90 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



thirty-eight cents per acre. It costs as much to fence a ten- 

 acre lot, as it would to thoroughly undcrdrain it. 



And these estimates, too, have all been made on the improved 

 land alone of tlie State. But the waste is not merely in the 

 cost of the fences and repairing. A large item is the land 

 occupied by the fence, and worthless, because uncultivated on 

 each side. A large part of our fences is Virginia fence, wliich 

 will measure through the bottom three feet. Bush-riding and 

 staked fences take as much. So that we think that four feet is 

 a moderate estimate for the land under and on both sides of 

 our fejices, wliich is uncultivated, and worse than useless. 

 This would leave on both sides of a fence inclosing ten acres, 

 one and one-fourth acres ; on the twenty-three million rods of 

 fencing in the Commonwealth, thirty-one thousand two hundred 

 and fifty acres of land untilled and unoccupied, a refuge for 

 almost every kind of vermin, that walks, flies, or crawls. 

 Might we not dispense with a large portion of this expensive 

 incumbrance ? Probably about one-eighth, or nearly three 

 million dollars are in fences on the highway, where we are not 

 obliged to fence animals out, but only to keep in those that are 

 properly there. We believe that it is poor economy and poor 

 farming to allow cattle to graze on tillage or mowing lands ; 

 that they ought never to be allowed to run on them ; but that 

 when pastures get short, and fail to furnish a necessary supply, 

 the cattle should receive other feed ; and there is one great 

 advantage of soiling, or keeping cows up the whole season. 

 Besides, pastures would not get short so soon as they do, if they 

 were not overstocked or if they were properly cared for. This 

 course would then only make it necessary to fence the grazing 

 lands ; the division fences between different fields of mowing 

 and tillage being removed, so much time and money might be 

 bestowed on the pastures, which need it badly enough. 



Now, without going to the full extent of what is here stated, 

 cannot each one see on his own farm how some improvement 

 in this direction may be made, for if our propositions arc true 

 in the whole they are equally so in part. 



Numerous fences, crooked, irregular and ragged, crossing 

 the farm in every direction, dividing it into lots of all sizes and 

 almost every form, are unsightly as well as expensive. "Where 

 a division fence is necessary, and the material is to be had, there 



