Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-05-03
THE OTHER SIDE, Or NO FENCE.

To the Editors Of the Union and American:
BEDFORD COUNTY, April 13, 1S72.-In
your issue before the last, A. B., of Indian
Mound, Stewart county, Tenn, has a COM
munication on the subject of fences, and
with your permission l will take the other
side-Of no fenc The shoe ifs the foot
exactly, as l happen TO be one of the small
farmers alluded to in his communication,
and beg to differ with that gentleman. But
before proceed further let me tell Mr.. A.
B., l doubt exceedingly whether he is far
mer or not. He says such a law as the
one proposed would protect the interest of
the rich farmer at the expense of the poor
man. | can't SEE it that way. And as |
told you have forty acre patch, and still
/ think this law would benefit me and
protect my interest. he says the wealthy
land owner who possesses bis hundreds,
who has plenty of cleared land for cultiva-
ton and to spare for pasturage, who can
buy and SOW clover and keep ponds within
his enclosures, can keep up his stock with
profit and save something in the way of
fencing. On the other hand it takes all the
land the poor farmer has to support his fam
lily. Well, Mr.. A B, your family must be
larger than mine, for ont Of that same patch
told you about one-half is in grass, and if
only had twenty acres l would grass half
of it at least; and if you will only try the
experiment little you will find it beats
blowing. Your poor farmer will always be
poor and poorer still, who cultivates year in
AMI year out all the land he has cleared;
his stock and family will eat up all the corn
he can make before corn comes again. l
know what lam talking about, and a man
who tries to farm protitably without grass
had better quit and do something else.
1 once lived on place where was COM
PEELED to chink the fence to keep out TWEEN
ty of my neighbours razor backed hogs. 1
have been in favor of no fence ever since,
and must tell A B. that fencing costs
some money on that place. Good cedar,
calls were worth IS per hundred laiG on
the fence, and my neighbors were situated
like myself no timber to make rails, and
all this happened i Bedford county, in the
finest grass region ever saw. What would
you think of f be to the water mark
then? Cost nOthi, Try it, and two dol
lars per hundred is 5 low as | have ever
known rails, made Id laid on the fence,
and the man earns it all, provided he uses a
wagon. There are many men who have
lived their three score years owning large
bodies of land, and worn it out raising cot
ton to support the fifteenth amendment
who are left with no help only
as they hire it, (and not much to hire with, }
and the scarcity of rail timber, would cost
an immense amount of money-four times
as much as the little knotty-headed stock is
worth that runs at large. And right here l
will state what took place in my neighbor-
hood: ten or dozen shoats destroyed thirty
barrels corn; the shoats were worth Sl8 or
| $40, and the men who suffered the damage
were neither fddlegs nor dancers, but
church-going folks, and were. doing their
Sest to stop them out. Cows sometimes
jump fences, too, and when you hear the
bell you may go. l go it on the principle
that stock that are worth keeping at all are
worth keeping well, (Mr. Blackstone to the
| coDtrary,) and no man can raise stock sue
cesSfully unless he sees after them, and the
| best way to save time and trouble is to
keep them at home, and not keep more
| than he is able to take care of well, and not
annoy the country around with his worth
! less stock, for it is a fact that stock run
ming at large is generally worthless.
R.S.M.