276 



Fencing — Plank Roads. 



Vol. XII. 



Fencing. 



An ordinary sized farm, of one hundred 

 acres, divided into ten acre fields, as many 

 have them, would take two hundred and 

 seventy-five pannels to enclose ten acres ; 

 this at eighty cents per pannel, (and many 

 calculate it one dollar,) would cost the sum 

 of two hundred and nineteen dollars, and the 

 yearly interest at six per cent, would be thir- 

 teen dollars and fourteen cents on ten acres 

 — the sum of one dollar and thirty cents per 

 acre, or the enormous sum of two thousand 

 one hundred and ninety dollars (the interest 

 of which would be one hundred and thirty- 

 one dollars and forty cents) on the farm. 

 The fence, it is believed, would decay entire- 

 ly in thirty years, which would be a total 

 loss of capital to the country, amounting to 

 two thousand one hundred and ninety dol- 

 lars ; besides, it must be repaired once dur- 

 ing the above period with new posts, at a cost 

 of posts and labour to the amount of six hun- 

 dred and eighty-seven dollars and fifty cents; 

 which would make twenty-eight hundred and 

 seventy-seven dollars and fifty cents, or an 

 annual loss, for thirty years, of ninety-five 

 dollars and seventeen cents. 



I once heard Nicholas Biddle say, the cost 

 of fencing alone in the State of Pennsylvania 

 would pay the State debt — which is about 

 forty millions. Need any State or commu- 

 nity be long in debt, when it is in the power 

 of the farmers alone to liquidate it"? You 

 will ask, how is the farmer to pay? he is al- 

 ready taxed to the limit of his means. I will 

 inform you — revive an old law that has Iain 

 a dead letter on your statute book for a cen- 

 tury. Our forefathers in that respect were 

 wiser than their children of this generation 

 — they foresaw the expense and difficulty of 

 fencing, or brought the knowledge of it with 

 them from Europe. They thought it unne- 

 cessary to fence the highways, and for line 

 fence they made provision by enactments. 

 But we might go one step farther, and do 

 without line fences, and inside as well as 

 fences on the highways. In England they 

 make out with much less fence than in this 

 country. On the Continent there is very 

 little fence. There are in New England 

 large agricultural districts without any fence. 

 In China, where agriculture is understood 

 better perhaps than in any other country, 

 there are no fences. In Peru, before the 

 conquest, the cultivation of the land was an 

 object of the highest consideration — ^tivf na- 

 tions understood it better — but there were 

 no fences. What a beautiful landscape our 

 country would present, were it not for the 

 immense amount of old rotten rails and posts, 

 which now meet the view. We should see 



the country thick set with beautiful cottages, 

 with green lawns between each one's por- 

 tion, and the land teeming with a population 

 of health and happiness. Our sons and daugh- 

 ters would not for a long time have to seek 

 homes in the far west. The resources of 

 our land are not more than half developed, 

 and under this change the population could 

 be doubled in our most populous districts. 

 The agricultural products can be vastly in- 

 creased on our most productive lands. In- 

 stead of keeping a race of animals to make 

 fences for, which will not pay a tithe of the 

 interest the fence costs, we should have none 

 but such as we really need, and they should 

 be kept in barns and enclosures to suit the 

 owner. Besides, if we continue this system 

 of fencing, I want to know by what means 

 we are to be furnished with the material? 

 Our timber is already exhausted; we have 

 not enough in the country to reset the fences, 

 and it is fast disappearing from other parts. 

 We must resort to hedges, ditches, iron or 

 stone fences. These have all been proposed, 

 are all expensive, and all have their objec- 

 tions. Then why not do without them ? By 

 the time the fences must be reset, turn your 

 stock into such animals as are worth their 

 keep; improve your land, and manure with 

 concentrated manures, and my word for it, 

 your profits will be greater than they ever 

 have been. This, together with the use of 

 lime, will insure success. — Salem (N. J.) 

 National Standard. 



Plauk Roads. 



The Racine papers contain a report on 

 the subject of Plank Roads, made by Philo 

 White, Esq., chairman of a committee ap- 

 pointed at a meeting of the citizens of that 

 town, to investigate the subject. The report 

 is more complete than any thing we have 

 before seen relating to the matter. 



Our neighbours above are fully awake to 

 the importance of the matter, and are deter- 

 mined to secure for themselves passable roads. 

 There are several towns in our own State 

 which would be vastly helped by such roads 

 in and about them. We have hitherto not 

 seen mention made of plank roads in and 

 about Alton, Springfield, Jacksonville, Quin- 

 cy, Peoria, and other Illinois towns, and per- 

 haps the price of lumber at present would 

 render their construction expensive; but we 

 expect to see and hear these places in motion 

 about it within two or three years. 



" Macadam roads have been in use for 

 more than a third of a century, while the 

 adoption of plank roads, in the United States 

 at least, dates back scarcely half a dozen 

 years ; and yet the latter seem in a fair way 



