13 BDARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and I defy any raan to find the case where they do not enjoy better 

 protection after doing it than they did before. I had it proved on 

 my own farm. Unfortunately for me, there are three miles on it 

 where once was old fence. Of course some of that land is remote 

 from the residence of the proprietor ; and occasionally these fences 

 were not in repair, for, as the gentleman from St. Albans says, 

 they are not kept up if they pretend to keep them np. Some of 

 the neighbors liked to have their cattle crop the luxuriant herbage 

 by the roadside, and coming into possession, I found that the 

 cattle were not always satisfied with what was on the roadside. 

 I did not feel myself able to keep up these fences, and so I just 

 removed them ; the consequence was that not one of these fields 

 was trespassed upon, and the harvest upon them is as valuable 

 as those raised about the buildings. 



Mr. IIiGHT. In reply to the criticism of the gentleman from 

 Orono, I would say that I went to the Census Report for my 

 information. The census return saj'S that the number of acres of 

 occupied land in the State is 6,000,000. We are not obliged to 

 fence our roads, but we are obliged to fence our occupied lands; 

 and if, as he saj's, we don't fence entirely round them, it is making 

 a bad matter worse, for if we don't fence them we are liable for 

 the consequences. 



Hon. C. J. Oilman. In relation to driving herds of cattle? 



Mr. Gilbert. The road leading past my premises to Lisbon, 

 following down the river, is a leading highway through the county, 

 and one on which nearly or quite every week during the seasoa 

 cattle are driven to market. Many of the proprietors along that 

 highway are removing their road fences and no inconvenience 

 whatever has ever been experienced from the removal on that 

 account. The cattle can be easily driven provided they are prop- 

 erly cared for, and if there are fences the cattle are carelessly 

 driven. Every da3' in the summer I drive my herd of cattle, vary- 

 ing in numbers, past a field which borders on the highway, where 

 no fence has been maintained since I came there. Of twenty head 

 of cattle driven there not once during the summer did one of them 

 step over the ditch or inside the field. 



