30 



THE CANADIAN HOKTICULTURIST. 



this year, and I am in hopes it will 

 stand our winter. I may say here 1 

 have had Imd luck getting the plants 

 distributed, as they have missed getting 

 to me three out of the four years, but 

 I have been more than paid by The 

 Horticulturist and the Annual Report. 

 I am in hopes of getting our mails 

 carried here by railway by another year, 

 and then our mails will be carried more 

 promptly. 



W. Warnock, 

 Blind River, Algoma. 



FENCES. 

 The agricultural community in 

 Florida are fully alive to the import- 

 ance of the fence or no fence question. 

 Our exchanges from that state are full 

 of communications on that subject, and 

 the more it is discussed, the more clearly 

 does it appear that the system of high- 

 way fences is an unnecessary and unjust 

 burden upon the farmer, gardener, and 

 fruit-grower. One writer in the Florida 

 Dispatch says : — E have fifteen acres 

 under cultivation. It requires one mile 

 and a quarter of fencing to fence it. 

 This costs $320. 



I pay yearly on this fence for State, 

 County, and City tax, as an 

 improvement . . $ 8 00 



Interest on cost of fence 10% per Ann. 32 00 



Sinking fund for renewal once in eight 



years 40 00 



Repairing and whitewashing yearly. 15 00 



Yearly expense of maintenance . . $95 00 

 If our cultivators of the soil in city, 

 town and country would only sit down 

 and make a calculation of their annual 

 outlay for fencing against other people's 

 cattle, we feel confident they would not 

 long submit to the unjust burden. Why 

 should I be allowed to turn my cattle 

 upon the highway at your expense ? 



What right have I to put you to the ex- 

 pense of building and maintaining miles 

 of fencing to protect your crops from 

 my cattle ? Is it any injustice or hard- 

 ship that I should take care of my own 

 animals, and not suflfer them to injure 

 my neighbour 1 



The Committee on Fences reported 

 to the Fruit Growers' Association, see 

 page 27 of Report for 1882, that the 

 cost of fencing a farm of one hundred 

 acres, divided in the usual manner, is 

 $1,317. 



The annual charge for maintenance 

 is for interest at 6 percent, on 

 say $1,300 $ 78 00 



Cost of repairs, and sinking fund for 

 renewal, once in twenty-five 

 years 78 00 



Cost of same for gates renewed every 



ten years 9 60 



Rent of land occupied by fence at $5 



per acre 21 80 



Total annual expense $187 40 



Now this estimate was prepared 

 under the advice of a thoroughly prac- 

 tical farmer residing in East Whitby, 

 County of Ontario, and may be safely 

 taken as a fair average calculation. In 

 twenty years the fencing alone will have 

 cost as much as many a hundred acre 

 farm is worth. 



But apply this to the country at large, 

 and see to what extent the tillers of the 

 soil are taxed by the unjust and un- 

 necessaiy system of fencing that now 

 prevails. The Township of London, in 

 the County of Middlesex, having a cul- 

 tivated area of seventy thousand acres, 

 jjays an annual tax for fencing of over 

 $100,000 ; and the total loss to the 

 agriculturists of Ontario who cultivate 

 her nearly twelve millions of acres of 

 cultivated land is not less than sixteen 

 millions of dollars every year. How 

 long will our people be content to bear 

 this unnecessary burden l 



