SOLON ROBINSON, 1848 107 



Fences a Direct Tax to the Farmer. 



[New York America^i Agriculturist, 7:87; Mar., 1848] 



[January 15, 1848] 



In reading Mr. Bacon's^ article on this subject in the 

 August (1847) number of the Agriculturist, there was 

 one sentence, in particular, which I thought ought to be 

 printed in large type and stuck up at every rod of fence 

 in the country. It is this : "There must, indeed, be a hor- 

 rid lethargy pervading the mind of the body agricultural 

 while they go calmly, and indifferently, and drudgingly 

 on, and voluntarily submit to an evil for whose existence 

 there is no pretext or excuse." 



Farmers! turn back to page 252 and read this article 

 of Mr. Bacon's again. Think of that township of land, 

 only four miles square, that requires one hundred miles 

 of road-side fence ! Recollect that this is not an extraor- 

 dinary case. The whole of the great tract of country in 

 the north part of Ohio, known as the Western Reserve, is 

 laid off in squares almost as exact, though a little larger 

 than the squares of right-angled Philadelphia. And in 

 Michigan, and perhaps some others of the western states, 

 every section line is a public highway by law. This gives 

 seventy-two miles of road, and one hundred and forty- 

 four miles of road-side fence, for every congressional 

 township of land, six miles square ; besides the occasional 

 "cross roads," and those which do not follow section lines. 

 To fence the roads of such a township with an ordinary 

 rail fence will require four hundred and sixty thousand, 

 eight hundred rails ; all of which must be renewed every 

 few years. Count these rails at only one cent each, and 

 the cost is $4,608, which at six per cent, interest, is 

 $276.48 ; while the annual decay and cost of repairs, is at 

 least, as much more, making an annual tax of over $500 



^ William Bacon, of Richmond, Massachusetts. Correspondent 

 of the American Agriculturist, 1846-1848, and the Cultivator, 1845- 

 1852. Wrote interesting articles on trees and "Potato Rot." His 

 article, "Fences a Direct Tax to the Farmer," appeared in the 

 American Agriculturist, 6:252-53. 



