268 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



1st. The expense. 



2d. The obstacles they present to an entire cultivation of fields and to 

 the transportations of manure and crops from and to the homestead. 



3d. They promote the growth of weeds. 



4th. They collect snow drifts on either side, and retard spring cultivation. 



5th. They present a cover for the concealment of vermin. 



6th. They render unavailable to the farmer 4 acres in the 100. 



7th. They cause constant disputes between neighbors. 



8th. They deform the beauty of the landscape. 



In most countries in Europe, a different system prevails. In France, 

 Belgium, Holland, and the best cultivated portions of the Continent, fences 

 are generally dispensed with. In England, they begin to see the propriety 

 of abandoning them. In visiting Nantucket and the valley of the Connec- 

 ticut, we are struck with the beauty of a landscape devoid of fences. The 

 beautiful country seats around Boston require no outer gates, and we hope 

 to see the day when New York will be enabled to present the noble 

 scenery which abounds within her borders, no longer disfigured by the 

 innumerable fences that a mistaken policy has extended over the State. 



Our rural system sadly requires legislative attention. Laws which 

 should have the effect of saving even half of the needless expense of fenc- 

 ing would enrich the State more rapidly than the Erie canal. Had that 

 great man whose active mind made that work part of your State policy been 

 longer spared to us, he would, doubtless, have bestowed upon your home 

 policy, benefits equal to those which his suggestive genius imparted to your 

 system of internal commerce. 



But since his departure, the rival parties of the capitol have been solely 

 occupied in wrangling about enlarging and extending that work, and the supe- 

 rior economy which each claims in the construction of those improvements. 



From their discussions you would infer that the sole mission of the State 

 was to furnish channels of communication between the great west and the 

 ocean, and that her own home interests could only be advanced except as 

 auxiliary to that end. 



In looking over the dreary details of legislative reports and discussions 

 for the last 30 years, the reader is forcibly struck with the absence of what 

 is called originating or suggestive statesmanship. Scarcely a measure of 

 public policy which has not originated in personal or local interest is to be 

 found in your statute book. It is for the farmers of the State to say 

 whether this condition of things is to continue. Whether local grants and 

 local railroads shall occupy all the attention of legislatures, or whether the 

 rural laws, such as regulate fences, and those applicable to common roads 

 (a system equally needing reform), shall receive some consideration. 



In your own hands is your own destiny. You control the legislative 

 power of the State. 



Before your will the 20,000 majority of the city is powerless. 



Let your will be manifested, and your interests will be cared for, and the 

 improvement of your rural laws will soon be felt in the increased prosperity 



