The Agricultural Papers of George Washington 



Fencmg 



As stock of no kind, according to this plan, will be suffered 

 to run on the arable fields or clover lots (except sheep in 

 the day on the rye fields, as has been mentioned before) , par 

 tition fences between the fields, until they can be raised of 

 quicks, may be dispensed with. But it is of great importance, 

 that all the exterior or outer fences should be substantially 

 good; and those also, which divide the common or woodland 

 pasture from the fields and clover lots, are to be very re 

 spectable. 



To accomplish this desirable object in as short a time as 

 possible, and with the smallest expense of timber, the post- 

 and-rail fence which runs from the negro quarters, or rather 

 from the corner of the lot enclosing them, up to the division 

 between fields Nos. 7 and 8, may be placed on the bank 

 (which must be raised higher) running to the creek. In like 

 manner, the fence from the gate, which opens into No. S, quite 

 down to the river, along the Cedar Hedge-row, as also those 

 rails which are between Nos. 1 and 2, and between No. and 

 No. 3, may all be taken away, and applied to the outer 

 fences, and the fences of the lanes from the barn into the 

 woodland pasture, and from the former (the barn) into No. 5 ; 

 for the fences of all these lanes must be good, as the stock 

 must have a free passage along them at all times, from the 

 barn-yard to the woodland pasture. 



All the fencing from the last-mentioned place (between me 

 and Mr. Mason), until it joins Mr. Lear s farm, and thence 

 with the line between him and me, until it comes to the river, 

 will require to be substantially good ; at its termination on 

 the river, dependence must be placed in a water fence ; for if 

 made of common rails, they would be carried off by boatmen 

 for firewood. The fences separating fields No. 1 and No. 8 



