The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1871-02-16

A writer in the Illinois Agricultural
Report for 1864, says: ''The fences of
the United States cost more than the
houses, cities included; more than the
ships, boats, and vessels of every descrip-
ton, which sail the ocean, lakes, and
rivers; more than our manufactures, of
all kinds, with their machinery; more
than any one class of property, aside from
real estate, except, it may be, the rail-
roads of our country" This may seem
like an exaggerated statement, but lit
tie estimate viii show that it is not so ex-
travagant as would at first appear.
The first cost of the fences OF New
York State was between one hundred and
one hundred and fifty million dollars.
Robinson gives it as s144, 900, 900. As
Stunning this to be approximately correct,
and estimating the first cost of the fences
of other States on the same basis, we have
az the total first expense of the whole
country, the vast sum of 81 ,296, 900, 600.
This requires to be renewed once In ten
wears, giving 1928, 800, 600 as the annual
cost, to which should be added, however,
at least half as much for repairs, making
the aggregate of s194, 400, 600 as the an
nual national expense sum, we be-
lieve, below the actual figures, yet quite
beyond comprehension. Nicholas Blddle
estimated that the ''fence-tax" of Penn
sylvania was ten million dollars year.
General James L. Worthington, of Ohio,
saws that there are $4,000, 900 acres OF
land in Ohio inclosed with 40, 900 miles
of fences, at prime cost of $115, 600, 900,
and at yearly expense for repairs, etc.,
of 1880, 900.
If roadside and boundary fences car
be dispensed with, half the cost of fenc
ing will be saved That cost is now ar
annual tax of 81 so on every acre of i'm
proved land in the United States-tht
''fence tax" being twice or thrice as grea
as the aggregate Of the State and loca
taxes combined.
Why can not a large portion of this out
lay be saved for some profitable invest
ment? Every dollar rescued from fence
may be added to productive wealth.
Fences are dead capital they pay no in
terest, and are a constant drain upon tn,
pocket. As Mr.. Greeley says, eve poi
son our land with fences; they are shell
ter for weeds, as well as vast and useles
expense" The indirect waste which the,
infict is almost as great as their direc
cost. A Virginia zigzag fence Occupie
five acres for every hundred inclosed, thu
imposing five per cent. tax on the mar
ket value of the sofia tax that woul'
be felt to be oppressive if it were for tn
payment of the national debt instead o
to shelter a growth of weeds.
Z Shall we fence stock out or in? Their
is no doubt that our people now expen'
four times as much money to fence stoc
out as would be required to fence it in
Our present custom, which command
universal fencing is the worst blunder tn
practical American people ever made
. Enterprising and original in many ma
: tiers, they are here following slavishly, ger
: GRAFTON after generation, the habit of tn
l earliest English colonies-following i
! though very expensive and inconvenien
because it is "the good old way" Ell
! rope has learned more rational methoC
: There are ten times as many fences in l
= linois as in Germany and Duche.
! county, in New York, has more than a
> France. In France, Germany, and Ho
; land, farmers own their lands in common
with only narrow paths between.
The continental system of having fe
: or no fences is evidently the best an
: even exclusive England is slowly adop
! ! ing it. America will inevitably follow
y u for economy, taste, thorough tillage. ia
= play, and good sense command it, and til
:, time will come, before many years, whe
: the absence of farm fences will be sig
y of progressive culture.
;, The immense cost of sustaining fence!
J the inconvenience of having them alway
: in the way of thorough tilIage, and {
easy ingress and egress to the premises
the impossible snow-drifts accumulate
= by them the shelter they afford to weed
: and briars the protection they afford I
: many of the worst animal pests of tn
! country, as the receptacle of stone heaps
! piles of brush and dead trees, to sa
nothing of the countless acres rendere
worse than useless by their occupancy
would seem sufficient reasons for dispen
ing with fences wherever not indispens;
bic for purposes of pasturing, People
Journal