Field Gates. 
53 
timber gates than the contrary, and this is especially true of park 
gates. 
Stone or timber posts are better adapted for iron gates than 
iron posts, as far as they have yet been produced. Iron posts, 
even more than timber posts, require to be fixed in concrete. 
It is probable that the use of iron field gates will yet 
become more general. 
Wm. C. Carnegie. 
II. 
Having for many years taken an interest infield gates, more 
particularly as used in a grazing country, I am glad to comply 
with the request of the Journal Committee to make the follow- 
ing general remarks upon them. It is curious how little has 
hitherto been written upon the subject. 1 am unaware of any 
previous paper in the Journal on Field Gates, and even that most 
voluminous of all agricultural writers, Arthur Young, was 
singularly silent on the subject ; though in The Communications 
to the Board of Ar/ricidture, of which he was secretary, there is 
an “Essay on Field Gates, by W. Salmon of Woburn, 1811.” 
Probably the most scientific work on the subject was written by 
Thomas N. Parker, M.A., in 1804, but he deals mainly with 
road gates. 
With a view of showing that, in spite of the literary neglect, 
the subject is important, I have ascertained the number of gates 
in several districts. In Cheshire, in an area of 7,175 acres, 
there are 1,839 gates, or say a gate to four acres. In Essex, on 
some 1,000 acres, I find a gate to six acres, and in Sussex on a 
similar area the result shows a gate to eight acres. Taking 
the highest figure, eight acres, it will be seen that in the 
cultivated area of Great Britain there must be many millions of 
money sunk in gates, requiring a large annual outlay for repairs 
and renewals. 
If little has been written, it would appear also that little has 
been thought about gates, in the sense that no uniform type of 
construction has been fixed upon as the best. This must be 
apparent to anyone who will take the trouble to count the 
varieties of designs to be seen in driving along the road — often 
two or three different patterns in the course of a mile, and, sad 
to say, nine out of ten dragging on the ground. 
It would appear that scientific principles of construction have 
not been considered of the first importance, but on the contrary 
have been readily abandoned if it were discovered possible to 
introduce the initial letter of the owner's name as a brace to the 
