168 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



mav look forward to the futtire acrrieulture of Xew Eng:land 

 witli feelings full of hope and full of gladness. 



Question. I should like to ask the gentleman if Ms 

 neighbors have discontinued their fences on the street. 



Mr. Cheevze. Xot all of them, but thev are working 

 that wav. There are no cattle going on the street now 

 where I live. 



Question. "What would you do if you lived on a street 

 or road where, in the fall of the year, droves of cattle to the 

 number of fi ve hundred were driven by every week or two ? 



Mr. Cheever. Well, I will admit, that, if I had been so 

 situated, I do not know but I should have waited for some- 

 body else to have pioneered in this work of creating public 

 sentiment against fences. But I know this, — that drovers 

 are more bothered now in driving their cattle through 

 villages, in passing into Brighton or out. where there are 

 fences and open gates, than they would be if there were no 

 fences and no gates. An animal dodges in at a gate; and, 

 having got in, the herd going on, the animal keeps along 

 with the herd, inside of the fence; and then there is a time 

 in jrettiniT him back asfain with a dos:. ^ bov. and a man. It 

 takes a long time, and it is a great bother to the drovers. 

 Cattle, like partridges and rabbits, and all animals, will 

 follow paths naturally. You can drive a herd of cattle 

 across any pasture or common where there is a cart-path; 

 or you can lead the master-cow almost anywhere, and all the 

 rest will follow; but, if you drive a herd of cattle along a 

 highway where there is a gate open occasionally, some will 

 very likely dodge in. 



Mr. . Some vears agro we took away about forty rods 



of fence on our farm, and left it two or three years. In the 

 fall of the year we are in the habit of having very large 

 droves of cattle come through our place ; and the drovers 

 cursed me so for leaving my land open, that I finally con- 

 cluded to put up my fence. 



;Mr. Cheever. The law oblicres the drover to have suffi- 

 cient attendants to take care of his herds ; but if, having a 

 sufficient number, an accidental step is taken into any per- 

 son's land, the drover is not responsible. We have depended 

 upon fences so long, that we imagine we can turn a drove of 



