AMEKICAN INSTITUTE. 265 



Fences in proper positiona have their uses, and may he so constructed 

 as to be made ornamental as well as useful. They should, however, he 

 confined to what is necessary, such as are required for gai-dens, pastures, 

 and road fences. No interior fences, except for pasture, are required on a 

 farm. Division or boundary fences are made necessary by the act of 1838, 

 an act the policy of which may well be questioned. Beyond these they 

 should not be extended, and such a curtailment would diminish the amount 

 of fencing at least three-fourths. In making pasture fences it is desirable 

 that they should be so placed and formed of such materials as to furnish a 

 shelter or protection from the northern and eastern winds. The American 

 thorn, and some of the evergreens in this latitude, can be made available 

 for hedges, and with an open ditch on the pasture-side they present a fence 

 well calculated to confine the most unruly cattle. In some fields where 

 stone abounds, fences often present the readiest mode of relieving the 

 surface-land of an encumbrance. In such places fences may be made with- 

 out being subject to the strong objection of enormous and needless 

 expense, to which the farmers of this State are subjected by the existing 

 system. 



Fences are made from dead materials or living, as when planted in 

 hedges. 



They may also be classed as permanent, or requiring periodical renewals. 



In either case they require annual attention, involving labor and expense. 



The first cost of fences depends of course upon the materials employed, 

 and the part of the country where they are built. The average cost, how- 

 ever, is the important point to be considered in the view proposed to be 

 taken of the matter, and in order to illustrate it, I shall confine myself to 

 the State of New York. 



It has been estimated that there are in this State 15,000,000 of acres of 

 inclosed lands, which, divided into fields of twenty acres, make 750,000 

 fields, requiring 120 rods of fence for each field, or 90,000,000 rods of 

 fence in the State. The cost of this fencing varies from fifty cents to two 

 dollars per rod— rail-fencing the cheapest in the first cost, though, perhaps, 

 the dearest from its insecurity, and requiring constant attention and fre- 

 quent repairs, will not last more than ten years, which may also be deemed 

 the average duration of the ordinary post and board fence, costing in this 

 part of the State not less than one dollar per rod. Stone walls are still 

 more costly, though durable. 



Taking the average cost of wood fences, which is the ordinary fence, at 

 75 cents per rod, and this is a low estimate, and we have a result of $67,- 

 000,000 for the first cost of fencing in this State. 



This cost must be renewed every ten years, independent of the labor and 

 cost of periodical repairs. 



The annual cost of fencing in this State, over and above the cost of 

 periodical repairs, then may be computed as follows : 



