86 THE EQUIPMENT OF THE FARM. 



feet long and 4 feet 3 inches high to the top line of its upper 

 bar. The posts should be 8 feet long and fixed firmly 3 feet 

 deep in their position. The gate consists of 5 horizontal 

 bars housed into two upright end pieces the one at the 

 hinge end being 5 inches by 3 and that at the latch end 

 about 3 inches by 2-J. The bars themselves are 3 -inch 

 strips of inch boarding, except the top one, which is of the 

 same thickness as the uprights at the ends, and 5 inches 

 deep at the hinge end and 3 inches deep at the latch end. 

 There are two upright strips nailed on the 4 lower bars and 

 housed into the top one at distances of 2 and 4 feet 

 respectively from the latch end of the gate. And there 

 is a piece of inch board 3 inches wide, extending from 

 the housing of the lower bar at its hinge end to a point 

 about 5 feet from that end in the upper bar, and nailed 

 into all the horizontal bars as it crosses them thus stiffen- 

 ing the whole framewrok. Or the stiffening may be still 

 more effectually secured by two obliquely transverse strips 

 nailed on one side of the gate to the upper ends of the 

 two uprights and meeting in the middle of the lower 

 horizontal bar crossed by a corresponding but inverted V 

 on the other side the whole nailed and bolted together. 

 The whole of the woodwork, posts and bars, should be heart 

 of oak. The hinge irons should be substantially made, and 

 the upper one may be constructed to embrace the upright 

 and upper horizontal bar for some 18 inches of its length : 

 being fastened in its place by through bolts. And the gate 

 should hang so that it shuts flat against the receiving post 

 and perfectly parallel with it. 



The latch holding the gate closed is either an upright 

 spring falling into a notched iron in the post, or it may be a 

 hooked latch which takes hold of a staple in the post and is 



