THE FENCE QUESTION IN THE SOUTH. 



The United States Department of Agriculture, in its Report for 1871, con- 

 tained a most elaborate presentment of the statistics of fences in the United 

 States. 



These questions had the following range of inquiry : 



1. Description of fences in use. 2. Height and construction. 3. Estimated rods of fence 

 to each 100 acres of farm lands. 4. Average size of fields. 5, 6, 7, 8. Cost of various kinds of 

 fence. 9. Average cost for repairs. 10. Kinds of wood used. 11. Durability. 



In this report, the average cost of fencing, wood being almost exclusively 

 the material in the Southern states, was given as follows : 



AVERAGE COST PER ROD. 



Delaware 1.20 $7,228,274 



Maryland 1.25 32,388,370 



Virginia 90 ; . . 36,742,680 



North Carolina 75 37,392,217 



South Carolina 80 21,136,896 



Georgia 75 45,191,916 



Florida 72 2,459,403 



Alabama 80 36,785,300 



Mississippi .' 96 25,954,536 



Louisiana 1.00 , 8,182,560 



Texas , 1.10 33,022,143 



Arkansas 95 18,463,828 



Tennessee 95 62,397,748 



West Virginia 90 32,945,040 



Kentucky 95 76,277,276 



Missouri 1.00 64,442,521 



The whole cost of the fences in the United States is given in this report at 

 $1,747,549,931 with an annual total outlay for repairs of $93,963,187. 



THE HISTORY OF THE PENCE SYSTEM. 



The history and meaning of a system whose cost is represented in such 

 solid figures is worth a brief consideration, for there are noteworthy reasons 

 why to-day, as for generations past, the fence holds its place among all 

 people of English descent in all parts of the globe, to a degree found among 

 no other nationalities. These reasons are to be found in the history of the 

 English race, for whom the fence marks the growth of English liberty and the 

 era of new delight in landed possessions. And with these came the earliest 

 spring and growth of a better English husbandry. Neither of these were 

 possible until the military and oppressive attributes of the feudal system in 

 tenures of property gave way before the rising spirit of freedom. These 

 oppressive tenures were already beginning to be a thing of the past, when 

 Sir John Fortescue, about the middle of the fifteenth century, one of the ear- 

 liest English writers who refers to this subject, declared in his " De laudibus 

 legum Anglice" (1463). 



" The importance of haying the land inclosed is generally admitted. Even the feeding lands 

 are likewise surrounded with hedge rows and ditches." 



The earliest English writer on rural affairs, Sir A. Fitzherbert, in his "Book 

 of Husbandry" (1532) which it is acknowledged gave the first marked 

 stimulus to English farming, strongly urged the inclosure of land as the very 

 foremost principle of good husbandry. He advises all landlords to grant 



