The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-08-09
FENCE QUESTION.

Mr.. EDITOR: A great deal has been said
on the fence question pro and con, and /, as
non Landowner, want to say few words
on that subject. I know really have no
normal right to say word, or to vote on
the question, it being question of an agri-
cultural nature, not connected with politics,
and wholly belonging to the landowner,
and it is presumption in me to say whether
YOU as a landowner shall have made on
your plantation every winter three thou
sand rails or three hundred. 1t is also pre-
sumption for me to say that you shall in
vest money in land to be grazed by my
stock, and thereby never allowed to i'm
| prove in value. But as the law does give
me vote on the question, and as am iv-
ing on Black Jack Ridge, have been maui
ing out rails all my life, and fencing land
where it takes all the rail trees thatgrow.
on fifty acres to fence in ten acres, and have
had to cut down two trees to get one rail
| cut, and have worn myself out at that busi-
ness, I am very much interested on the
fence question, and will do all in my power
to bring about a change in the present in
efficient, inapplicable, injurious and labo-
rious fence system, both to the landowner
and non Landowner, and particularly be-
lieve it will be of vast Importance to me.
have been wanting to buy land long time,
ifit was only few acres, so I could have q
settled home for my family. But as long
as the present fence law stands I know
will never get foot of land that I can call
my own. Because when I apply to one
man for few acres he says, we'll, out yon-
der is a piece of old field will sell you, but
there is no timber on it and you could not
fence it. I apply to another man for a
piece of timbered land, he says no, he can
not sell it for any consideration; he is
obliged to keep all the timbered land he has
for rail timber to fence his plantation.
And, sir, must live, if can live and pay
an eternal rent, and die without owning
enough land to bury myself and family in.
1t is hard, it is ruinous, and, notwithstand-
ing all that, many non-landowncrs are
prating and mouthing about the change of
the law as taking their liberties away. Yes,
the glorious liberty of killing themselves
mauling rails, living i'll smoked cabins and
dying as poor as Jobs turkey. Why, sir,
as I said above, the landowner cannot sell
his land off to non. landowners, nor to any
body else he is compelled to keep twice the
amount of land he cultivatcs in order to
keep up the fence around the part he does
cultivate 1t is dead investment. does not
pay one cent of interest, and he has to pay
taxes on it besides. Well, let us see how
much the fence of small farm costs, say a
one hundred acre tract; make the calcula-
ton. If you purchase one hundred acres at
$1,000, you can run one horse farm on it,
and cultivate about thirty-fve acres, includ-
ing small grain, then cut off fifteen acres for
fire. wood and to make pasture fence and
keep that fence up, you have fifty acres left
that you cannot cultivate. You cannot sell
it, must keep it to make fences. Well, it
cost you $500. Why, you say, doyou mean
that the fence of a one horse farm cost $500
Yes, that is just what 1 mean to say, and
just what everybody will be compelled to
admit if they will think little in that
direction. $500 is the cost of the fifty acres
at the outset, when the purchase was made
then the interest lost on that amount every
year at 10 per cent. is $50; the labor of fenc