1849. 



T1IK GENKSKK FAKMKR. 



165 



COST OF FENCES IN THE UNITED STATES. 

 BY J. S. SKINNEK. 



The cost of building and repairing the Fences in 

 the United States, is enormous, almost beyond the 

 power of calculation, ami forces the enquiry, whether 

 Legislatures ought not to be called upon to compel 

 every man to keep his Btock to himself. Then no 

 man, who did not choose to do it, would be forced to 

 enclose his land against the ravages of his neighbor's 

 stock. 



Mr. Biddle, a few years since, in an address before 

 ,the Philadelphia Agricultural Society, stated that the 

 cost of the fences in Pennsylvania amounted to $100,- 

 000,000, and their annual expense he estimated at 

 $10,000,000. A distinguished writer on National 

 Wealth, says : "Strange as it may seem, the great- 

 est investment in this country, the most costly pro- 

 duction of human industry, is the common fences 

 which enclose and divide the fields. No man dreams 

 that when compared to the outlay of these unpre- 

 tending monuments of human art, our cities and our 

 towns, with all their wealth, are left far behind. In 

 many places the fences have cost more than the 

 fences and farms are worth. It is this enormous 

 burden which keeps down the agricultural interest of 

 this country, causing an untold expenditure, besides 

 the loss of the land the fences occupy/' 



Estimating a chestnut post and rail fence to last 18 

 years, and including inside fencing and repairs, the 

 annual tax to the farmer holding 150 acres, will be 

 $130 to $140, and judging from the present appear- 

 ances, the tax is perpetual, and there seems but little 

 hope of escape from it. 



Did the intelligent farmer reflect a moment, and 

 estimate the annual tax which his fences impose upon 

 him, he would not rest till the system was abolished, 

 or else the live hedge took the place of the present 

 expensive fence of timber. 



The system of compelling every landholder to en- 

 close his property, is peculiar to the United States, 

 with only the exception of England, where the fence 

 nuisance appears again under the form of the hedge; 

 and although these hawthorn hedges, when they are 

 well tended — and not more than half of them are so 

 — are beautiful objects, and answer all the purposes 

 of protection against the inroads of cattle, still the 

 public voice is beginning to cry out against them, 

 because of the enormous amount of land required to 

 support them. Each hedge is five or six feet wide at 

 its base, and taking into account the amount of land 

 they exhaust on either side, the whole space cannot 

 be less than twelve or fourteen feet wide. When it 

 is recollected that the divisions and sub-divisions of 

 land in England are very numerous, the amount of 

 arable land abstracted from the purposes of agricul- 

 ture, is very great. It has been estimated at several 

 million bushels of grain. — Plough, Loom and Anvil. 



Wheat at the South. — This important crop has 

 been more than half destroyed by frost, rust and in- 

 sects. " Canal Flour" is coming here by the cargo. 

 At present it is impossible to form a reasonable con- 

 jecture how much will be needed before the next har- 

 vest. Corn has been as high as 85 cents in this city, 

 (Augusta, Ga.) It is now (6th June,) 65 cents. — 

 Flour $7 a barrel. One thousand bundles of North- 

 ern hay landed within the last month, and is selling 

 at $1 25 per 100 lbs. Curn promises well. Cotton 

 less than an average crop by 20 per cent. 



A NEW WATER DRAWER. 



A. Grekn h, Co.'s Self-acting) double Well 

 Hi i sets. — This invention performs double the work 

 with the Bame labor, thai th ■■ indlass bucket 



does. It is so simple in its operations that a child 

 can as easily and Bafely draw wi ter as an older per- 

 son. It brings up the water from the shallowest 

 wells without riling, and delivers it with the same 

 certainty in the dark as in the light. From itse ex- 

 pedition it becomes very valuable, when large quanti- 

 ties of water are required lor cattle, or in cases of fire. 



It is a well settled fact, that all wells that are im- 

 pregnated with any of the sulphurous gasses, do not 

 give good water with the pump, owing to its taking 

 the lower stratum of the water, which has not been 

 exposed to the atmosphere, and lost its gasses — and 

 from the accumulation of a mephitic atmosphere fill- 

 ing the closed well with its noxious properties, and 

 surcharging the water ; while the bucket, from its 

 motion, constantly renews the air and takes the water 

 from the surface, which has given up its gasses from 

 their levity. • 



One of these machines can be seen in operation, 

 on the farm of L. B. Langwortht, Esq., Ridge 

 Road, three miles from Rochester — and in a few days, 

 one will be on exhibition in this city. Messrs. A. 

 Green & Co., of Port Byron, N. Y., are the manu- 

 facturers. 



Use of Inferior Farm Implements. — We late- 

 ly saw an old fashioned plow at one of our largest 

 plow manufactories. On inquiry, we found that it 

 was a pattern on which the proprietors commenced 

 their business, some 15 or 20 years ago; and al- 

 though a very good plow, for that period, it is super- 

 seded among all intelligent farmers, by other and 

 more recently constructed patterns, which will do the 

 same work, and with at least a quarter less labor. 



We found that the single reason of its now being 

 employed, in preference to others, with most of those 

 using it is, that it has a point, or share of cast iron, 

 costing some 15 cents each, which admits of being 

 worn out at both ends, instead of one end only, as 

 those now constructed. The saving of 7 J cents, in 

 this share, determines its use; and this is saved at 

 an additional expenditure of team power, costing not 

 less than 25 to 50 cents per day, which, by the time 

 the share is worn out, would amount to from $5 to 

 $50, according to the soil. Such wiseacres are ne- 

 ver guilty of taking nor reading agricultural papers, 

 to teach them a better system of economy. — Ameri- 

 can Agriculturist. 



