504 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



inches ; loosen it to that depth, either at once or 

 gradually, and there will be no difficulty, under 

 a judicious course of cultivation, of producing on 

 lands now of liiile value, all the most important 

 j>roducts ofagriculture. 



THE OPPRESSION OF THE FENCE LAW, AND 

 THE DAWN OF RELIEF. 



Since the year 1835, when the petition to the 

 legislature of Virginia ibr relief from the general 

 Jaw in regard to inclosures was rejected, very little 

 has been said in this journal in regard to that sub- 

 ject, which before had occupied so conspicuous a 

 place, and engaged the pens of so many corre- 

 spondents. Our own silence, under this heaviest 

 and most absurd of all the injuries imposed on 

 agriculture by the legal policy ol' Virginia, was not 

 founded on content, nor submission to this iniqui- 

 tous system, by the operation of which agriculture, 

 in the eastern half of Virginia, is annually robbed 

 ^ of more than half of its otherwise clear profits. 

 Nar was it in despair of any mitigation of the 

 evil, desperate as may be hopes of any aid being 

 given voluntarily to agricultural interests by the 

 Jegislature of Virginia, or of the legislature being 

 urged to such action, for the first time since the 

 Virginian diiclaralion of independence, by the now 

 demagogue-governed people. Our silence was 

 caused by the belief that it would be more condu- 

 cive to ultimate success in this matter, to leave un- 

 disturbed the seeds of reform which had been 

 planted, to spring up, grow, and flourish, and show 

 their good fruits, and thus to exhibit in their re- 

 sults manifest and undeniable evidence of the 

 good operation of the change. At the same ses- 

 sion at which the petition for a change of the ge- 

 neral fence law had scarcely been permitted to be 

 heard, another petition, which we iiad originated, 

 and which asked only lor partial, but yet very ex- 

 tensive relief, passed without opposition. We al- 

 lude to the petition (published at page 450, vol. 

 ii.. Farmers' Register,) and the law passed in 

 compliance therewith, for making the tide-waters 

 of the James and Appomattox rivers and their 

 tributaries "lawful fences." In asking for this 

 great measure of relief, we took for example, and 

 profited by as a precedent, a previously passed 

 law for making the upper Appomattox a lawful 

 fence. At every session since, and in answer to 

 dilllerent petitions, other laws have been passed, 

 extending the principle as to various other streams. 

 No opposition has been made to this most valua- 

 ble and fast extending mode of relief; and the more 

 it is extended, the stronger are the reasons for con- 

 tinuing to extend it, in answer to other claims ; 

 ami the more eflcclually is right aided by pre- 



cedent, which even in aid of wrong, is far more 

 powerful than truth and reason and justice, alone, 

 when opposing old abuses. Fences along the 

 borders of all water courses, and below as well as 

 above the head of tide, are as much required by 

 the general law of enclosures, as in any other situ- 

 ations ; and they are much the most expensive 

 lines to fence, and the fencing operation which is the 

 least demanded by the usual circumstances of the 

 lands and their proprietors. If, then the proprie- 

 tors on all the considerable water-courses will ask 

 Ibr and abtain relief even thus lar, this alone 

 would avoid in lower and middle Virginia the now 

 legal requisition of keeping up perhaps several 

 thousands of miles of perishable and useless fences, 

 which are maintained at an annual expense 

 which, if so diverted, would pay the expense of 

 all the useless part of the sessions of the legisla- 

 ture, or almost pay Ibr constructing the Jamea 

 River canal. Let then this great, though partial 

 measure ol' relief be obtained, for all localities to 

 which it could not be denied ; and then the ad- 

 vantages would be so manilest, so extensive, and 

 the evils so small in comparison to the benefits se- 

 cured, that proprietors generally would be satisfied 

 of the magnitude and the uselessness of their still 

 continuing burdens ; and even nun-proprietors 

 would learn that tliey had lost nothing by the 

 restraining of their now existing and time-ho- 

 nored right of legal trespass on their neighbors' 

 lands. We are entirely assured that nothing is 

 wanting but to see the operation of the change of 

 system, to make it desirable to nine-tenths of the 

 community. 



There is another imperfect yet very important 

 means of reform, and of relief from the existing 

 tax of the fence law in certain situations, where 

 the legal burden would otherwise be almost ruin- 

 ous. This is by voluntary agreement of the pro- 

 prietors of a number of contiguous farms to dis- 

 pense with all fences, except a general enclosing 

 fence of the whole neighborhood, and the separate 

 enclosures for pasture, which each individual 

 should have for his own stock, on his own ground. 

 Such a measure we induced the commencement 

 of, some ten years ago in the neighborhood in 

 which we Ibrmerly cultivated and resided, in 

 Prince George county ; and the space so included 

 has gradually been extended, until there are now 

 twelve or more farms under one general surround- 

 ing fence. There are certainly some inconve- 

 niences and disadvantages found in this new plan, 

 owing to tliere being no legal sanction to the agree- 

 ment ; and the perfbrmance of every man's obli- 

 gations to his neighbors being governed only by 

 his sense of duty and of self-interest. But even 

 if the eenpe of moral obligation be weak, that of 



