THE FENCE-ROW 



187 



becoming dry; escaping fire, they soon settled to the earth 

 in decay ; and during their time they harbored an abundance 

 of rabbits, mice and other vermin to infest the fields. The 

 stump fence was usually made of white pine, having great 

 horizontal spread of roots. The roots of one side were 

 chopped off, so that when the stump was laid on one side the 

 other side rose erect into the air. By overlapping of roots, 

 an excellent barrier was thus constructed. Tho subject, in a 

 less degree, to the defects of the brush fence, the stump fence 

 had the one great merit of permanence. The resinous roots 

 resist decay, insomuch that there are stump fences all over 

 New York and New England to-day fairly well preserved, that 

 were built by the pioneers. Indeed, after the clearing of the 

 land and the first cutting-over of the woods, there was no 

 material left for building such fences a second time. Stone 

 fences are built with greater expenditure of labor, but they 

 occupy less land, and if properly built in the beginning, are 

 easily maintained. Like the two preceding, they are built of 

 waste material obtained in clearing the land. 



But such materials were not available everywhere in 

 quantities adequate even for the first fences built. Further- 

 more, the trunk of a tree, if split into rails, will build much 

 more and better fence than will the brush of its tops, and the 

 fence will occupy less ground, will be less easily btuned, will 

 harbor less vermin, and will last much longer. 



When land was being cleared of timber for which there 

 was no market, the best use to which the logs could be put, 

 was to split them into rails and build fences with them. 

 Rails of black walnut and cherry and other valuable woods 

 were used in the fencing of thousands of acres. During that 

 comparatively brief period when men believed the timber 

 supply of the country to be inexhaustible, rail-splitting was 

 one of the most widespread forms of labor; insomuch that 

 when Abraham Lincoln was introduced to the people of the 



