ALL ABOUT FENCES. 329 



came along, and I asked him what he would give to have 

 the hogs shut up to-day. He replied that he would will- 

 ingly give fifty dollars, but that it would be worth much 

 more than that to him. 



" Soon another came by, and in reply to the same ques- 

 tion, said two hundred dollars would not nearly pay for 

 the fencing that he had got to do on account of the * cuss- 

 ed critters.' Another set the figure at one hundred. 



" It will cost each of us in the next two years much more 

 than the sums named, in cash, to so fix things that we can 

 plant a few dollars' worth of sweet potatoes, on our own land, 

 Avith any hope of ever getting a bite of them. We are not 

 alone. I feel sure that nine out of ten that I would meet 

 in a day's ride would come down handsomely with money 

 if thereby they could do away with this nuisance. 



''After laying out fifty dollars and considerable labor to 

 fence a small field of less than one and one half acres, I 

 became foolish enough to put a small part of it in potatoes, 

 thinking that that lot was safe from hogs, guarded as it 

 was by six strands of barbed wire drawn taut with * watch 

 tackle,' so that the wire was pulled in two several times 

 before completed, and with posts set near together. The 

 potatoes came up nicely and did fine. When nearly ready 

 to dig they came up again and were done fine — too fine. 

 Nature's greatest mistake had them. I had my gun with 

 me, well loaded with coarse shot. I saw several queer, 

 limber things jerking about just above ground along my 

 potato rows. They looked like uneasy snakes. Man usu- 

 ally kills the snakes he sees ; but I knew they were not 

 snakes. I knew from long experience that that kind of a 

 • quirk meant pig somewhere near. I sat my gun down 

 against a palmetto tree and quietly drove them away, and 

 said to the next man I met that the next office-seeker I 

 voted for would help me on the fence question." 



