Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1867-10-17
AafiealiataI department.
FENCES.


The only country in Europe, we believe,
in which tie landed proprietor is saddled
with The enormous expenses of ENCLOSURES to
protect himself from trespass is England; !;
and there the hedge has been to great ex-
tent substituted for that other costly nuis-
ance, the fence, in the enclosure of farms,
and their subdivision into fields. We have
inherited the pernicious system from our
British ancestry, and in early times when
the country was partially and thinly settled,
when timber was not only valueless but an
encumbrance to be gotten rid of by the
most expeditions means, there was. some
reason for its toleration; but now the case
is far different. When we come to consid-
er that the cost Of building and repairing
the fences of the United States is enormous,
almost beyond the power of computation,
it becomes matter for surprise that the sg-
ricultural community does not seek, by o
total or even partial abolition of the sys-
tenn, to rid itself forever of burden far
more onerous than the federal taxation to
meet the annual interest on our billions OF
national bebt. ~ as,s.t
The late Nicholas Biddle, in one Of his
able agricultural addresses, delivered. some
thirty years ago,-estimated the cost of the
fencing for the State of Pennsylvania alone
at 800, ,000, 600 ;dndthe annual cost Of re-
pairs at SIC, ,000,00 An able writer on
National Wealth, says "Strange as it
may seem, the greatest Investment in this
country, the most costly. product of human
industry, is the common fences which en-
close and divide the, fields. No man dreams,
that when compared to the outlay on these
unpretending monuments of human art, our
cities and our towns with all their wealth,
are far behind; in many places the fences
have cost more than the fences and farms
are worth. 1t is the enormous burden
which keeps down the agricultural interest
of this country, causing an untold expendi-
ture, besides the loss of the land the fences
occupy" We heard the late Charles Cal
vert, Of Prince George county, Maryland,
q man who, notwithstanding his hereditary
wealth, was eminently practical, estimate
the annual tax for fencing on farm Of one
hundred and fifty acres, properly enclosed
and subdivided, with post and rail Of ches-
nut. 1884. In colonial times, in the older
States timber was an encumbrance, taxing
the ingenuity and industry Of the farmer
for its removal now the reverse is the case; ;
it is daily getting more scarce and valuable,
and the period IS not; far distant when, as
now in France (once the best timbered
country in Europe) we will be compelled to
buy it by the pound for domestic purposes.
True, in many parts of the country the
hedge is being substituted for the more ex-
pensive fence; but that is amere palliative,
the substitution of lesser fora greater
evil. Beautiful as the hedges are in Eng
land, the public voice is being raised against
them there, because of the enormous amount
Of land required for their support. Each
hedge is FIVE or six feet wide at its base ;
and it will exhaust the land on either side to
the extent of fully FIVE feet Where the
divisions and subdivisions of an estate are
as numerous as .ajudicious rotation of
crops will frequently require, the abstrac-
tion of arable land amounts to serious ag-
gregate.-lMrt, Field and Farm. 3. "a