The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-04-10
The Waste of Fences,

IacG TO state that the absolute cost OF
fences In the United States is equal to
the value of all the live stock kept upon
the farms. But, unfortunately, this
last sum does not include the annual
loss arising from the waste of land con-
sequent upon our costly system of fenc-
ing, which, including the damage done
to crops by the encouragement of weeds
and their encroachment upon our fields,
will, doubtless, reach every year to
fully six per cent. upon the cost of the
fences, and thus will represent capital
sum equal to that cost. Then the value
of the fences, upon the whole. and their
annual cost, may be estimated at equl-
valent to double the value of all our
live stock. The commissioner of the
agricultural department, in his last
monthly report, estimates the cost OF
fencing farm of 100 acres in Pennsyl-
vania, with chestnut posts and rails, at
81, 610.62, sum actually far in excess
of the average value of the stock kept
upon farms in that state. We, there
fore, claim for our own estimate a very
close approximation to the actual facts.
When we come to realize that this
ruinous expense is in large part unne-
cessary that it is, in fact, maintained
in defiance of common sense and better
knowledge, and that its abolition in
great part is entirely and easily practi-
cable, it becomes matter for astonish-
ment that such a costly system should
be continued. No wonder that farming
does not pay. What business can be
made to pay when the principles of
economy are so defied?
In our article last week we spoke of
III % L, e 4, l.
should be remedied under a system OF
improved farming. We wish to point
out how this has been done, is now
ways in which this wasteful system may
One is by following the soiling system
gether to yards, thus entirely doing
away with the need for inside fences,
and the other by fencing off a field
which is used for pasture, and removing
all other inside fences. At the outset
ing stock requires so much labor that it
is not possible for the poorer farmers to
follow that plan. But we have passed
through extensive districts in France
and Germany, where the farmers are
vate only small farms, or rather patches
seldom equal to twenty acres each, aud.
curiously enough, they agree that they
can not afford to do anything else with
their stock but shut them up, and grow,
cut, and carry feed to them, to be con-
sumed in the stable or the yard. In
their case it is "their poverty and not
their will consents" and they adopt the
system because they cannot afford any
other. For many miles through the
richest and most closely populated coun-
try in that part of Europe, the bounda-
ries between the farms are low, narrow
banks, mere burrows covered with grass
or clover, and no other fence is visible,
not even upon the roads. And yet the
choicest dairy products are there made
in abundance. At the same time it is
the boast of the farmers who cultivate
with most success and profit the high
rented farms in Great Britain that their
land all lies within ring fence with
nothing to obstruct its cultivation. It
may, therefore, be taken as demonstra-
ted that so far from it being impossible
for the poor farmer to keep his stock
upon what is known as the soiliDg sys-
tenn, it may be accepted as good rea-
son for his poverty that he keeps his
stock in any other way. 1t must be I'M
derstood that we refer to those cases in
which the farming is mixed, and where
land is scarce and high, and not to those
in which sheep farming is carried on, or
where the dairy is special pursuit, and
pasturing altogether followed, nor where
land is SO low in price that a small crop
upon q large area is for tbs present
more desirable than large crop upon
a small area.
Wherever it is desired to farm with
the greatest economy we would recon-
mend that all interior fences should be
removed, a simple wagon-road or path
being maintained between them, and
sown to clover and grass, which is
moved as any other crop and as far as
possible that portion of the farm most
conveniently situated for the purpose
should be appropriated to a succession
of crops, which should be devoted to
the maintenance of the stock in sheds
and yards. The good results of this
system have been found to be: First
an actual saving of time and labor
in growing the feed and feeding it;
second, a better yield of milk from COWS
and of beef or pork from feeding stock,
and better health in all the animals
subjected to it; third, great gain
in the quantity and the quality of the
manure saved fourth, a greatly in
creased product from the same area of
ground and lastly, but not least, far
grea er subordination of all the business
of the farm to methodical and conse-
quently easy and profitable manage
ment. When we assure our readers
that our own experience has resulted in
the plentiful feeding of one COW upon
the product of one acre for the whole
year, and that others who have fed their
stock upon this system have done even
better than that, 1t is to be hoped that
some enterprising farmers at least, who
are looking to the most profitable man.
agement of their farms, will, as soon as
may be, inaugurate this system, and
give an example of its benefits to their
neighbors; and in so doing help to
show that the present great waste of
fences need exist no longer.