104 



EXPENSE OF FENCES. 



These smoldering fires are condemned by the best writers, because 

 they consume much of the humus and impoverish the soil a great deal 

 more than the ashes improve it. The running fires burn quickly, do not 

 injure the stumps from budding, and improve the vigor ot growth when 

 the sprouts start. They give a crop or two of grain, and when judi- 

 ciously managed, are a decided advantage where circumstances favor. 



FENCES. 



In no branch of rural economy is there so much needless waste of 

 forest products as in fencing, and in nothing is there so much need of 

 reform. The costly practice of fencing cattle out of fields where not 

 wanted, instead of in fields where they should be kept, would become 

 apparent by a simple calculation, and the economy of inclosing large 

 fields instead of small ones may be easily shown. A single square acre 

 requires 50.G rods of fence to inclose. The amounts required for a mile 

 square and various subdivisions are shown in the following table, in 

 which the calculation is made for separate iuclosures — and for the 

 entire mile square, the same subdivision fences in the latter case answer- 

 ing for two adjacent fields. 



Rods of fencing in squares on one square mile. 



It has been stated, by those who have examined the subject, that from one-quarter 

 to one-eighth of the prtseiit fences of the country would be amply fufficient to keep 

 stock within proper limits. The amount thns saved in a year would amount to millions 

 of dollars in some of the larger States. 



Estimates have been made showing the cost of fences in the United States to be 

 $1,700,000,000, and the annual cost for maintenance at $196,000,000, iucluding interest 

 at 6 per cent, upon the original cost. Instructive papers on this subject were read 

 before the Connecticut Board of Agriculture in 1675, by T. M. Hubbard, and by Dt nald 

 G. Mitchell, which are published in the report of the Board for that year, pp. 15-30 

 and 171-190, with the discussions that they raised. 



At a meeting of the Maine Board of Agriculture iu February, 187G, the subject of 

 fences was made a special topic for discussion, and many iuteresting facts presented, 

 the general tendency of which was, that the cost of their maiijtcuauce was vastly beyond 

 the actual wants of the country. Two separate estimates gave the amount of farm 

 fences in the State as 40,644,800 and 41,952,000 rods, or from 127,000 to 131,000 miles. 

 Their first cost could not be reckoned at less than $1 a rod, and the interest on this 

 sum, with repairs, snow-bills from drifting, &.C., was estimated at about §0,000,000 per 

 annum. This ^id not include the use of land which, reckoned at 8 feet iu width and 

 $30 an acre, would amount to $975,990. 



Already in some sections of the country, a fence around the wood-lot 

 on a farm is deemed quite as important as around the pasture ; in fact, 

 the free range of cattle may be considered as absolutely inconsistent with 



