<( 

 << 



STATISTICS OF FENCING. 9 



the State both in area and population, an agricultural town with 

 no villages and no surplus of roads, has about sixty miles of road, 

 requiring one hundred and twenty miles of fence. Deducting 

 from this twenty per cent, for the small portion unfenced, leaves 

 in round numbers one hundred miles of road fence per town. But 

 considering that city and village fences are excluded, and all the 

 sparsely settled sections of the State included in this estimate, 

 we make a further discount of twenty per cent, from the above 

 figures, which gives 80 miles of actual road fence per town. 

 This, multiplied by 420 — the number of towns in the State — 

 makes 33, GOO miles, or 10,752,000 rods of road fence iu the entire 

 State. Accepting these estimates, we have of 



Division or line fences 15,600,000 rods. 



Partition fences 15,000,000 



Koad fences 10,752,000 



Making a total of 41,952,000 rods, or 131,000 miles. 



I will also mention, although not being an actual direct tax 

 upon the farmer, that there are about one thousand miles of rail- 

 road in the State requiring two thousand miles offence. Admit- 

 ing that this great amount of fence has to be repaired every year, 

 and rebuilt every generation — imposing a large annual tax upon 

 every land owner for labor and material — the question forcibly 

 presents itself to us : Cannot a portion of these fences be dis- 

 pensed with? We do not present the "no fence" system as 

 being new and better than the good old ways of our fathers, but 

 rather that our present wants and resources demand a change in 

 the direction of economy. 



With the pioneer farmers of our State fence material cost noth- 

 ing. With farms to clear of stumps and stones and wood, it was 

 rather an incumbrance to bo got rid of. Since their day all mate- 

 rial has increased in value many fold, and farm labor increased in 

 price and deteriorated in quality. The number of improved acres 

 has increased in much greater proportion than our farm stock ; 

 our cattle remain in the stable a greater portion of the year than 

 formerly, and are more domestic in their habits. These and many 

 other facts go to show that the time has come when the system 

 inaugurated by the pioneers of our State, and followed since their 

 day with little or no change, should receive such modification as 

 our changed condition and circumstances require. 



