DISCUSSION ON FENCES AND FENCINQ. l\ 



is duo to the fact that it costs too much to grow our corn, wlicat 

 and hay. 



Now one of tlic great costs of production bearing so heavily 

 upon the agriculture of Maine, lies in its fences. We can produce 

 statistics of a. character which no man can doubt, showing that 

 to-day we are maintaining in Maine four or five thousand miles 

 of useless fences. Now reduce that number of miles to rods, and 

 put these at $1 per rod. Take this to the farmers of Maine, and 

 show them what they are taxed simply to support useless fences. 



I notice that in this town the fences are largely board and rail. 

 In our section fortunately we have some cedar. When I became 

 the owner of a farm I could buy the best cedar rails at from $8 to 

 $10 per hundred. Now the railroads can come iu and pay prices 

 the farmers cannot afford to pay ; and now second growth cedar 

 rails cost from $12 to $14 per hundred. Now what will it cost 

 to fence a farm twenty years hence ? We have a right to suppose 

 that prices of fencing materials will continue to increase and that 

 it will cost double what it does at the present time. Now this is 

 a question that comes home and addresses itself to the farmer. 

 Here we have a burden that is bearing like a dead weight on the 

 prosperity of Maine ; it is yearly increasing, and is doing more 

 than any other one agency in driving our young men to people 

 the west. More than once members of this Board have presented 

 this question to the legislature with all the ability that they could 

 command, and asked for a remedy ; but we have failed to impress 

 upon that august body its importance. This very winter the 

 question has been presented in this form : Will you rid us of the 

 useless line fences ? and after a full examination and recommen- 

 dation of the Committee we have received the cold response of a 

 " right to withdraw." 



President Allex. A few years ago the fences spoken of as 

 unnecessary were removed from the College farm at Orono. A 

 few facts are worth more than all our theories in regard to the con- 

 sequences which result from taking this step. The cost of fencing 

 I suppose will be presented hereafter. There are some considera- 

 tions, such as the cost of having more or less land on each side of 

 our fences producing weeds, thistles and all these other things 

 which are a detriment to the farm, and which require so much 

 labor to exterminate them ; and the cost of breaking out our roads 

 in winter, which are filled with snow drifted in in consequence of 

 the road fences. Many things are preserved for their beauty as 



