246 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



recognized the ring fence and fencing in common, as in broad meadow 

 liottoms liable to be swept by freshets. 



Upon such as these in summer time in the valley of the Saco, or 

 from Mount Holyoke overlooking the meadows of Hadley and 

 Northani[)ton. the pleased ej'e of the traveller rests delightfully 

 while he wonders, if he be a no fence theorist, why the rule is not 

 universal. Because the necessity is not universal. 



While I respectt the theory I do not for myself favor the universal 

 open park system for our homes. I believe the shelter of the fence 

 will be coveted b}- American owners of cherished home possessions 

 as lono; as there are American homes, and if I did not believe in it I 

 should find it less easy to account for the persistency of the practice. 



Much has been gained bj' the fence discussion of the past thirty 

 j-ears, but they have not changed or shaken the essential facts and 

 features of American homo and farm fencing. 



A word as to the waste of timber, hitherto our chief resort in fence 

 material. No topic of the time excites so universal or more needed 

 interest than the destruction of our forests. Reliable estimates tell 

 us that the vast resources of the upper lake and upper Mississippi 

 pine regions, at present rate of consumption, will disappear in twenty 

 years. In the heart of Vermont the traveller on the road from White 

 River Junction to Montpelier traverses a forest wilderness that seems 

 to the eye exhaustless, but recent careful statistics show that it will 

 last ten years as at present being drawn upon. Your own State 

 makes no better showing for a limited future. Lumbermen are 

 already commencing to count anxiously'. But if we must have 

 fences, repeating what has alread3' been quoted from widel}- apart 

 authorities, there must be "some other material." 



And it is impossible not to see that a large and appreciable relief has 

 been brought in the advent of a new fence material. I do not 

 appear in the interest of the manufacturer when I bring into its 

 place in this discussion the facts of Barb Wire. The material as a 

 market staple gives these striking figures rendered in miles of 

 finished three strand fence. 



Amount of Barb Wire in Use. 



Amounting in 1874 to 10 miles. 



" in 1875 to GOO " 



" in 1870 to 2,.S40 " 



" in 1877 to 12,8G3 " 



" in 1878 to 26,655 " 



