O BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



product. The corn grower and the grain farmer of the West 

 devotes almost his entire labor to the production of his corn or 

 his grain. Why should he not then heap high the golden corn in 

 autumn when it represents his year's labor? 



It should be our aim more than is now the case to devote our 

 labor largely to production. We should study to do away to a 

 greater extent with the fancied or actual requirements which now 

 draw so largely upon our time, and turn that labor to production 

 itself. It would be equivalent to the saving of just so much tiime 

 — and time to the farmer at all seasons is money. When we 

 apply business principles in preparing for our productions, as the 

 manufacturer applies them in preparing for his products, we shall 

 find an immense saving of labor. A little capital many times 

 judiciously invested will save labor to the farmer as well as to the 

 manufacturer; and capital costs nothing but its six per cent. 



Among the outlays of labor which draw so heavily away from 

 what otherwise might be productive industry — and the only one 

 proper to introduce here — is the labor required to build and keep 

 in repair the numerous lines of fences found at the present time 

 on the farms in this State ; and not only is there a large outlay of 

 labor expended in this direction, but there is also a Urge expen- 

 diture of money which labor devoted to other purposes had laid 

 by as a profit from the outlay. 



It is believed by many thoughtful, progressive farmers, and by 

 some members of this Board, that much of this outlay — that a 

 large part of it in fact — may be averted, and the money and the 

 labor now expended be turned to better account. For the pur- 

 pose of drawing the attention of farmers and other land owners 

 to the matter, it was deemed best to devote a portion of the time 

 of this convention to its consideration. 



For the purpose of understanding in the outset what we are 

 driving at, what we are aiming to reach by introducing the sub- 

 ject as we do, let us take a view of fences as we find them over 

 the State, and then set forth our claims. We shall then start in 

 with a fair understanding, and can the more understandingly 

 discuss the subject. 



A large part of the farms in this State — and the same statement 

 will apply to other of the New England States as well — are 

 divided and subdivided by costly fences, till they present in many 

 cases a net-work of lines enclosing small areas like the lines on a 

 checker- board, save that, instead of regularity, we find them run- 



