FARM FENCING. 35 



First, by reducing the amount of division fences. Second, by 

 good stock laws well enforced. Third, by adopting the cheaper 

 styles of fence. 



Under the first head we can make a great saving. I have on 

 Eastview Farm for twenty years abolished division fence on all 

 my best plow land. Here I have sixty-five acres in one field, and 

 by agreement with my neighbor we have had no division fence 

 between us, he having forty acres of his best land in the same 

 inclosure. Neither of us ever turn stock on this land, but always 

 cultivate or mow it, and I think it has been just as profitable to 

 us as it would have been if divided into small fields. Moreover, 

 the land has been mellow and in good condition to plow when 

 the fields in my neighborhood that have been tramped over have 

 been rough and cloddy. After this long experience I am pre- 

 pared to recommend this plan of never pasturing the best plow 

 lands of the farm. 



Another way in which a great saving can be made is by 

 fencing against cattle and horses only. There are farms by the 

 thousand not adapted to corn, and on which but few hogs are kept, 

 and yet every fence is pig tight and the extra cost of fences is 

 more than all the profit on the hogs. I have found a two-board 

 fence a perfect protection against cattle, while four or five boards 

 are always used where a fence is made to turn hogs. To be sure, 

 hogs need some green food, but it will be found much cheaper to 

 confine them to a lot or single field and carry green food to them 

 than to fence the entire farm. There are farms adapted to hogs 

 or sheep, which must be fenced with reference to keeping this 

 stock, but the farmer before deciding to fence against hogs should 

 count the cost and see whether the extra expense of fences will 

 not swallow the profits. 



We already have in many of the States all the legislation 

 needed on the question of stock running at large. In Ohio the 

 law makes the owner of stock responsible for all depredations, 

 and all stock can be prohibited from running at large whenever 

 the law is enforced. It is a singular fact that the opposition to 

 the law has come mainly from the farmers themselves, and there 

 are still many localities where it is impossible to enforce it. 



