66 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



rally reach this coast from France or Spain -within two years, or before 

 the assemblingof another Legishature. and be found in our midst destroy- 

 ing our cattle and sheep. While our State could not interfere in any 

 manner with the regulations of commerce to prevent its coming here, 

 yet we deem it important and entirely legitimate, and propose that some 

 provision be made to prevent its spreading among our herds and flocks 

 in case it should appear. The Governor might be empowered to appoint 

 a commission of scientific men, to whom any such diseases might be 

 referred, with power to act for the good of the State in case of emer- 

 gency', and thus prevent the destruction of property, or any other course 

 which the Legislature might deem advisable to secure the same object, 

 we would recommend. We think it im^iortant that some provision be 

 made by this Legislature to meet with promptness the first appearance 

 of such a malady among us. 



FENCIXG, AND GRAIN FAEMING. 



One of the most important problems which the political economist of 

 any age or country can be called upon to solve, is how to reduce to the 

 lowest practical figure the necessary expense attending the production 

 of the food and clothing for man, and the food for the domestic animals 

 he keeps in his employ. Hence, the inventor of the plough, the reaper, 

 the threshing machine, the cotton and wool gins, and other labor saving 

 machines, are counted among the benefactors 6f the human race. He 

 who, in any other manner, can show the agriculturist how he may reduce 

 his necessary expenses, without decreasing the amount of his annual pro- 

 ducts, is equally entitled to the same consideration and distinction. The 

 expense of building and maintaining fences, in comparison to the profits 

 of cropping in this State, is so great, that it becomes a matter of serious 

 consideration to the agricultural interests, whether the convenience they 

 afford is not too dearl3' bought, and whether the extra labor and expense 

 required to maintain them cannot to a great extent be dispensed with, 

 and thus add so much to the producing force of the State, or increase to 

 that extent the profits of agriculture. 



On the continent of Europe, where economy of farming has been the 

 especial study of the most practical and best business minds the world 

 has ever produced, the agriculturist has been induced to dispense with 

 the expensive practice of fencing his land. A fence, there, is the excep- 

 tion, and not the rule. The same subject is engaging the attention of the 

 best farmers and agricultural associations of the Atlantic States. Hon- 

 orable Ezra Cornell, late President of the New York State Agricultural 

 Society, and one of the best and most successful and intelligent agricul- 

 turists in that State, and who has latel}' proved his devotion to the 

 best interests of agriculture by donating half a million of dollars for the 

 establishment of an agricultural college in New York, estimates the 

 expense of sustaining the pi-esent sj'stem of fencing in that State at ten 

 million dollars per annum, and in addressing himself to the farmers, he 

 asks and answers the following pertinent questions : '• Is this a good 

 investment? Do we get a fair and full equivalent for the investment of 

 one hundred and fifty million dollars, for such it really is, as the ten mil- 

 lion dollars which we pa}- annuall}- to sustain our fences, with our farms 

 as collaterals, would secure the use of that sum by loan? I think not; 



