The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-03-01
St0ck.Law.
EFFECT ON THE WEST.

The necessity of enclosing with fence
is the bane of Western farming. A man
buys quarter section, and is compelled
to make either one or two miles of fence
the quantity depending on the circum-
stance whether he Coins fences" or not.
He may wish to raise wheat and keep no
stock but he is compelled to fence just
the same, to defend himself against his
neighbor's cattle. If they have not more
than fifty head, it will be cheaper for him
to 60 upon their farms and enclose their
pastures, than to build his own boundary
fence.
The squatter finds to his amazement
that his fence will cost FIVE times as much
as his land did-not less than four hun
dred dollars mile. He has teams, tools
and boys sufficient to raise fifty to hun
dred acres of wheat, but not having
money enough to fence it, is driven to
the alternative of renting of others, and
letting his own rich land lie idle. Farm
ers can about as we'll afford to pay ten
dollars per acre for a farm, and be
obliged to fence only enough to restrain
their own stock, as to pay ive dollars per
acre, and be compelled to fence against
the stock of the State. ~,.r-e Il ~; 81
Many men who rent all their lives,
would buy land and pay for it, were it
not for the serious expense of fencing.
The writer in the Illinois Report, already
quoted, says: "About three-fourths of
all the 'cussin' in Illinois may be fairly
charged to the practice of fencing crops,
rather than stock. Had Illinois passed q
law thirty, twenty, or even ten years
since, that stock should be fenced, or
otherwise taken care of by their owners,
1 do pot believe there would be an acre
Of good prairie uncultivated in the State.
/ know this is strong statement when
we think how many acres of the best
land in the State are yet lying out but
those who have lived in the State but the
last ten years have seen miles of prairie
come under, the .plow right around them,
even under the crop fencing incubus.
During the wheat mania of few years
since, large portion of the prsiries of
central Illinois would have been turned
bottom side up, had it not been for the
expense of fencing.
We have spent millions of dollars in
Michigan pine to keep our corn and
wheat from going off our farms to prey
on ous neighbors' hogs and cattle p
Under uniform Law compelling every
man to take care of his stock, and in
suring him against harm from his neigh
bors, it is certain that the population of
the Western States would have been some
millions greater than now, while their
wealth would have, proportionately in:
creased. Moreover, the farms would
have been better cultivated, the houses
better. built, the barns larger and more
comfortable, and the average stock Of
purer breed and higher quality. Let
every Legislature say to every settler,
''Take care of yonr own stock, and ne
will see that your neighbor takes care of
his" and two farms will be opened
along the frontier where one now is.
The West seems to be; perversely blind
to it's own interest in this matter; but it
will not much longer be -"the- poor mans,
asylum" unless It shall open its eyes,
and, BY relieving him Of the enormous
"fence tax" placethe virgin soil within
his reach.