Field Gates. 
43 
as it should be done, are considerations which render such work 
more and more difficult in view of the diminishing income 
derivable from agricultural land. 
It is of vital importance to use seasoned timber. To paint 
unseasoned timber, especially oak, is to induce decay ; good 
oak and larch — not any larch, but good larch — stand well with- 
out paint. If Baltic red deal has to be purchased, it is a good 
investment to creosote it. Mere steeping the timber in the 
liquid at the estate yard is of small use. The operation should 
be done at the timber-yard where the timber is purchased, and 
where it is cut to its proper sizes (no estate saw-mill ought to 
be used to cut imported timber). Creosote has now been in use 
for forty years with growing acceptance and fast-extending ap- 
plication. Too little of it is yet seen on estates. It has a field 
before it in meeting the possible requirements of the “ Small 
Holdings Act.” 
In the process of creos.oting, the timber is placed in an 
air-tight cylinder and is first acted upon by an exhaust pump, 
causing a vacuum which, to a very considerable extent, withdraws 
the sap, and otherwise prepares the fibres of the wood to receive 
the creosote, which is then run into the cylinder, and a pressure 
of about 140 lb. to the square inch is exerted. This' forces the 
creosote into the pores, and through the timber, at the rate of 
from 35 to 50 gallons for 50 cubic ft. of timber, some specifi- 
cations being as high as 1 gallon to a cubic foot. Creosote is 
distilled coal-tar. 
Little is gained by creosoting oak. Its fibre is unsuitable, 
as is that of pitch pine, and even Baltic white wood is not very 
suitable. 
Oak is the best timber for gate-making ; ash is good, espe- 
cially for rails, but when clean enough for gates it usually 
commands too high a price for such use. Matured larch from a 
heavy soil ranks next to oak in tenacity of fibre and wear. Young 
larch and Scotch fir, as usually found in England, and spruce, 
poplar, and lime, are not worth the cost of labour. Pitch pine is 
extensively used. It is short in the grain, and liable to snap 
from a kick or strain. It is a timber best used in an exposed 
dry situation and under cover. If Baltic red wood is used, it 
should be of the best quality and clean. 
There are gates of cleft oak which challenge the life of any 
made from sawn timber. Only good oak of straight fibre is 
selected to be cleft. Cleaving leaves the fibre less open to 
atmospheric attack than sawing does. The writer has records 
of gates of sawn oak being in use sixty years, and he has an 
authenticated record of gates of cleft oak lasting fifty years. 
