240 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



regarded it an expensive, wasteful and troublesome fence. In way 



of comparison he says, '"In France there is not enough fencing to 



suit our wants ; in England there is too much." (New York State 



Agricultural Report, 1862.) 



In 1879, Richard Grant White contril)uted to the Atlantic 



Monthly a series of articles on rural affairs in England, in which 



appears the following : 



"The notion that the hedge is the universal fence in England is erroneous. Even 

 in the south, where hedges are most common, post and rail fences are even more com- 

 mon; for the hedge is used chiefly on the road-litio, and to mark tho more important 

 divisions of property. Elsewhere, post and rail fences and palings are frequently 

 found. The hedges that line the road are generally not more than three and a half 

 feet high, and are not thick, but grow so thin and hungrily that the light shines 

 through them. Near houses, especially in suburban places, brick walls are common; 

 and I observed in these a fact which seemed significant. In most cases I saw that the 

 walls in such places had been raised by an addition of some three feet. The upper 

 courses of bricks were plainly discernible to be of a different make from that of the 

 original wall, and the joint and the newer mortar could easily be detected. This 

 seemed to show, unmistiikahly, an increase in the feeling of reserve, and perhaps in 

 the necessity for it. The walls that would sufficiently exclude the public a hundred 

 years and more ago, wore found insufficient, and some fifty years ago (for even the 

 top courses were old, and well set, and mossy) the barriers were made higher, — high 

 enough to be screens against all passing eyes." 



These latter statements are significant as showing that the fence 

 principle is still strong in England, that the system of exclusiveness 

 is still a British land home characteristic, which has honestly enough 

 come to us, English by descent in this countr}'. 



It was in the earl}' period of the system of land enclosure, as dear 

 to British born, and emphatic in its development as above described, 

 that English settlements in America began. There was a pride in 

 exclusive possession of soil, and a wilderness for its gratification 

 and emplojment. The first comers had too much to do with far 

 too slender resources to make a headlong resort to fences. They 

 made a trial of the open field in Ply mouth, as told in the preamble 

 of their earliest Fence law : 



Whereas, in tho beginning and first planting of the colony, it was ordered that al^ 

 should plant their corn, Ac, as neere as might be to the town of Plymouth aforesaid, 

 and for that end, an acre of land was allowed and allotted to each person for 

 their private use, and so to them and their heirs forever, and whereas the said 

 acres lay open without inclosure, divers laws and orders have been made to prevent 

 such damage as might befal the whole by kine, swine, goats, Ac, that so by herding 

 or other causes, men's labors might be preserved, and such damage or loss as fell upon 

 any, to bo made good by tho owners ol tho same cattlo trespassing. But since the 

 said acres are for tho most part worn out, and cattle by God's blessing abundantly 

 increasing, and necessity constraining to inclose elsewhere, it was thought meet, at a 



