20 BOARD OF AQRICULTDRE. 



which divided among the seventy thousand farms of the State, 

 niuke the average first cost $677, and the annual cost of keeping 

 in repair, &c., $100 each. 



In n)y estimate of cost I shall assume that the land occupied by 

 useless fence is quite an item. Let us see how much. The same 

 authority quoted several times before, viz : farmers in different 

 sections, uniformly allow that ten per cent, of their partition fences 

 can well be abandoned. Adding this to the seven-eights of road 

 fences which ought to be removed, and we have 10,410,610 rods 

 of fence not needed, occupying or destroying the utih'ty of soil 

 eight or more feet wide. But for convenience we will call it half a 

 rod wide, equal to 5,205,305 rods, or 32,533 acres, worth certainly 

 on an average $30 per acre, or $975,990 in round numbers. I 

 deem no recapitulation of the above necessary, as my figures are 

 all very plain, right or wrong. 



I may be allowed to digress a little here. In yesterday's dis- 

 cussions very little of anything was said in relation to the manner 

 in which these useless highway fences may be got rid of. Now it 

 is well known that quite a large part of such fence is composed 

 wholly or in part of stones, and I suggest that the practical way, 

 in fact the only correct way to dispose of them, where drainage 

 will be a benefit, is to put tliem into well made drains, where they 

 should have gone in the first place, thus giving the owner several 

 acres of new or virgin soil. One more suggestion and I am done. 

 Some exceptions were taken to the statistics presented yesterday 

 by the gentleman from Kennebec, (Mr. Getchell). Now the more 

 I examine this matter the more I am convinced that my figures 

 are not large enough, neither are his ; or, in other words, although 

 our estimates look large, they are inside the facts. 



