634 



FARMERS' REGISTER— FENCE LAW. 



How great a loss is sustained in this, thfit we 

 cannot clear 20, 50, or 100 acres of good land, here 

 and there, where such may he found, and leave tl)e 

 poor ridges to i)ro(luce lire wood and a small por- 

 tion of timber, but must take it as it comes, high 

 and low, rich and poor, in order lo get our fields in 

 a body for the convenience of enclosing Ihem ? 



The rich man A, with 1000 acres of hmd and 

 40 hands, requires say one month to repair his 

 fences: the poor man B, who is worth but one 

 fourth as much, with 250 acres anil 10 hands, must 

 labor two months to repair his. That he must, is 

 susceptible of mathematical demonstration — and 

 the poorer he may be, the larger proportion of his 

 labor has he to apply in this unpi'oductive opera- 

 tion of fencing. 



How many thousands of poor people who own 

 small pieces of land, and who own, or could easily 

 procure an ox 'and plougli each, and who could 

 with these means make a comf()rtable subsistence 

 for tliemselves and their families, are deterred, im- 

 provident as they are, from making the glorious 

 attempt, (1 say glorious, as it niiglit save them 

 from tlie poor house or the penitentiary,) by finding 

 their labors doubled by the unprofitable operation 

 of fencing their respective little patches, or by 

 contemplating the laborious task of cutting and 

 mauling rails, which must be performed at tlie 

 most inclement season of the year, or because they 

 have not the team necessary to haul tlieir rails to 

 the grouud, after they have prepared them. 



The great number of rails to be hauled renders 

 it necessary that the fiirmer should keep a cart or 

 wagon, and twice as many oxen as would be ne- 

 cessary for all other purposes, and even with this 

 double team, so painful is it to the feet to draw on 

 hard frozen ground, and so laborious is this work 

 over land recently thav.ed after a severe winter's 

 frosts, or which has been lately plouglicd, that it 

 becomes a delicate question about the middle of 

 February, to ask a farmer " how his steers hold 

 out." Sometimes, with tlie blessing of God, (and 

 I know no instance in which his goodness is more 

 signally displayed,) they do " hokl out," and the 

 sliif^ is fenced so as partially to protect the crop 

 from the ravages of the hogs; but sometimes they 

 do not " hold out," and consequently a large pro- 

 portion of the ensuing crop is destroyed by the 

 hogs, before it attains maturity. Yes sir, strange 

 as it may appear to the inhabitants of all other 

 countries, it is nevertheless true, that that portion 

 of the year which elsewhere is devoted exclusively 

 to taking care of the stock, and making manure, 

 is consumed with us in hauling rails, which fre- 

 quently renders our oxen totally unfit to carry out, 

 in the spring, the little manure which unavoidably 

 accumulates around us. 



It may be Worthy of inquiry, how much better, 

 straighter, and shorter our public highways might 

 be made, if our lav/ of enclosures were altered. 

 For, melancholy to relate, even our public high- 

 ways are made to yield to the overwhelming con- 

 sideration of fencing. I have been amused with 

 the various curvatures described in some of our 

 applications to the courts for orders to open new 

 roads. For by way of rendering the measure ac- 

 ceptable to the court, and to avoid the multiplica- 

 tion of fences, we consent that the new highway 

 shall be opened " around Mr. such a one's fence, 



thence back through Mr. 's lane, and thence 



around Mr. such another's fence," and so on. If 



I am asked, as I frequently am, what we should 

 do with our stock if the law of enclosures were 

 altered. I answer that we can do, wliat we certain- 

 ly shall be compelled to do in the course of a few 

 years, on account of the deficiency of timber, 

 whatever that may be: that half a dozen neigh- 

 bors can easily unite in purcliasing and enclosing 

 commons for their stock — and that by devoting 

 f!ie time and labor, which is now consumed in 

 fencing, to raising and carrying out manure to be 

 applied to our grass lands, we can grow more grass 

 upon 10 acres of land, than is now produced by 200 

 of our trodden and worn out old fields. And last- 

 ly — that we can at least do what the inhabitantsof 

 all other countries in the world do — and surely the 

 superiority of our stock over the stock of other 

 states and countries is not so excessively great, as 

 to attach us inveterately on that score to our old sys^ 

 tern. 



In fine, our law of enclosures as it now exists, 19 

 a most intolerable nuisance lo by far the largest, 

 most wealthy, and populous portion of our state. 

 I v.'ould suggest the propriety of altering it so far 

 at least as to compel every one to keep his hogs in 

 an enclosure. The effect of this alteration would 

 be to enable us to adopt the use of live fences, 

 which would save us a vast deal of labor. At pre- 

 sent we cannot use them, as there is no sort of 

 hedge that can resist the attacks of a thin, lean, 

 tough-hided and hungry old sow. 



PHILANDER. 



[It is highly encouraging to our efforts to put down 

 the monstrous evil which we all sufTer from our legal 

 policy respecting fences, to find so many correspondents 

 either approve or sustain the views, alreidy presented 

 in the Farmers' Register, in denunciation of this 

 system. The discussion, so supported, cannot but lead 

 ultimately to a suppression of the evil : and if all those 

 who think with us on this subject, will use their influs 

 ence, a just and proper law of enclosures will be one of 

 the first great gains from the exchange of opinion, and 

 lending of mutual aid among the farmers of our coun-. 

 try. 



"VVe lately had the pleasure of viewing the operations 

 of an eaterprizing and intelligent farmer from New 

 Jersey, who has been induced by the low price of our 

 land to purchase and settle a large estate on the lower 

 part of James river. The most admirable care of 

 his live stock was evident, and none enjoyed more of 

 this care, or repaid it with more profit, (as the owner 

 believed,) than his hogs. Nevertheless, they were ab 

 ways confined to styes, and neither grazed the fields, 

 nor derived the slightest benefit from the large body of 

 " woods range," belonging to the farm. The fields 

 (which were small, as is usual in the northern states,) 

 were separated by neat, strong and durable post and 

 rail fences, which though only three rails high, were as 

 effectual in restraining all other cattle than hogs, as a 

 " lawful fence" — and much more effectual against fox- 

 hunters. But his outside fence was necessarily made 

 (to suit the law and his neighbors' hogs,) " ten rails 

 high, staked and top-logged." The owner was asked 

 what estimate he placed on the difference of the fence 

 law in New Jersey (where hogs are not permitted to 

 go at large,) and in Virginia-^and his answer was, that 

 tlie whole purchase money paid for his estate was not a 



