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THE ILLINOIS FAKMEK. 



Juke 



only f 1.65 per acre. Forty acres in a field re- 

 quires but 4 rods per acres, costing only $1.20 per 

 acre, and 100 acres may be enclosed in one field 

 with 2^ rods per acre, costing 75 cents per acre. 



Small farms are quite generally fenced into 

 fields of five acres each, and large farms are re- 

 garded as satisfactorily divided if the fields 

 measure fifteen or twenty acres each. Assuming 

 ten acres as the average size of fields, into which 

 our farms are divided by fences, we arrive at the 

 following result as to the cost of fencing : 



A farm of 100 acres thus divided would require 

 800 rods of fence, which of rails and stakes would 

 cost $240, to which must be added ten per cent 

 for annual decay and repairs, and seven per cent 

 for the use of capital invested in the fence, making 

 $40,80 per annum. This fence will occupy a 

 strip of land at least four feet wide, and of the 

 length of 800 rods will make twelve and a half 

 acres, costing say $30 per acre, which we will as- 

 sume to be the average value of the farming lands 

 of the State, making the sum of ISYS, the annual 

 interest of which is $26.25 to be charged to the 

 annual fence account, swelling it to $6*7.05 as the 

 annual cost of sustaining the cheapest class of 

 fence on a farm of one hundred acres. 



To the above might properly be added a consid- 

 erable sum as damages sustained annually from the 

 rank growth of noxious weeds which find shelter 

 in the fence corners, and ripen a luxuriant crop of 

 seeds to dispute the possession of the adjoining 

 fields, on each return of spring, with the seeds 

 upon which the farmer relies for his crop, increas- 

 ing the expense of cultivation, and diminishing 

 the productiveness of the soil. 



The sum representing the cost of the fence and 

 interest on the value of land occupied by it, mul- 

 tiplied by the 120,469 farms of 100 aci-es each, 

 that the improved lands of the State of New York 

 would make if thus divided, represent the vast sum 

 of $7,830,485, as the annual cost of fences in this 

 State. The aliove estimate is based upon the cost 

 of a cheap rail fence. The cheapest fence I can 

 build on my farm, is of hemlock boards and chest 



nut posts, costing me one dollar per rod. It is 

 therefore apparent to my mind, that the average 

 cost of fencing is much above the figures that I 

 have given, and may safely be assumed to cost 

 $10,000,000 per annum. As an equivalent for this 

 vast annual outlay of money, we enjoy the privil- 

 ege of turning our cattle out to harvest their own 

 living, by grazing the pastures and gleaning the 

 stubble fields, or running at large in the public 

 highway. Is it a good investment ? Do we get a 

 fair and full equivalent for the investment of $150,- 

 000,000, for such it really is, as $10,000,000 which 

 we annually pay to sustain our fences, with our 

 farms as collateral, would secure the use of that 

 sum by loan ? I think we do not, and I desire 

 that our farmers should begin to reflect on this 

 subject, and see if it is not time to begin a reform 

 in that direction. 



—It is true our fields are larger, but then the 

 cost of fencing .is enormous, on account of the 

 extraordinary high price of posts and boards, of 

 which to make them. With our system of farm- 

 ing and peculiar climate we do not intend to ad- 

 vocate dispensing with fences, but on the other 

 hand to encourage them and cheapen their cost. 



We not only want them to guard our fields from 

 unruly stock, but we want them to change the 

 climate, to compel the clouds to give summer 

 showers, and a more equable distribution of rain. 

 We have introduced the remarks of our New York 

 friend to show what they suffer in that State, and 

 what we too would loose by continuing the use of 

 dead fences. We have, or soon will have, an 

 abundance of fencing material with which to in- 

 close our fields at a cost not exceeding twenty-five 

 ccflts a rod, and that, too, without any large per- 

 centage of repairs. 



THE USE OF FENCES. 



First, we want fences to divide our fields, so as 

 adjust our farms to a mixed husbandry of grain 

 and stock, as well as to enable us to take advan- 

 tage of a rotation of crops. In the next place we 

 want live fences to give us more timber, so as to 

 preserve a due proportion of moisture. In this 

 way a perceptible change can be made in the cli- 

 mate within the next ten years. The fuel ques- 

 tion we now pass over, as well as that of tim- 

 ber for building purposes, and confine our remarks 

 to fencing alone. The farmers of the prairies have 

 decided on having fences at all events so that we 

 need spend no time over the reasons pro and con, 

 but they have not decided what fences they will 

 have. • 



THE OSAGE ORANGE 



Has been introduced a l«ng time, and just as 

 people begin to understand its value and the pro- 

 per mode of using it for fencing purposes, the 

 stock of plants and supply of seed failed. That 

 this plant is the best of all the shrubs or trees pro- 

 posed for live fences we have no doubt. It is 

 cheap, durable and eflScient in all cases where the 

 land is rolling or well drained. In using it for a 

 fence we should cut it to the ground after the sec- 

 ond year and then let it alone. 



THE WHITE WILLOW. 



In low grounds where no other fence trees will 

 live the willow must be used, it is there that it 

 makes a fine fence in a short time. It is also val- 

 uable in all situations where we wish to break oflF 

 the prairie winds, but unless it is needed for this 

 use we should only put it on the low grounds. The 

 rapid growth of this tree will have a decided in- 

 fluence on the climate as such a large amonnt of 

 it has been planted the past spring. In England 

 where the air is always saturated with moisture 

 from the ocean, hedges and timber are of no val- 

 ue in obtaining an adequate amount of moisture, 

 but with our continental climate subject to drouth 

 the case is quite different. We need timber belts 

 for this purpose, and if we can at the same tim« 



