128 
American ImjAements, and 
severity of the discipline on board their ships. But we are 
wandering from the farm. 
Having now noticed a few of the more ordinary implements, 
let us turn to the fences: these are slovenly to an English eye, 
being almost invariably composed of roughly-split rails laid 
zigzag, — the eternal "snake fence." But, on the. more finished 
farms, and generally about the house, this gives way to post and 
rail. For making the post-holes, they have an earth-auger (Fig. 3), 
which is a great assistance in stiff clay and tenacious soils. 
For mortising the posts themselves they use a boring-machine 
(Fig. 4), worked by handles at right angles to the tool, to which 
the motion is imparted by bevelled wheels : this greatly facilitates 
the labour of boring. The carpenter lays the post down, kneels 
on the framework of the borer, and turns the handles, one with' 
each hand : it saves the screwing round of the wrist and laborious 
pressure, the leverage giving great aid to the workman, and the 
tool cannot but go straight through the wood. This instrument 
is much used for boring the bolt-holes in railway sleepers after 
they are laid down. 
There is besides this a complete portable mortising-machine, 
worked by hand or foot. The tenoning-machine is another imple- 
ment of this class, for which mankind is indebted to American 
invention. Timber fences, which are so much the most readily 
formed on first clearing the farm, have been perpetuated mainly 
Fig. G. - Tig. 4. 
During nmcbine. 
