THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



yet be held in its place. This pivot or turning up- 

 right piece may be made as solid, by driving in 

 lengthwise pieces of the slats in the interstices from 

 heel to top, and then nailing or pinning all together. 

 The nails or pins will not at all interfere with the 

 necessary rounding off by the drawing-knife. 



At first, T used slats of oak, and had wrought 

 nails, with large, flat heads, made in the black- 

 smith's shop. But have since found cut nails, 

 driven through little taps of leather, to answer the 

 purpose as well. But the nails ought to be of 

 tou^h iron, and heated to redness and allowed to 

 cool in a dry atmosphere. Driven as soon as they 

 become cool enough to be handled, they will clinch 

 almost as well as wrought nails. 



The braces to the gate may be of the same sort 

 of timber as the slats. In the original plan in the 

 Planter there was but one brace, extending oblique- 

 ly from the top slat of the swinging end, to the 

 bottom slat of the pivot end. But two braces are 

 better. They should form a cross, one extending 

 as above mentioned, and the other on the opposite 

 side of the slats — each to be carefully so^iaied, 

 scribed and sawed, so as to lit accurately within 

 the upright slats. 



The nails with the leather taps may then be 

 driven and clinched with flat clinch, to prevent 

 their breaking. Being driven from each side of 

 the gate wherever the slats cross each other, the 

 whole gate will be found as strong as any that can 

 be made out of timbers of the like dimensions. 



The maker may consult his taste about the 

 posts and hinge work. Mine are exceedingly sim- 

 ple, and yet work admirably. My posts were cut 

 from a large, solid old post-oak, with large limbs. 

 One of the limbs being cut off about a foot from 

 the body of the tree, and then split with a cross- 

 cut saw, in half, at right angles with the post, made 

 an excellent footing for the heel end to work in, 

 about two feet above the bottom end of the post — 

 which being planted and rammed about that depth 

 in the ground, the heel or pivot works jiist above 

 the surface. By giving the posts the proper incli- 

 nation when they are set up, the gate may be made 

 to shut and latch itself by its own gravity. 



My latch work is also very simple. The latch of 

 thin but solid oak, works through one of the slits 

 left between the slats in the swinging end, jutting 

 about three inches into the catch, driven firmly into 

 a large auger hole in the left hand post, and so ta- 

 pered from the notch to the outer extremity of it, 

 that the latch glides easily over it into the notch. 

 But some pains must be taken to smooth off one 

 edge of the latch and adjoining slat; so that the 

 latch fixed in one of the crosses, made either by 

 the braces or slats, may move with freedom up and 

 down in the notch. The maker may consult his 

 own judgment about the fixture by which the latch 

 is moved around the nail or pin confining it to the 

 cross. 



The upper part of the pivot end can be made to 

 work in any large hole of wood or iron, fixed to or 

 within the right hand post. A collar of tough 

 white oak will do — so will any solid piece of wood, 

 with a large hole, sufficient for the upper rounded 

 end of the pivot piece to turn in, with facility, fixed 

 to the post. But I found in a pile of rubbish in 

 one of my garrets several large, flat rings of wrought 

 iron, which answered my purpose exactly; and I 

 forthwith fixed up three gates with them. The 

 upper rounded pivot ends work within these rings, 

 to which are attached, loosely, staples — such as are 

 fixed through ox yokes, to pull by. I carried these 



197 



staples and rings to the blacksmith's, had them 

 heated, the spikes of the staples brought to points, 

 to be driven into small auger holes in the gate- 

 posts. It required but a few strokes of the hand 

 hammer to effect this, as well as to make the pro- 

 per adjustment of the staples to the rings; so that 

 the latter work over the former, making a fixture 

 within which the upper pivot end turns with ease. 

 The two little auger holes should be one above the 

 other ; the points of the staples will teach the maker 

 where and how to bore them, and his own judgment 

 will teach him how deep in the posts, and how hea- 

 vily to drive his staple. I can safely say that I 

 nave never seen so suitable a fixture of the sort, at 

 so small an outlay of money, as this of mine. Let 

 any man try it, and I vouch that he will never 

 again allow another pair of drawbars to be erected 

 upon his plantation. 



T. H. A. 



SELECTION OF HORSE STOCK. 



We cut the following sensible extract from the 

 Ohio Cultivator: 



In the Transactions of the Wisconsin State 

 Agricultural Society for 1852, is an excellent 

 essay on the Rural Husbandry of Wisconsin, 

 by George 0. Tiffany of Milwaukee. On the 

 subject of horses he talks like a book, as the 

 following extracts will show : 



" The first consideration is, what kind of a 

 horse will pay best? Rail roads and other im- 

 provements in locomotion, steam power, &c, 

 have given mankind at the present age a mania 

 for fas1 conveyance, whether on land or water, 

 and slow horses will no longer answer the ex- 

 pectations of purchasers of horse flesh; they 

 want a good one to go. Those who are not 

 particular about speed, never object to a horse 

 if he happens to have it. The fast horse is 

 the horse for the American farmer to raise with 

 profit. All nature presents to us the fact tha^ 

 like begets like, and when this rule is varied, 

 it is an exception. In the breeding of horses, 

 this law is strictly carried out. In almost every 

 instance, celebrated trotting horses have sprung 

 from fast stock on both sides. Trustee, the 

 only horse which ever trotted twenty miles in 

 an hour, was from a trotting mare, Fanny Pul- 

 len, and by imported Trustee, a fast race horse, 

 who was also the sire of that fast mare, Fashion. 

 Black Hawk* was sired by Andrew Jackson, 

 who was also the sire of a great number of 

 trotting horses. Black Hawk trotted a mile 

 in 2 minutes 40 seconds with a wagon weighing 

 two hundred and fifty pounds, at that time the 

 best heat ever made, considering the weight 

 drawn. Mack, the great competitor with Lady 

 Suffolk, is a Messenger horse, and went in 2 

 minutes 26 seconds; the Lady herself is a full- 

 bred Messenger, for aught any one knows to 



* Long Island Black Hawk, since dead. — Eds. O. Cult. 



