Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1877-01-10
AGRICULTURAL NOTES.
Fencing and Selling.

Fencing and Selling.
The question rests upon the differ
ence in the cost of fencing and the cost
of soiling and the value of land. A
common fence will cost IS cents rod
on the farm where the timber is found.
If the rails are to be transported any
distance the cost will not be less than q
dollar rod. On every eighty acres of
cultivated land there are at least 600
rods of fence, costing $500 or $500 and
about ten per cent. annually for repairs.
This is on the supposition that the
owner builds one half the line fence on
three sides of the whole across the end
lying on the road. We say nothing
about the three or four acres of land
taken up by the fences. A fence at
best will not last over twenty or twenty
five years. This 5000 in fences is SO
much capital invested in the business
of farming, and if we reckon interest at
lowest rates and add the cost of repairs
yearly. it amounts to not far from 500
yearly, for the cost Of keeping up
fences On an eighty acre farm. It
will exceed this on an average during
twenty-five years.
A COW may be kept the year through
on a little over one acre of land, if the
land is in the best possible condition,
by soiling; but if pastured three acres
are required. Here appears to be a
saving of land as well as saving of the
cost of fences to offset against the cost
of soiling. What would be the cost of
soihng under ordinary circumstances !?
A writer in the Country Gentleman
states that he has soiled thirty-fve
cows and three four-year old steers for
SIS for the season, keeping an accurate
account of the labor. IF these figures
are correct there would be great saw
ing if the system of soiling was adopted.
Where land is worth $50 to 800 per
acre the saving by soiling is no small
press the belief in the absence of a
practical test under our own care and
observation, which alone would make
the matter a certainty, that the aband-
onment of the old system of fencing
and pasturing, and the adoption of
soiling all stock, would be the most
certain means within reach of farmers
to improve the business and improve it
greatly. The cost of fences is burden
not lightly borne; the value of
land is an important item not rightly
consider ed. We infer this is true from
the fact that we quite often see few
animals put into a pasture of ten to
twenty acres soiling and trampling
down the whole-when one half the
number Of acres would have supported
them.
Young men who are just starting in
farming, should look these things over
and make some close calculations, so
that they may adopt at first the right
course. When man gets into GER
tain routine Of farming, Or of doing
any other kind of business it is hard to
get him to see that any other way is
better. In order to keep stock on the
soiling plan farmer needs feeding
places, and needs to have bis crops that
he feeds near at hand, and he must
provide to have then come on In regu-
lar succession. Ali this is a very simple
and inexpensive affair.
There will be at times portions Of the
farm which can be pastured; then a
cheap hurdle, or movable fence kept
for the purpose, could be readily put up
around such portions and the animals
turned in.-Detroit Free Press.