190 



large, lie finds it virtually covered ■with fences, looking more like a " -wind- 

 fall" or "slashing" than a cultivated landscajie of growing crops "of 

 varied hue." 



The " no fence scheme " is not a new idea, even in this country. The 

 'doctrine has been ably advocated by some of the most popular Agri- 

 ■cultural Journals in the East and South, and practical farmers of high 

 standing for intelligence and acute perception, have advocated it, and to 

 some extent successfully. In Massachusetts there are laws requiring the 

 owners of animals to restrain them to their own premises. When the 

 legislature of that State passed the law, many considered it an experi- 

 ment of doubtful utility, and it was believed also by many, that the 

 people would never sustain it. Time has settled the question, and the 

 ■enactment of the legislature has been triumphantly sustained by the 

 people, and they now, in that State, enjoy the privilege of " every man 

 EJtting under his own vine and fig tree, and none to molest him or compel 

 him to build fence." They rejoice in the improvement, and recommend 

 jt to others as the thing needed. Circumstances, perhaps, in Massa- 

 chusetts, had as much to do in bringing about the reform, as discussion 

 and argument. Large tracts of land lying along the Connecticut River, 

 varying in width from two miles to eight miles, were subject to the 

 annual freshets or overflowings of the river, which rendered permanent 

 fencing impossible. Those lands were too valuable to lie idle, and for 

 this cause such a law as was needed for that portion of the State, was 

 enacted as a general law, thus making not only their lands valuable, but 

 benefitting the entire State in an incalculable degree. Shall Wisconsin 

 follow the example of Massachusetts ? Nature has not only intimated 

 the propriety, but to a very great extent, seemed determined to coerce 

 the farmer into the adoption of the measure by the sparseness of timber, 

 and absence of other suitable material for fencing. Here, also, nature 

 Las given us a model country, a perfect specimen of landscape gardening. 

 What the nobility of England expend their millions to procure, even on a 

 small scale, here in Wisconsin, nature has given us, on her most magnifi- 

 cent plan. Here we have park scenery, without any eff"ort of our own, 

 and in such exquisite perfection, that we may not put forth a rude hand 

 to mar its beauty. 



What grouping of trees ! What splendid lawns ! What interspersing 

 of flowers and shrubs ! Now, shall we act the part of the Vandal, and 

 deface and cut up this beautiful scenery, by our unsightly zigzag bul- 



