The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-05-16
I TlAo- Fence T.aI.vs--No..s,

~ Mn, EDITOR; Some of youy ..scien-
tifc" contributors may advance the
idea, and prove as "a fact, that mn
timbered lands are more liaele to
drought than lands covered with
virgin forests. Whether It be SO or
not. practical ideas suggest such o
conclusion; and hence our people
should legislate, if possible, for the
preservation of natures growth, and
by all means discourage the destruc-
ton of our forests. And what more
simple method of effeoting such an
end, than by abolishing or reversing
the existing fence laws. At present
your cattle may leap my fences. da-
stroy my crops, and leap out again,
and I have no redress but to build
my fences higher; and this, of course,
requires my cutting down more tim
ber. Suppose the law were reversed /:
your jumping cattle would then be
butchered, or you would be neces-
STATED to enclose them in your own
expensive enclosures.
How many planters, think you,
before the war, ever counted the cost
of building a worm fence around a
field of any area? Not one in a
thousand. Ho,o many ,oiH fail ,o,o to
count that gerry cost? About the
same number. Let us resort to
figures moment. Suppose you have
q pina oore v,Iof of xyoIl >
you wish to put into cultivation,
what will be the cost I made it as
follows: Cutting timber and mauling
$500 rails, $4,000; cutting down re-
naming timber, $4,000; piling and
burning brush, 90; hauling rails
and building fence, $1,000; hauling
off remaining wood, 5000. Total,
$4,000.
At least one acre of land is lost by
the fence worm and space inside the
fence, where the plough animals turn
and prevent the growth of crop; or
Ii other words, the planter who now
"clears" land, expends eight dollars
per acre before he runs the first fur
row. 1 know we often hear men say,
this can't be the case, for it costs me
nothing to haul off the wood and
rails; L have the mules, and were
they not employed doing this, they
would be idle. Far better pecuniarily
to tho planter that they were idle.
Just such usage of stock killed off
mules generally before the war, at
about eight or ten years of age,
whereas the ordinary age of q mule
should be more than double that.
Others will say my women and
''trash gang" clean up my new
grounds and burn the brush, and
they go in with the average of the
hands at so little, that I don't feel
the expense. Not so. These hands
must be fed and paid, too, for labor,
and the employer that fails to know
the exact moneyed cost of every en-
ployee, will inevitably sink money,
or stint himself.
Again, freedmen are clamorous for
land, and the more industrious of
their number are attempting to buy.
Will not they, and all immigrants. be
able and willing to give more per
acre for tracts. they know they will
not be compelled to enclose, than
they will for tracts which will require
much expense and heavy labor to
secure them from the ravages of
strolling stock before they can begin
to piow?
The money spent, time lost, and
injury done by cutting down our
forests, can only be counter-balanced
by liberal application of CONNER
cial manures, and much hope is en-
tertained that the Wando fertilizer
may yet be the means of effecting
this end. It can never be, however,
if sold at the present exorbitant
price. Will not some patriotic mem
ber of the approaching Legislature
lend his energies to these two sub
jects? Aid to the Wando Company
will but be developing our internal
resources. Abolishing the fence laws
will be but reducing the agricultural
expenses of the State. Yours truly,
RAIL SPLITTER.