Field Gates. 
shoulder upon it comes against the head, and as the gate closes it 
x’ises on the slope of the catch and falls into the notch like an 
ordinary latch of the kind. In some cases, the shaft of the crook 
passes through a mortise through the top rail. The iron staple 
on the side of the rail is to be preferred. These good old oak 
bars and catches hold the field against hosts of new appliances. 
If, where they are used, a double fastener is required for cattle, 
an iron hasp fastened to the post and falling over one of the rails 
(fig. 15) is a perfect fastener. If the gate 
is hanging badly, and down at the point, 
this hasp is not easily lifted by the hunting- 
crop, but there is no good fastener for a 
gate hanging badly. 
It will prove an interesting and useful 
reference to stamp on each gate the year 
when made. This is done on a few carefully 
managed estates, and is preferable to another 
practice, that of having a number on the 
gate corresponding with that in a written 
record of age and other particulars. 
A great deal of injury is done to the 
gates of pasture fields by the animals rubbing 
themselves against them. Much of this could be prevented, 
and fences and park trees be protected at the same time, if 
posts were set up for the animals to rub against. This is 
not uncommon in Scotland — cynics say for another use. It 
is a merciful provision as well as a useful one, and any inter- 
ruption to haymaking is only what is met with from park trees. 
Iron Gates. 
Iron field gates have been long in use, but, except in parks, 
they are not common, and may therefore be supposed not to be 
favourites. It is difficult to discover why this is so, especially 
as the price of steel and iron is now not a barrier to their use. 
Nor is it the lack of enterprise on the part of firms working in 
iron. Home-grown timber which can be made into gates by 
labour, which has had to be employed in rural parts, has some- 
thing to do with this, so has the difficulty of finding country 
smiths who can repair a damaged gate ; for an inj ured iron gate 
is not easily put right. And it has often happened that a cheap 
gate, made of inferior iron, and hung on light posts with poor 
ground-fixings, has been tried and failed. Yet a much higher 
percentage of iron gates will be found that have far outlived 
