Field Gates. 
47 
method, not too expensive, that is least dependent on energy 
and care. If the hanging post (that to which the gate is hinged) 
is not practically immovable, the gate cannot be well hinged. 
Such a method is concreting, either with ground lias lime or 
Portland cement, mixed with sharp sand and clean broken bricks 
or stones. The preference should be given to a mixture con- 
sisting of one part of Portland cement, one of sand, and six or 
seven of stones. This concrete, rammed round the post to a 
thickness of from 5 to 7 inches or more — the shorter the ground - 
hold the thicker the mass of concrete must be — and grouted 
with a finer concrete on the top, will hold a post as in a vice. 
The expense will be partly met in the saving of labour of digging 
deep holes and in the length of the post, which need not be more 
than 27 inches into the ground. There is one risk. If an un- 
seasoned post is used, shrinkage will leave an inlet for water 
between the concrete and post, which, being held, will cause 
wet rot. This can be obviated by placing a layer of broken 
stones at the bottom of the hole to act as drainage for such 
moisture. A similar fixing may be got by filling up round the 
post with rough masonry and running in liquid cement. A 
proper section for sawn gate posts is : for the “ hanging ” post, 
8 in. by 9 in. ; and for the “ folding’ post, 7 in. by 8 in. The 
length in the ground must be such as the nature of the ground 
and method for fixing require. 
The writer has made many inquiries in widely separated 
districts as to the action of soils on timber. The diversity of 
information supplied points to chemical analysis as being the 
only path to definite conclusions. On the whole, the evidence 
is in favour of a retentive clay as the soil which best preserves 
timber. 
Blue clay is reported by one observer to preserve all timber 
touching it ; but yellow clay, on the same estate, to cause decay. 
One estate agent finds his gate posts last longer in chalk than in 
clay. Another finds them last longer, and come up at the end 
more sound, in lias clay than in “ Brash ” (oolite). Another 
tells of a deep gravel bed in which oak posts soon decay, but in 
deep loam, where the water will stand 12 inches deep in the hole 
made for the post, the timber below this water-line never decays, 
and decays much more slowly at the ground-line than on the 
gravel. A squad of railway men, putting up a wire fence with 
creosoted posts, were recently asked their observations. All 
were at one that timber lasted much longer in their Oxford clay 
than in their gravel ; that though the difference of decay in the 
ground was not very noticeable, it was much more rapid at 
the ground-line on gravel. A report from Perthshire is that 
