Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-08-24
NO FENCE COMES AGAIN.

To the Editor Of the Union and American:
DURHAMvILLE, Aug. @, 1sT2.-I noticed
in the issue of the lst inst. Of your most ez-
celent weekly paper, a communication
from subscriber in opposition to the mo
fence" proposition, in reference to which /
would like to express few thoughts, not
through any desire of controversy, but like
him, think it question of "much import
ance." / think by close examination he
will f1nd that it is decidedly to the advan-
tage of the "Poor Tenant" to have no
fence. And l will state right
here that l am not one of those,
|Spread Eaglen farmers of whom he speaks
but very quiet small farmer, with but
very few acres, and more OF that untillable
than tillable land. In the first place then,
as he says the tenant has to take the land
with scarcely any fence around it, and if be
makes crop, he has to go to the woods,
split, haul and lay up the tails, to guard
not against his sold mare and colt" but
against his neighbors, stock. l propose
mo Fence" as a remedy for this existing
evil. But he asks what is to be done with
the ''old mare and colt?" 1t is very plain,
, that if such law was in
effect each land owner who
wanted to rem: bis land, would have to pre-
pare place for the stock of his tenants
just as be prepares a house for his family
or stable for his horse, and it would be
much less expense for him to do so than to
keep up the fencing around his entire farm.
Nearly all the farmers have them already
prepared. Now, in the second place, l
agree with Subscriber when he says that
"more difficulties arise, more stock is killed
and more money paid out for
lawsuits" from the present system
of fensing than from any other cause. l
propose as remedy: Make every one
take care Of his own stock, then the re-
sponsibility will rest solely on him, land there
can be no dispute then about the suggestion
of Subscriber; let us have a more stringent
and speedy way Of collecting damages.
Subscriber again suggests that when tim
her is scra &c for farmers to use rocks, he
forgets that there is n, { rock enough in
this whole section to fence one acre of land
and transportin rock is rather expensive.
Now hold again that when q man owns
just and true title to a piece of land, he
has a perfect right TO all the
products of that land, whether under
fence or not, just as be has to the offspring
of flock of sheep or gang of hogs that
roam outside of any fence. Another rea-
son why fence should not be around cul-
tivated lands-it is a nursery for all kinds
of grass, weeds, and bushes which scatter
their seed all over the productive portion
of the land, and thereby increasing the Ia
Dor of the ''tenant" many fold. And If he
is renter, the land is measured TO him
from fence to fence, and bis plow-horse
having to turn around at each end of each
row necessarily compells him to leave sew
eral feet uncultivated, which added togeth-
er around the farm makes no small item,
which is all the loss of the 'poor tenant"
Now, subscriber has certainly forgotten
one other very great fact. That whenever
the taxes are heavy on the landlo rd's land,
the tenant has his portion of the same to
pay. So to the contrary, when it takes less
to keep up the land in a tillable state, the
owner of the land can afford to take just
that much less rent for the same. Now, /
think the tax to keep up fencing has been
very correctly estimated at about one dol
lar per acre. Now, one-fourth of that
would be sufficient to keep no pasturage
for all the tenants, then he would only
have twenty-five cents to paw where he now
pays a dollar. Then instead of losing the
ground occupied in turning the ploW-hOrse
around, you not only get the benefit of
that, but also Of that portion which the
fence formerly occupied, which is the richest
on the place. This of itself added together
is large item. One other very great ad.
vantage, we would constantly have our
stock under our protection, when if
they run at large as "Subscriber"
Mare" would be rode to death, and
Tho CCOid xr-r,,lS bo 1,asllrad
There are many other reasons l might Civ