CATTLE FOODS. 



39 



road. A case of my own may illustrate the point. A neigh])or, 

 some years ago, was in the habit of turning his animals into the 

 street to eat the grass growing on his own side, but the cattle find- 

 ing that insufficient, or liking that by ni}- fields better, were repeat- 

 edly- straying, and frequentlj' came inside through an}- open gate or 

 other entrance into m}- garden and fields. Finding that driving the 

 cattle home did little good, I unhung m}- roadside gates, pulled up 

 all the bar posts, loaded the bars upon a wagon and carried all to the 

 wood pile, selecting the best of course, for use in the pasture fences. 

 No words were spoken, no notices posted up, nor any threats made, 

 but not a hoof from that neighbor's stock has troubled me since ; 

 and now other neighbors are dispensing with their roadside fences, 

 though not to the commendable extent I find here in some of your 

 towns. 



In this connection let us imagine what is the moral effect upon 

 those who build them, especially of fences around our village lots, 

 where there is nothing to fence out. Do we mean to give our neigh- 

 bors to understand that our yards are our castles, and that whoever 

 sets foot therein without permission may be kicked out ? Do we 

 need expensive picket fences all around our half acre or quarter 

 lots, to mark their boundary lines ? How much neater does a village 

 look, where there are no fences between lots of the different proprie- 

 tors ; how much more like an extensive lawn or park, all dotted 

 over b}- tast}- homes ! The corner of a fence affords a great temp- 

 tation to use it as a depositor}- for rubbish of all kinds, old boots, 

 broken crockery, disabled furniture, etc., and on farms, as a recep- 

 tacle for worn out implements, old wheels and the like. 



I have seen both methods tried in villages, and I find that where 

 fences are dispensed with, both boundary and roadside, that the 

 surroundings are almost invariablj- kept neat and tid}-. A habit of 

 neatness comes naturall}-, and it is contagious too. 



Now, b}' depending less upon pastures for our stock, and more 

 upon crops grown specially for feeding at the l>arn, (and all such crops 

 should be fed at the barn) we will gradually learn to dispense with 

 a verj- large proportion of the fences we now deem necessary, and 

 thus greatly lighten the burthen of taxation. The saving of manure 

 is also an item of no small account, when considering this matter of 

 doubling our stock and increasing our profits. 



Manure, either solid or licpiid, dropped by cattle in wooded 

 pastures, mirey swamps or barren hillsides, is of little value to the 



