THE FENCE-ROW 187 
becoming dry; escaping fire, they soon settled to the earth 
in decay; and during their time they harbored an abundance 
of rabbits, mice and other vermin to infest the fields. The 
stump fence was usually made of white pine, having great 
horizontal spread of roots. The roots of one side were 
chopped off, so that when the stump was laid on one side the 
other side rose erect into the air. By overlapping of roots, 
an excellent barrier was thus constructed. Tho subject, ina 
less degree, to the defects of the brush fence, the stump fence 
had the one great merit of permanence. The resinous roots 
resist decay, insomuch that there are stump fences all over 
New York and New England to-day fairly well preserved, that 
were built by the pioneers. Indeed, after the clearing of the 
land and the first cutting-over of the woods, there was no 
material left for building such fences a second time. Stone 
fences are built with greater expenditure of labor, but they 
occupy less land, and if properly built in the beginning, are 
easily maintained. Like the two preceding, they are built of 
waste material obtained in clearing the land. 
But such materials were not available everywhere in 
quantities adequate even for the first fences built. Further- 
more, the trunk of a tree, if split into rails, will build much 
more and better fence than will the brush of its tops, and the 
fence will occupy less ground, will be less easily burned, will 
harbor less vermin, and will last much longer. 
When land was being cleared of timber for which there 
was no market, the best use to which the logs could be put, 
was to split them into rails and build fences with them. 
Rails of black walnut and cherry and other valuable woods 
were used in the fencing of thousands of acres. During that 
comparatively brief period when men believed the timber 
supply of the country to be inexhaustible, rail-splitting was 
one of the most widespread forms of labor; insomuch that 
when Abraham Lincoln was introduced to the people of the 
