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say that the fences of this State have cost more money than the gross 

 proceeds of all the surplus agricultural products of the State, up to the 

 present time. That a certain amount of fencing is necessary, no one 

 "will deny, but that a system of such intolerable inconvenience and 

 expense should be prolonged and voluntarily persevered in, is unaccount- 

 _able and absurd. 



The worst feature in the system, and that which should stamp it with 

 ^unmeasured condemnation, is its injustice, inequality, and oppression. 

 Men can endure taxation, and burdensome taxation too, if they feel that 

 it falls equally upon the commonwealth ; that the burden is equitably 

 divided, and that one pays no more than another, according to his ability 

 to pay. But when a tax is imposed u]:on one part of community for the 

 benefit of another part ; when A. is largely taxed for the benefit of B. 

 exclusively, then it is that "forbearance ceases to be a virtue ;" then it is 

 that men arouse, under ordinary circumstances, and look after their rights ; 

 and are sensitive in regard to them. Our present fencing system falls 

 but little short of being a case precisely analagous to the one supposed 

 above. Take an illustration : A. is a Avealthy man just come to Wiscon- 

 sin to embark in agricultural pursuits ; he looks about and concludes, 

 from what he can learn, that the country holds out unusual inducements 

 for stock raising, wool growing, dairying, &c. ; he purchases a farm 

 "With a view to the carrying on those branches of agriculture. He needs 

 but a trifling outlay in fencing, of course, for there is a wide "range" 

 for his stock, during the grazing part of the season, at least, and perhaps 

 they can shirk for themselves, he thinks, for a large portion of the 

 winter. His purchases are accordingly made and his stock turned out 

 upon the common, and little more attention is required on his part; 

 *' but what is sport to him is death to his neighbors;" for they being 

 poor men, or men of moderate means, unable to purchase stock, are 

 compelled to turn their attention to grain raising. Now it would seem 

 but reasonable that they should enjoy the privilege of doing so, but 

 our laws and usages, strange as it might appear, say that these neigh- 

 bors of A. must first make "a good and lawful fence, at least four and 

 a half feet high," or their grain crops will be "free plunder" for A's. 

 horses and cows. Thus these men are forced to incur the expense of 

 fencing their fields, not for their own, but for the direct benefit of A. 

 If our laws compelled, as they should do, A. to take care of his stock, 

 either by fencing or herding, if he chose to turn his attention to stock 



