September 28, 1676. 1 



JOUBNAL OF HOETICULTOBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



279 



post, and indeed all round it, be well consolidated by ramming 

 in the earth in small quantities tightly, or else that the project- 

 ing end of the sill be weighted with large stoneB or otherwise. 



Fig. 39 is a plan. The strap of the top bar should not be 

 less than, say, 2 feet in length, and each end should be bent 

 inwards half an inch, and a vertical chase of that depth should 

 be cut in the top bar of the gate, the bolts, a and b, serving 

 the purpose merely of holding the two straps to the bar, the 

 strain oaused by the unsupported weight of the gate being 

 taken by the two turned-down ends of the straps, and coun- 

 teracted by the power to resist detrusion possessed by the 

 surface of the wood of the length and width of the strap plus 

 1 inch. The power to resist a tensile force of the sectional 

 area of the top bar left between the two turned-down ends of the 

 straps should not be less than the power to resist detrusion 



FIC.3 



H^F 



Fig. 89. 



possessed by the two surfaces of wood above mentioned. This 

 power depends upon the lateral cohesion of the fibres of the wood , 

 and is not more per square inch than about the twentieth part 

 of the direct cohesion or of the power to resist a tensile force. 

 The ends of the Btrap should be "jumped" or thickened before 

 they are turned down, and should be forged down square, the 

 thickness of the ends being about twice the thickness of the 

 strap. When the ends are thus indented they take a proper 

 hold of the top bar of the gate, and take their bearing at 

 once ; whereas if the strain caused by the hanging of the gate 

 be taken crosswise by the bolts, two movements take place 

 before the bearing is taken : first, the wood is compressed by 

 the harder substance of the bolt ; and secondly, the bolt under- 

 goes a bending action ; and, from the shape of the gate, any 

 horizontal movement here is followed by a much greater drop 

 at the head at the gate. 



To prevent this movement — or rather to correct it when it 

 takes place — a bolt, with a Bcrewed end and nut, is sometimes 

 substituted for the olose straps, in which case the head of the 

 gate being raised to or a little above its proper position, the 

 nut is screwed up, the intention being thus to retain the head 

 of the gate in its proper position ; but, on account of the 

 aotion being indirect, and the strain of the unsupported part 

 of the gate being brought upon the bolt through the inter- 

 vention of the arm, upon which a cross strain is induced, the 

 intention is not fully realised, and the head of the gate con- 

 tinues to drop because of the want of rigidity of the arm. To 

 obviate this the bolt is sometimes continued along the whole 

 length of the gate, and is made to take hold of the head-post ; 

 but this not only adds to the money-cost of the gate, but also 

 to the weight at the head, which it is always desirable to avoid. 



It is better construction to use the ordinary straps, and, 

 before the gate is hung, to cramp the whole frame tightly 

 together in a horizontal position, and drive in wedges of hard 

 wood at all those joints where, on the gate being hung, the 

 pieces of the framing are compressed together ; and, to make 

 this more effective, the cramping Bhould be so managed as to 

 set up each joint in a direction opposite to that which the 

 weight of the gate will cause it to take after it is hung. We 

 are now referring altogether to gates of wood. The joints 

 ■under compression are those between the lower end of the brace 

 and the heel-post, and between the upper end of the braoe and 

 the top bar, and also the inside of the turned-down end of 

 the strap. 



In respect to the angle at which the braces should be dis- 

 posed, the more upright they are the less the strains, both on 

 the braces in compression and on the top bar in tension, as 

 may be shown graphically by the following diagrams : — 



Let A, b, c, d (fig. 40), be a frame with one brace, a c. Now, 

 in the first place, if there were no brace at all, half the weight 

 of the gate would be carried by the heel-post, b c, and the 

 other half by the head-post, a d, which must in that case rest 

 upon the ground ; but in order to make the whole weight rest 

 upon the heel-post, so that the gate may turn upon an axis, 

 the brace, a c, is introduced, upon the head of which rests 

 that half of the weight of the gate which would otherwise 

 rest upon the head-post. 



The strains upon the framing will be as follow : — Mark a d 



with a scale of equal parts equal to the weight upon the head 

 of the brace — that is, half the weight of the gate. Produce 

 b A to 6. Draw d b parallel to the brace a c, and draw d c 

 parallel to the top bar. Then, by the same scale, a b measures 

 the tensile train of the top bar, and A c the compressive strain 

 upon the brace. 



Now let E, F, o, H, I, k (fig. 41), represent a gate of the same 

 size and weight, with two braces, f i and e h, connected to- 

 gether by the vertical tie, e i, so that, together with the top 

 and bottom bars, they make one frame. Supposing the pieces 

 to be jointed at the intersections there will be a weight upon 

 the first brace, f i, equal to one-fourth of the weight of the 

 gate, and upon the second brace, e h, there will be three- 

 fourths of the weight of the gate. Mark the vertical distances, 

 f e and E i, accordingly, and draw the parallel lines e f and i g, 

 also e k and i h. Then e / will measure the tensile strain of the 

 top bar between e and f, and f g that between f and a, while f k 

 will be the compressive strain upon the brace f i, and e h that 



FIC.4. 



Figs. 40 and 41. 



upon the braoe e h. So that all the strains are less when the 

 braces are more upright. In what has been said above, the 

 gate is taken to be of the same weight per foot in length from 

 heel-post to head-post to prevent complication, the object 

 here being to illustrate the principles only of framing gates, 

 which form the groundwork of practice ; and the rule of 

 practice which is not founded upon principles is the " rule of 

 thumb," which is not an admirable rule, although very pre- 

 valent amongst " British workmen." Many English carpenters 

 can and do frame together gates, big and little, very properly, 

 although they may have had no scientific instruction, and 

 whose good work is owing to the good practice which came 

 under their notice and under their hands in their apprentice- 

 ship ; but for every one of these good workmen how many we 

 see whose practice is as devoid of mind and as wooden as the 

 gates they make ! 



In gates, as in all other constructions, practice must be 

 blended with theory ; neither must control the other, but each 

 must be modified by the other. Thus theoretioal instruction 

 modifies a rude practice, and — which is the better condition 

 of the two — a theoretical initiative should be modified by an 

 experience of good practice. Whether the structure in hand 

 be a great bridge or a small bridge, or merely a gate, it re- 

 quires intelligent construction, and those who frame gates 

 should seek after, until they find, the true principles upon 

 which good work depends, even as those who frame bridges 

 are obliged to do. — (Building News.) 



LITTLE HEATH MELON. 

 I have a faint recollection that last year when I ventured 

 to speak in terms of praise of this Melon as suitable for the 

 amateur of small means and small ground, that a certain most 

 excellent friend of mine said it was so poor in flavour that it 

 was not worth the trouble. Judge of my delight, then, to find 

 that at Dundee, at their great International Show, it took the 

 prize as the best scarlet-flesh Melon. Now, the Judges there 

 were no novices. They knew what they were about, and yet 

 they gave it the place of honour — one, indeed, I should never 

 have thought it could have attained, for although I could not 

 agree that it was flavourless, yet there were many others that 

 I frankly confess I should have thought superior. However, 



