FORAGE CROPS IN NEW ENGLAND. 163 



and fences along the line of the highway, and rendered mj 

 whole farm as open as a village common. 



Nine-tenths of all the fences in use are but the relics of 

 feudal ages, when cities were walled, and individuals made 

 their homes in castles. Our fence laws are based upon a 

 correct principle, which is, that the owner of cattle, horses, 

 sheep, swine, and poultry, shall restrain and prevent such 

 animals from injuring the person or property of others ; but 

 the customs of our people would indicate that it is the duty 

 of each to fence, not his own cattle in, but his neighbors' 

 cattle out, and that any neglect in this direction is a risk he 

 runs at his own peril. And so we go on, year after year, 

 building expensive fences of stone, iron, and wood. I wish 

 I could convey to you some faint conception of the enor- 

 mous tax we as a nation have imposed upon ourselves by 

 attempting, against all authority of law, to fence our neigh- 

 bors and their cattle and other animals out. If I tell vou 

 that the fences built in the United States have, according to 

 the best authorit}^, required an estimated expenditure of the 

 sum of two billions of dollars, you may be able to remember 

 the figures, but you cannot readily comprehend their sig- 

 nificance. 



Two billion dollars represents a good deal of hard work — 

 a great many hours spent in hot weather and cold weather 

 splitting rails, sawing boards, cutting and setting posts, dig- 

 ging, hauling, and lifting stones — and a great deal of house 

 work, — boiling, baking, washing, and mending for the men 

 and hojs who have spent a considerable share of their lives 

 in building these fences. 



Do you know how long it would take one of you to count 

 a million of dollars ? Supposing you are able to pick up and 

 count correctly one doHar every second, and should count 

 steadily ten hours per day for a whole month of working- 

 days, you would still have dollars enough uncounted to keep 

 you busy two Sundays; and should you continue counting 

 at the same rate, day after day, week after week, and month 

 after month, for fifty years, you would not have counted one- 

 third the cost of the fences which have been built, and are 

 now standing, in the United States. I have not been able to 

 examine thoroughly the census returns for the year 1880 ; 

 but if the ratio of increase in the value of fences, animals, 



