108 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



for road-side fences in each township. And all for what? 

 I beg of every reader to repeat the question. And this 

 view of the case is not exaggerated. In many other 

 states, the cost of fencing materials is more than four 

 times as much, and roads equally plenty, to say nothing 

 of division fences through the farms and between neigh- 

 bors, the great cause of half of the neighborhood quarrels 

 and vexatious law suits, besides the enormous amount of 

 cursing bad fences and breachy cattle. 



And yet men "voluntarily submit to an evil," the cost 

 of which is beyond calculation. If every man were di- 

 rectly taxed for the cost of the Mexican war, we should 

 have an outcry louder than the din of battle ; and yet that 

 tax would not amount to a tithe of the enormous annual 

 fence tax of the United States. 



"Farmers, think of it !" Reason upon the subject. Do 

 not scoff at it as the vagaries of "the crazy advocates of 

 the non-fencing system." If I rightly understand the 

 creed of all those who advocate this system, it is this: 

 That every man take care of his oivn animals — and not 

 compel his neighbor who keeps none, to build miles of 

 costly fence to guard his crops from the depredations of 

 his neighbors' cattle and hogs, which he turns out to roam 

 at large without a keeper, or care where they forage their 

 feed. 



I cannot better conclude this article, than by quoting 

 the closing paragraph of Mr. Bacon's, and at the same 

 time assure him that "I go the whole hog," as we say out 

 here, against the worse than foolish fencing system. "Oh! 

 when will the agricultural public be sufficiently awake to 

 their interest, comfort, and those of the travelling public, 

 to remove these appendages from their premises, [the 

 road side], and rid themselves of a grievous burden?" 

 Echo answers, "Oh ! when." SOLON ROBINSON. 



Lake Court House, Crown Point, la., 

 January 15th, 1848. 



