38 
Field Gates. 
Every estate should have its pattern of field gate — some- 
thing distinctive which tells the ownership. This is not said in 
order to excuse a had pattern, but to urge that care be taken 
to adopt what is good and then to adhere to it. 
Assistance will always be got from examining the field gates 
belonging to railway companies. The compensation which may 
have to be paid for an insecure gate demands that along railway 
lines the best only shall be in use. Railway gates are designed 
by engineers, and made by artisans from selected materials. 
A gate is a rectangular frame consisting of “ heel ” and 
“ head,” and top and bottom rails. These must be made immovable 
by introducing struts, or braces and ties. The other parts are 
only “ filling in ” to make the gate a part of the fence, or for ap- 
pearance. If the heel and top rail are mortised together, and the 
heel is hinged to a post, we have the essentials of a gate. The 
top rail is a lever, and, if loaded, it causes a cross strain on the 
rail, as at A, in fig. 1. The formula is that the top rail, being a 
lever of the first order, if 10 ft. long, and the heel 5 in. broad, 
the strain from the load will be a force twenty-four times that 
load together with the force exerted by the lever itself. By 
introducing the strut a triangle is made, and the effect is changed, 
for the load produces compression in the strut and tension in 
the top rail. The effect of the tension is, practically, to tear the 
tenon and mortise apart, and in a gate this must be met by the 
tail of the top hinge crossing the joint and passing along the 
rail, all being held together by the bolts, or by some other ex- 
pedient. The compression in the line of the strut makes the 
bottom hinge a mere abutment on the post. So long as the 
triangle is held immovable at the angles the length of the strut 
is immaterial, but in practice it is not wise to make the strut 
extend from heel to head. 
The illustration in fig. 1 is that of a Warwickshire gate, 
