42 Appendix. The Legal Fence in the South. 



The following from the statutes of Southern States indicates The Legal Fence, ad variously pre- 

 scribed : 



DELAWARE. (Revised Code, 1874, p. 285.) Section I. A good force of wood, stone, or well 

 set thorn, four and a half feet high or four feet high, and having a ditch within two feet, shall 

 be deemed a lawful fence ia Newcastle and Kent Counties; and in Sussex County four feet shall 

 be the height of lawful fences. 



MARYLAND. There is no general fence law, but special laws exist for the several counties; for 

 example, as follows: (Laws 0/1870. Chap. 637.) 



Baltimore County. Fences sufficiently close to prevent hogs or pigs from passing through the 

 same, or post and rail fence five feet high, not less than five rails in each panel. 



Caroline County. Outside fences of all grounds kept for enclosure, rail fences four and a half 

 feet high, worm fences five feet high. 



Anne Arundel County. The lawful fence, if of posts and rails, four feet high; if worm fence, 

 five feet high. 



VIRGINIA. (Code 1878, p. 789.) Section 1. Every fence five feet high; which, if th fence be on 

 a mound shall include the mound to the bottom of the ditch", shall be deemed a lawful fence as to 

 any of the stock named in the eighth section of this chapter which could not creep through the 

 same. 



Section 8. If any horses, cattle, hogs, sheep or goats shall enter into any grounds inclosed by 

 a lawful fence, owners of such animals to be liable, etc. (Law of 1860.) 



(The "No Fence Law" of 1866, amended 1873, provides that the boundaries of all counties 

 adopting the fence law of 1866 shall be declared lawful fence. Gkxxl and substantial gates to be 

 erected in such enclosing fences at all crossings of public roads, where the court of the county 

 shall require the same, the cost of such outer fences to be equitably distributed among all own- 

 ers and occupants benefitted. Within such limits no domestic animals to be permitted to run at 

 large, beyond limits of owner's land, under penalty of double damages, etc. This law to be 

 repealed (Sec. 23) on the vote of three-fifths of the voters.) 



NORTH CAROLINA. (Rev. Stat. 1873, p 425.) Section 1. Every planter shall make a 

 sufficient fence about his cleared ground under cultivation, at least five feet high. (Navigable 

 stream to be a sufficient fence. ) 



Sec. 2. (Enumerates rivers and streams that are sufficient fences.) 



(The "No Fence Act" [Session laws 1872-3] provides that citizens of counties or townships 

 may erect a good and substantial fence around their territory, with gates on all the public roads, 

 where they enter into and pass out of its borders. Two or more townships may unite and put 

 their territory under one common fence.) 



SOUTH CAROLINA. (Rev. Stat. 1873, p. 296.) Section 1. All fences closely and strongly 

 made, of rails, boards, posts and rails, or of an embankment of earth capped with rails and 

 timber of any sort, or live hedges FIVE FEET high from surface of the earth, shall be deemed to 

 be lawful fences ; and every planter shall be bound to keep such lawful fence around his 

 cultivated grounds. 



(The "No Fence Act," (Extra Session 1877.) When a majority of township electors in such 

 town, or in any county, shall "desire to substitute the fencing of stock, in lieu of fencing of 

 crops," commissioners of said county may erect fences along lines of such townships or counties, 

 gates to be maintained at all highway crossings; a tax to be levied and collected upon property 

 of such township or county, for the expense of such fences. ) 



GEORGIA. (Code 1873, p 244.) 1443. All fences or enclosures called worm fences, shall be 

 FIVE FEET high, with or without being staked and ridered, and, from the ground to the height 

 of three feet, the rails shall not be more than four inches apart. All paling fences shall be five 

 feet from the ground, and the palings not more than two inches apart. 



(The "No Fence Law of 1872 provides that in each and every county which shall, by vote, 

 adopt its provisions, the GENERAL FENCE LAW is repealed, and all boundary lines shall be 

 declared a lawful fence, and no animals in such counties, &o., allowed to run at large beyond 

 limits of owner's lands. 



1455. Provides for submitting above to counties for balloting " Fence," or "No Fence," 

 &c.) 



ALABAMA. (Session Laws 1878-9, p. 75). All enclosures and fences must be at least FIVE 

 FEET high, and if made of rails the rails not more than four inches apart from the ground to 

 the height of every two feet; or, if made of palings, the palings to be not more than three 

 inches apart, or if made with a ditch, such ditch must be made four feet wide at the top and 

 the fence, of whatever material composed, at least five feet high from the bottom of the ditch, 

 and three feet high from the top of the bank, so close as to prevent stock of any kind from get- 

 ting through. Provided, that a rail fence FIVE FEET high, with rails not more than eighteen 

 inches apart, from the ground to the height of every three feet, shall be a lawful fence so far as 

 cattle, horses, and mules are concerned. (Approved January, 1879.) 



MISSISSIPPI. (Laws 1871, p. 408.) 1905. All fences FIVE FEET high, substantially and closely 

 built with planks, pickets, hedges, or other good material, and which are strong and close 

 enough to exclude domestic animals of ordinary habits and disposition, are to be taken and 

 considered as lawful fences, as long as they are kept in good repair. 



(A fence made of common rails and built in the form known as worm fence to be six FEET 

 high, and kept in good repair, is also a lawful feuce.) 



FLORIDA. (Digest, 1872.) Section 1. All fences or inclosures commonly called worm, log, or 

 post and paling fences, erected and made around or about any garden, orchard, plantation or 



