under it, &c. during which con- 

 versation I got much useful information, which has 

 enabled me since, much better than formerly, 

 though not altogether, yet, to make my water-gaps 

 tolerably secure. 



As one of the objects of your useful journal is 

 to enable some to avoid " wasting their time and 

 " labor in endeavoring to discover what others al- 

 " ready know," 1 will tell you how, after eleven 

 years experience, I have been best able to secure 

 my water- gaps, even at the risk of being tliought 

 a very dull follow from not purusing my present 

 course from tlie very start. A rack for a water- 

 gap should be made, the bottom and top pieces of 

 green limber, and not too heav}', the rounds of 

 seasoned heart oak-timber, if to be had. To make 

 a water-rack, (the common plirase) procure a 

 young oak tree of the length and size wanted. If 

 you are very nice about it you may square it with 

 a broad-axe, or only flatten two sides of it with 

 your axe and carry it to the water-gap ; there bore 

 holes through it ^vith an inch and a quarter, or an 

 inch and a half auger, four and a half inches apart 

 from centre to centre, then split it open so as to 

 form the top and l)ottom parts of the rack out of it. 

 After you have put in tlie rounds, wedge each one 

 well both at top and bottom, and let them be of 

 such a length that when the rack is finished, it will 

 be from top to bottom three feet high. A water- 

 rack ought not to exceed 20 to 25 feet in length; 

 if the water-gap is wider than that, make two 

 racks, and in swinging them, lap one about two 

 feet over the other, but do not fasten them together, 

 unless your hogs have become so knowing as to 

 force their way between them, for the easier and 

 lighter your rack swings the more likely is it to 

 ansvv'er its purpose. The log or piece of timber 

 which you intend to lay across the water-course to 

 swing the rack to, should be a good stout one, should 

 not be more than eight inches or a foot abo\e the 

 top of the rack, should lie level, and the ends be 

 well weighed down with rock, or otherwise se- 

 cured to prevent the water when it rises from car- 

 rying it off. If the banks of the water-course are 

 high, sink the ends of your log or piece of timber 



