The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1871-01-12
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.

included, more than the ships, boats,
and vessels of every description which
sail the ocean, lakes, and rivers, more
than our manufactures, of all shops
with their machinery, more than any
other class of property aside from real
estate, except, it may be, the railroads
of the country" This may seem like
an exaggerated statement, but little
estimate will show that it is not SO ex-
travagant as it would first appear.
The first cost of the fences of New
York State was nearly one hundred
and fifty million dollars. Robinson
gives it at $l44,00O,000. Assuming
this to be approximately correct, and
estimating the first cost of the fences of
other States on the same basis, we have,
as the whole country, the vast sum of
81 ,296,O 100000. .
This requires to be renewed once in
ten years, giving $l39,600,0O0 as the an
nual cost, to which should be added,
however, at least half as much more for
repairs, making the aggregate of 1884,
400, 900 as the annual national expense
a sum, we believe, below the actual fig
ures, yet quite beyond comprehension.
Nicholas Bibble estimated that the
fence tax" of Pennsylvania was ten
million dollars a year. Gen. James T.
Worthington, of Ohio, says there are
100000 acres of land in Ohio inclosed
with $4,000 miles of fences, at prime
cost of $1l5,000,000, and at yearly ex-
pense for repairs, ETC., of $7,6S5,000.
If roadside and boundary fences can
be dispensed with, half the cost of fenc-
ing will be saved. The cost is now an
annual tax of $l.50 on every acre of
improved land in the United States-the
"fence tax" being twice or thrice as
great as the aggregate of the State and
local taxes combined.
Why cannot a large portion of this
outlay be saved by some profitable in
vestment? Every dollar rescued from
fences may be added to productive
wealth. Fences are dead capital; they
pay no interest, and are constant
drain upon the pocket. As Mr.. Greeley
says 1--WE poison our land with fences,
they are shelter for weeds, as we'll as
vast and useless expense" The indi-
rect waste which they inhict is almost
as great as their direct cost. A Virginia
zigzag fence occupies five acres for every
hundred inclosed, thus imposing five
per cent. tax on the market value of the
soll-a tax that would be felt to be op-
pressive if it was for the payment of the
national debt instead of to shelter a
growth of weeds.
Shall we fence our stock out or in
There is no doubt that our people now
expend four times as much money to
fence stock out as would be required to
fence it in. Our present custom, which
commands universal fencing, is the worst
blunder the practical American people
ever made. Enterprising and original
in many matters, there are here follow
ing slavishly, generation after genera
tion, the habit of the earliest English
colonies-following it though very ex-
pensive and inconvenient, because it is
"the good old way" Europe has learned
a more rational method. There are ten
times as many fences in Illinois as in
Germany, and Dutchess county, in New
York, has more than all France. In
France, Germany, and Holland, farmers
hold their lands in common, with only
narrow paths between.
The continental system of having few
or no fences is evidently the best; and
even exclusive England is slowly adopt
ing it. America will inevitably follow
for economy, taste, thorough tillage
fair play, and good sense command it
and the time will come when the alb
sence of farm fences will be sign Of
progressive culture.
The immense cost of sustaining fences
the inconvenience of always having
them in the way OF thorough tillage
and of easy ingress and egress to the
premises; the impossible snow-drifts
accumulated by them the shelter they
afford to weeds and briers; the protec-
ton they afford to many of the worst
animal pests of the farm, and their un-
slightly appearance generally through.
out the country, as the receptacle oi
stone heaps, piles of brush and dead
trees, to say nothing of the countless
acres rendered worse than useless, by
their occupancy, would seem sufficient
reasons for disposing of fences wherever
not indispensable for purposes of pas.
turing
How TO LOAD A WAGoN-Some three
or four weeks ago the question wa:
asked through the columns of the Rura
| Neao Yorker whether wagon should be
loaded heavier on the hind than on the
front wheels. Your reply, though not
asserted to be conclusive, implied that
the load should be equally distributed
l propose a scientific elucidation of the
subject, which will prove that the load
should be heavier on the hind wheels
in the proportion of their diameter to
the diameter of the front wheels.
A wheel is a lever, whose long arm
theoretically, is the distance from the
ground to the center of the axle; the
short arm is pivot; but, practically, il
is impossible to construct lever Of such
proportions. Hence, in calculating the
advantage of the lever, wheel or a
lever, allowance must be made for the
size of the axle, and for friction depend
ent on size, other things being equal
Without going into too elaborate a dis.
cussion, it will be sufficient to say in
general terms that the power gained by
a wagon wheel is in proportion to its
semi-diame ter, and hence that the load
on wagon should be placed proper
tionally to the diameters of the front
and hind wheels.
Suppose the front wheels are foul
feet, and the hind wheels five feet in di-
ameter-then five-ninths of the load
should rest on the hind wheels and four
ninths on the front wheels.-T s. G. IN
RuraI Neao Yorker.
Wool MATTREss.-Thirty pounds Of
wool makes a good, generous mattress