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

AS great many persons will vote on
the 18th inst, against changing the sys-
tenn of fencing practiced at this time In
this county, without really understand
ing the merits of the change which pro-
poses to fence stock instead of the crops,
we have prepared from the returns in the
auditors Office the following statistical
information upon the subject, which
shows the immense cost and annual out
lay required by our present system of
fencing, compared with that which will
be required under the new system if the
law is changed. These figures advocate
the adoption of the stock law more forci-
bly, and more practically than any words
which we could pen, and therefore we ask
the opponents of the change to ponder
them we'll and heed the plain advice
which they give:
In Anderson County there are 104, ,44S
acres of arabic or plowed land, divided
between 2,54S land owners, which gives
little over II acres as the average
amount of plowed land owned by each
land owner. Every farmer will on the
average have his land fenced into three
fields, which will give 13i acres to the
field. To fence each field will require
1,04O yards of fencing, which, if a panel
of fencing covers 4S feet clear, will re-
quire 24O panels of fencing. Then if the
fence is ten rails high, it will require
twenty rails to the panel, or 1890 rails to
the field, and 14,4oo for the three fields
will be the average amount of fencing
owned by each farmer in this County.
Now, if we estimate the value of fenc-
ing at $1.25 hundred for timber, cut
ting, splitting and putting up, we have
the average value Of every mans fencing
in this c County-$1S0.00-or the startling
sum of s457, 4440 for the County. This
immense sum can best be appreciated by
comparison. All the houses in the
County, including towns and villages,
are valued at $685. ,9O2. All the cattle,
hogs, sheep and goats in the County are
valued at $147,671, and hence the fences
are worth $146,167 more than all the
houses, cattle, sheep, goats and hogs in
the County. Repairing this fencing at
the rate of one rail to each half panel of
fence, which is equivalent to making a
new fence once in ten years, we have an
annual expense of labor and material
equivalent to $45,774 every year for re-
pairing fences in Anderson County.
But objectors to the change say the ex-
pense of keeping up the pasture fence
would be very burdensome. Suppose the
average farmer should enclose for pasture
oone.fourth of his arabic land, which is
a full estimate. The value of the pasture
fences would be, on an average, about
forty-fve dollars to each farmer if he had
to buy all new rails and pay for putting
them up on one-fourth of his plowed land
at S1.25 per hundred. But the cost of
his present fencing is $3.50. Thepasture
fences for the County would be s114,4S5
instead of $457, ,74O as at present. But
every farmer has rails enough already to
build his pasture fences, and the only ex-
pense he would be at, is in hauling and
putting up the rails, which would be very
little-not as much as they will be at in
repairing old fence under the present
plan. Then when the pasture fences are
built instead of an annual outlay of $45,-
ia to repair fences we will only have an
outlay in the County for repairing the
pasture fences of sl1, ,4443 per year.
Some, however, contend that the i'm
mense expense Of fencing the County
will entail burdensome tax. As the
law provides that the tax for erecting
and maintaining this County fence shall
be collected off of landowners, no one
except landowners has any right to COM
plain of the amount of tax for building a
County fence. Non-landowners do not
pay one ceut of the tax, and threfore
have no concern with its amount. But
as some landowners would like to see
the estimates upon this subject, We give
them below:
The County line to be fenced is IS
miles by survey, equal to 34S,2OO feet.
Running the fence straight, and letting
rails cover nine feet, it will require 49,
134 rails to run it, and making the fence
ten rails high gives 3S1, $40 rails, worth,
at SLIPS, $4,766 for new rails. The num-
Der of acres of land in Anderson County
s449, ,7o1, hence tax of LA of one cent
to the acre, or S1.14 to the 100 acres, will
be enough to build the fence of new rails
at $1.25 per hundred. When the Com
missioners, however, come to making the
contract for building this fence, it will
be let out by bids from one mile upwards,
and formers living along the line will
use their sound rails in building it at
bids very much under $1.25 per hundred.
The expense will not, We believe, exceed
one cent per acre. The annual expense
of keeping this fence in repair would be
about S476.OO, if no other County adopts
the change, but We may rely upon Able
vile and portions of Pickens and Oconee
adopting it soon, and the County fence