Yesterday's common
sense ideas to help you maintain and enjoy your country home,
garden, landscape and property.
From The Cultivator, 1845
Posts for fences or other purposes, set into the ground, will last
double the length of time by being put into the middle of the
hole. The space around the post filled with small stones instead
of earth, the earth does not come in contact with the post, and
air is also admitted into the hole, both of which probably tend to
prevent decay. In constructing fences, the earth taken from the
hole is placed directly under the line of the fence, thus forming
a ridge which is a saving equal to twelve feet of boards in four
lengths of fence. The stones should be raised three or four inches
around the post above the surface of the ground. The posts will
not be very firm at first, but after standing through one winter
their firmness will be much increased, and will continue to
increase for several years.
A post and rail fence constructed in this way forty-five years
since, in the vicinity of Boston, is now standing, with the
exception of one post, and will probably stand a dozen years more.
