222 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of those mares was cut so badly that we were two or three 

 mouths uursiug her. Another one, a two-year-old filly that 

 I uever turned out for more thau a day, got blemishes that 

 to-day are eyesores to me, and prevented me from selling a 

 valuable horse. That was a rough stone wall, such as we 

 find everywhere. 



In regard to pasturing horses, it is rather doubtful whether 

 it is good polic}' to pasture horses at all. You can pasture 

 colts, and you can teach colts at a very early age the danger 

 of a barbed fence. The trouble with horses is, that they do 

 not see, when they are careering wildly about the paddock, 

 what is before them ; they cross it, and when they come to 

 the fence the}^ run into it. If you will i)ut a light rail on 

 top of the wire, a horse will be no more likely to run against 

 it than he is to run against a rough board fence. I have seen 

 my colts careering at full speed until they came to a board 

 fence, and then they would spring back and make a sharp 

 turn ; if they struck the board fence they would take off 

 skin, and be badly blemished. Thej^ might strike a board 

 fence in a way that would be almost fatal to them. Horses 

 have been very badly hurt, when they have been chasing one 

 another, against the sharp edges of a board fence. It i's 

 very easy to teach a horse the danger there is in touching a 

 barbed wire ; they learn it very readily. The lightest piece 

 of rail put on top of the wire, that will attract a horse's atten- 

 tion, will prevent him from striking the wire. I regard the 

 b;irbed wire fences that I have put up on my own place, as 

 very great economy. I had a cow that I could not keep 

 quiet, she would tear down any board fence. I wanted to keep' 

 her and I put up a barbed fence. The first day she went out 

 with the determination to clear away the fence as usual, and 

 touched her nose to it once or twice with that intention. 

 The result was, that I noticed she spent an hour or two in 

 rubbing hor nose in the dirt, and since that time she has not 

 meddled with the fence at all. 



Mr. HiLLMAN. In driving past the farm buildings of Mr. 

 Bowditch, I think I noticed a small enclosure surrounded 

 with barbed wire, with a strip of board upon it. If he is 

 here, will he give us his experience? 



Mr. Bowditch. You are perfectly correct, Mr. Hillman. 



