No. 129.] 187 



a few stray cattle belonging to some unjust neighbor who keeps 

 more than he is able to feed, and therefore permits them to forage 

 upon the just man's premises, which is burdensome and tyranni- 

 cal. If proper laws were passed by our State Legislature, this 

 difficulty would be obviated, and outside fences even would be 

 abolished. I have travelled hundreds of miles in Germany, 

 without ever seeing such a thing as a fence in any direction. 

 There the cattle are housed or sent to the hills with shepherds 

 to attend them and the farms are divided by monuments ; few 

 fences are now found on the continent of Europe, large tracts in 

 Great Britain are entirely free from the nuisance,, and six years 

 hence people there will almost have forgotten the meaning of 

 the word. I have been frequently struck with the beauty of 

 the immense fields in the vicinity of the Connecticut river, in 

 Connecticut ; which are free from fences, from the fact that the 

 annual overflow of that river renders it impossible to build a 

 fence that will withstand the flood ; they manage to do without 

 fences, by placing the cattle they wish to pasture, in the care of 

 a man who gives bonds for the faithful performance of his task, 

 which is to keep the animals within given bounds, on the com- 

 mons selected for that purpose. A large portion of the south, 

 and east and of Long Island, owing perhaps to the scarcity of 

 materials, is unfenced, cattle are there seen browsing under the 

 care of proper persons, who keep them without that nuisance, a 

 fence within certain bounds. A large portion of Nantucket is 

 unfenced, and cattle are pastured in the same manner. If the 

 inhabitants of those portions of Connecticut, Long Island and 

 Nantucket, can keep their cattle on unfenced lands, what is to 

 prevent their neighbors in other Stated from doing the same -, 

 the costs of fences in Pennsylvania^, now constructed, amounts 

 to 100,000,000 of dollars j you will find a calculation in Mr. Al- 

 len's agriculturist to this effect, suppose the State of New-York, 

 to contain a surface of 30,000,000 acres, deduct one-half for un- 

 enclosed lands and water, and it leaves 15,000,000. We are of 

 opinion that the average size of fields here is about 15 acres; 

 call the average 20 acres. To surround one of these fields, 

 would require 230 rods of fence, we will make allowances for 

 lanes, &c., and call 120 rods sufl&cient for each 20 acre field. 



