Q BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



regard to the arrangemeut. Material was plenty and division 

 fences, under the custom then in vogue of feeding the fields in 

 autumn, were deemed convenient, so the clearings were divided 

 into enclosures. After the stumps had decayed and the plow was 

 taken to the fields, it became necessary to remove the rocks from 

 the surface. These were heavy to draw, the oxen were light, and 

 it was the most natural thing in the world to dump them down 

 into a cheap wall just where the old log fence was rotting down, 

 and just where in too many cases we find the old tumble-down 

 walls to-day. There was no laying out of the farm into fields — no 

 calculation about it. These arrangements, or rather lack of 

 arrangement, grew naturally out of the conditions by which the 

 early farmers were surrounded. We now occupy those farms, 

 and having become accustomed to the arrangements, are indiffer- 

 ent to their inconvenience, and apparently do not realize that 

 their beauty is in any way marred. We are far more at fault than 

 were those who did the work for us. In these matters, as in much 

 of our farming, we adhere to that which has been handed down to 

 us from a former period. It is extremely hard for us in any direc- 

 tion to break away from the old ruts. We can hardly tell why 

 this is so, and in many cases do not know that we are controlled 

 by any such influences. 



The laying out and dividing of farms is a subject which may 

 well claim the careful attention of every land holder ; and this 

 Board can do no better service than to direct some of its talent to 

 its consideration, that the attention of farmers may be called to it. 

 There is a wide field for influence, and the beauty and value of our 

 farms might thereby be greatly enhanced. Our farms have been 

 reclaimed from the forest — the fields for the most part have been 

 cleared and smoothed. Now, shall improvements stop here ? If 

 we intend to live and labor upon the farm during life, let us fit it 

 for the purpose by attention to matters for which our fathers had 

 not the time. It was theirs to reclaim and subdue — it is ours to 

 beautif}', adorn and arrange. Thus each generation would leave 

 its heritage better fitted for that which is to follow. It is largely 

 a matter of education, and to whom does it more fittingly belong 

 to introduce the first principles of this education than to this 

 Board of Agriculture, to whom are intrusted the wants, present 

 and prospective, of the agriculture of our time ? 



Gentlemen, the part assigned me in the general topic of Fences 

 and Fencing in the published programme was denominated the 



