and put up their own gates, various designs are illustrated. Fig. 1 shows plan of a cheap and durable farm gate. The hinge post is 4x4, the head a piece of 2x4. The balance is made of six inch fence boards, with a wire at the top. The mode of hanging is cheap, and far more durable than the ordinary hinges. The lower hinge is an eye bolt, the eye of which is three inches in diam eter, and made of inch-iron. Bore a hole in center of gate post and drive into the eye. Then round the 4x4 piece until it will slip in the eye. The upper hinge is a piece of band iron, or a piece of wagon tire as the best and most durable. Cut a Itch in the front side of the 4x4 for it to turn in. Then bend in shape to fit the notch, and draw back on gate post as far as necessary, and pass a bolt through the holes made in the iron, and bolt fast to the post. This mode of hanging is far better than hinges, for the reason is used altogether too much, using a rail or post for a brace at the corners, with a stake driven in the ground to hold it, is a very poor plan, for when the stake gives out the wires pull the post over and that lets it all loose. It stands to reason that a poorly stretched wire fence is al most as bad as no fence at all.
that the post will not split. The gate of Fig. 2
is built the same as in Fig. 1, except that it is half wire, which makes it lighter and cheaper. In place of the wooden braces as in Fig. 1, it has a wire brace running from the bottom of the gate in front, to top of 4x4, which has a small eye-bolt that the wire is fastened into, so that it can be drawn up with a wrench, to take the sag out of the gate when necessary. The wire is stapled every place where it crosses in contact with the wood. Fig. 3 shows a light and durable slide gate. It is made entirely of fence boards and wire. In Fig. 1 is also shown a good plan of bracing wire fences next to gates. The posts are eight feet apart, one board from the bottom of gate post to top of first post is all that is necessary, brit it requires two boards from bottom of first post to top of gate post (one on each side to keep the gate post from twist ing) as the-wires will pull it around if strained tight. Then nail one board from top of, first post to bottom of second. Then by bracing every fifteen or twenty rods, as shown in Fig. 4, and the corners as shown in Fig. 5, you have a wire fence that will remain as tight as when first built. The old-fashioned way of bracing which