A. B Allen, Editor. 
~™ FENCES.—No. 2. 
Haying shown in our last the enormous expense 
to the country of fences, and the injustice and tyranny 
of the system, we will now undertake to instruct our 
readers how a great proportion of them may be dis¬ 
pensed with. 
1. Compel all, by the most rigid laws, to keep 
heir stock up in strong enclosures; or, if permitted to 
roam, let them be in the care of some one responsible 
(or all injuries they may do to their neighbors. 
2. Adopt the soiling system wherever feasible. 
For a convincing argument in favor of this mode of 
feeding stock, we w r ould refer to the example of Mr. 
Pell, as given in page 70 of this No. The labor and 
trouble of soiling has been greatly magnified, and 
one need only practise it judiciously for a single 
reason, to be convinced of this. 
3. Lands which are too poor or too rocky for a 
profitable rotation of crops, should be turned into 
sheep pastures, and managed in the same way as 
the downs are in Spain, England, and other parts of 
the world. Sheep are gentle animals, and easily re¬ 
strained and kept within bounds. A. faithful boy, 
with a single dog of medium size, will easily take 
sare of a flock of 500. Those who possess a few 
acres, and small flocks, can unite their sheep, pro¬ 
portioning the animals to the quantity of land they 
respectively own, and then place them under the care 
of a single shepherd. These flocks may be distin¬ 
guished by each owner putting his distinctive mark 
upon them. These should be brought home to be 
soiled or hurdled in a feeding enclosure every even¬ 
ing, and then turned out again on the hills or plains 
on the following- morning, if there be any danger 
of their wandering at night into contiguous fields of 
growing crops. 
If any one desires to see how easily all these 
Kings may be managed, let him make a tour up the 
Saxton & Miles, Publishers, 205 Broadway. 
valley of the Connecticut, and especially stop and 
examine the system practised in the town of North¬ 
ampton, Massachusetts. The meadows here are 
several miles wide, and subject to be overflowed every 
spring; no fences can therefore be maintained upon 
them. To preserve the crops from destruction, all 
animals running at large are placed under the care of 
a responsible person, who gives bonds to the town to 
make good any injuries they may commit. Every 
owner of an animal then pays this person so much 
per week for taking care of them. It is a pleasing 
sight to see a large herd of cows under the superin¬ 
tendence of one man, a couple of small boys, and 
two dogs, quietly browsing over open fields through 
the day, and as they return to the village, regularly 
stop at the domicils of their respective owners for the 
night, and again gather together the next morning, to 
renew their feeding abroad. • Thousands of acres on 
the south-east end of Long Island are pastured by 
cattle under the care of keepers, thus saving the ne¬ 
cessity of fences. Nantucket and other islands are 
pastured in the same way; and it only requires a 
little obligingness, honesty, and honor, among the 
people at large (which all have, save a few land 
pirates ), to adopt this system throughout the whole 
country. 
The system of non-fencing forced upon the farmers 
of the valley of the Connecticut, by the annual over¬ 
flow of the waters, is at last beginning to be adopted 
on the poor sandy uplands in its vicinity. The fenc¬ 
ing of these lands hitherto had generally cost more 
than they were worth; the consequence was, that 
thousands of acres had been given up to open com¬ 
mon, as nearly valueless, or to the slow, stunted 
growth of a very poor quality of wood. But now 
t'nat this great and totally unnecessary expense is 
saved trie owners of the land, they are again begin¬ 
ning to cultivate and improve it. 
