MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES. 445 



openings in the fences at intervals of a mile or two from cross roads. 

 I suggest the propriety of stringent legislation at an early day to rem- 

 edy such defects in fencing of public highways. 



9th. Sometimes householders and farmers neglect their fences 

 till they get out of repair and. other men's stock get into their fields? 

 which furnishes excellent ground for a quarrel and law-suit, and also 

 good food to those who are given to gossip. 



10th. Some men think a farm is worth more if it is fenced into 

 barn-yards and pigpens, and as it requires more time to plow forty 

 acres so fenced than it would if all were in one field, it is of especial 

 advantage to the laborer who does the work, for the longer he works 

 the more pay he gets. 



11th. Another great advantage in having lots of fences is that 

 they all take room, and as the ground that they occupy don't have to 

 be tilled, you save seed at planting time. 



Now, Mr. Editor, you have eleven reasons why the country should 

 be fenced — the more the better. I won't stop now to give you any 

 more, though they are plenty, but I think a proper consideration of 

 these will settle the question, and if so, these are enough. — W. A., 

 Ottawa, Kas. 



BILL NYE IS NOT "ON THE FENCE" ON THIS QUESTION. 



I do not believe in fences, of course. They are not ornamental 

 and they are expensive. The line fence has kept more people out of 

 heaven than rum, I believe. Satan would get a good vacation if it 

 were not for the line fence between hot-headed neighbors. 



Stone walls are all right in regions where stone is the principal 

 crop, and where it is necessary to fence in the boys in order to make 

 them stick to the farm, but fences in the abstract are a useless and fool- 

 ish little tradition that should have disappeared at the time when peo- 

 ple decided not to burn witches or bore holes with hot irons through 

 Quakers' tongues. — Bill Nye in Am. Garden. 



