Fig. 145.—A Clean Watering Place.
Cattle naturally select a certain place in a water-course to drink at, where the bank is not precipitous. During a good part of the year this bank is muddy, on account of its moisture and trampling of the animals. As a result, the horses get the scratches, the cows come to the milking pen with muddy udders, and frequently animals are injured by the crowding in the mud. Hogs are often seriously injured, because the mud becomes so deep and tough, that they are well nigh helpless in it. Another objection is that the animals wade to the middle of the creek, and soon make its bottom as muddy as the bank, and the water becomes unfit for drinking. The arrangement shown in our illustration, which may be built of heavy plank, brick, or flat stones, prevents all this. It is constructed by first making an incline to a level platform for the animals to stand on while drinking. This plane terminates in an abrupt descent, forming a trough for the water to flow through. The trough should not be more than two feet wide, that the animals may easily get across it. The level floor permits the animals to drink at their ease, often a matter of importance. Such a drinking place should be made at the upper end of the creek, where it passes through a field to prevent the animals from soiling the water by standing in it above where they drink.
CHAPTER X.
MAKING AND SETTING POSTS.
MAKING FENCE POSTS.
Fig. 146.
Fig. 147.
There is quite an art in splitting logs into posts. Every post should have some heart wood, which lasts the longer, for two reasons: That there may be durable wood into which to drive the nails, and without it some of the posts, composed entirely of sap-wood, will rot off long before others, making the most annoying of all repairing necessary. If the log is of a size to make twelve posts, split along the lines of [figure 146], which will give each post a share of heart wood. This will make a cross section of the posts triangular, the curved base being somewhat more than half of either side. This is a fairly well shaped post, and much better than a square one having little or no heart wood. Although the log may be large enough to make sixteen or eighteen posts, it is better to split it the same way. It should first be cut into halves, then quarters, then twelfths. If it is attempted to split one post off the side of a half, the wood will “draw out,” making the post larger at one end than the other—not a good shape, for there will be little heart wood at the small end. When the log is too large to admit of it being split in that way, each post may nevertheless be given enough heart wood by splitting along the lines, shown in [figure 147]. First cut the logs into halves, then quarters, then eighths. Then split off the edge of each eighth, enough for a post—about one-fourth only of the wood, as it is all heart wood, and then halve the balance. A good post can be taken off the edge, and yet enough heart wood for the remaining two posts remain.