FARM FENCES, 249 



report of 3oiu- Board in 18G0, it cost $150,000 to open snow block- 

 ades in your winter highways caused by the fences in common use. 



5. It can be used to make old fences effective, and can be exactly 

 adapted to the farmer's needs. Thus one wire attached to trees is 

 doing good service on thousands of acres of New England hill 

 pastures, and is perfectly effective against larger beasts. By in- 

 creasing the number of strands complete security can be given to 

 the choicest enclosures. Fruit, poultry, and gardens are safe, and 

 the sheep may be kept in safety from the mutton-loving dog, either 

 in the pasture or the fold. 



6^ It is imperishable. It cannot be burned down, blown over, 

 washed away, or stolen for kindling stuff. 



7. It makes the farmer's fields safe, and is not a popular fence 

 with summer boarders and c;ross country strollers. Advertisements 

 of quack medicines cannot be painted upon it. 



I find only one closing consideration regarding Barb Wire fencing 

 which may rest in some of your minds. Is it a cruel fence ? It 

 cannot part with tlie feature of sharp barbs. The animal w^iose 

 sensitiveness of skin is a protection to himself, must be warned, and 

 that instantly. If he derives only a pleasant satisfaction in the 

 scratching he covets, it will be bad for your fence. All attempts at 

 Barb Wire that does not prick are sure to be disappointing failures. 



This challenge as to its inhumanity was the first opposed to the 

 use of Barb Wire. The figures that show its steadily increasing 

 adoption are a sufficient answer to the charge. But it has been most 

 formally answered by a thorough trial by newspapers, by several 

 prominent and careful hearings before State legislatures, by meetings 

 of farmers, and by the efforts of some of the officers of Humane 

 Societies, who have sought the fullest light on the question. It is 

 everywhere a legal fence. It could not have become, or remained so, 

 but for its fully demonstrated utility. 



But the introduction of Barb Wire as a fence material, with its 

 cheapness and universal availability, has wrought some broad 

 changes which here may be the place to record. A few years ago 

 the great cattle ranges of the Southwest and far West, in regions 

 denuded of trees, from their great area and the roving nature of 

 their occupancy, seemed to be the impregnable home of the no-fence 

 theory. No one thought fencing a practicable question, and those 

 certainly thought it least desirable who, owning only cattle, enjoyed 

 free range for them without wish or care to own the land. All this 



