FENCES AND FENCING. 3 



ning through all points of the compass, and the enclosures en- 

 tirely without form, plan or system. The fields are fenced up 

 into small areas, the pastures are divided, the highways carefully 

 fenced in — hedged in we might say in many cases — the garden is 

 fenced up, and the back yard and the door yard. In the villages 

 spacious grounds and seven by nine lots alike are fenced in, 

 picketed, palissaded, cribbed up, choked and stifled by the irre- 

 sistible fence. All taste, beauty and convenience is sedulously 

 fenced out. IVfost of these fences on the farm and in the village 

 are costly, and those whose first cost was light are expensive to 

 keep in repair. Many valuable farms may be found, in good con- 

 dition, and on which are good stands of buildings, which are 

 worth little more at the present time than the fences on the same 

 have cost. 



Now it is claimed — it is believed — that many of these fences 

 are useless. Yes, more ; it is belieVed they are an incumbrance 

 to the land. Many of them were not needed as permanent struc- 

 tures when they were built, and others have become useless which 

 might for a brief time have been needed. A vast saving in the 

 aggregate to the present occupants of these lands would be made, 

 were these useless fences removed where they would no longer 

 occupy valuable land and be an obstruction to the economical 

 working of the farm, or were they placed in a condition where there 

 would be no further outlay for their repairs. In expressing these 

 views, it is not claimed that we who entertain them have grown 

 wise above those who have preceded us. Much of the fence now 

 claimed to be worse than useless was believed by those who built 

 them to be necessary. Indeed, to them, with the manners and 

 customs and ideas then prevailing, they were necessary. The 

 laws of the land may not have required all the outlay then made, 

 but an unyielding custom which is stronger than law demanded 

 it. We are living in a different age and generation, and the cus- 

 toms and usages demanded of our predecesors do not hold good 

 on us. We are looking from a different stand- point to day from 

 ■which the same field of vision was observed by our fathers. 

 We are, too, living from a different standpoint. We are sur- 

 rounded by diff'erent usages which have gradually come upon 

 us. What was once necessary and desirable under the then exist- 

 ing usages and customs may not and quite likely is not best in 

 our day and generation. It was once thought necessary to enact 

 laws against witchcraft, and even to hang the witches. It was, 



