The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1882-03-23
Fence Facts and Figures.

| Inc Cost Ol FENCES has Oeen topic OF
much discussion among the authoriti, S
on husbandry for many years. Fifty
years ago it was believed that the hedge
would bring complete remedy. Again
more rigid laws for restraining cattle
have been resorted to, especially
in the older states, where there are prac-
tically no stray cattle, but there is some
thing in land possession that still finds
enjoyment in exclusive occupancy of the
soil, and while this lasts the fence is
likely to hold its place. A mode of fence
economy is sought in some parts of the
country, notably in Kansas, Virginia
and several of the southern states,
where counties and townships, on
the vote of electors, may es-
tablsh and maintain an outer
boundaries of such territories sufficient
fences, with gates at highways, thus es-
tablishing tract within which common
law prevails, and animals must be fenced
in, instead of being fenced out. This
does not, therefore, do away with fences,
but enables all landowners within such
limits who have no need of fences to do
without them. The movement is still
regarded as On experiment, and, it must
be confessed, has the weakness of leav-
ing as a public charge, subject to the
neglect or caprice of electors, a protec-
tion the farmer is generally best satisfied
to insure for himself. Probably fence
wisdom was never better expressed than
i'll the words of an old-time law (Massa-
chusetts, l649), which bases their need
upon ''tbe several inconveniencyes and
multiplicity of suits and vexations aris-
ing from the insutficiency of fences"
The dearth of wood and stone in many
of the s ates has brought some remark
able results in the adoption of wire in
fencing, for which it has been employed
for the past twenty-five years. The
modern invention of the sharp, repellant
barb has very largely increased this use.
1t is estimated that one hundred and
fifty thousand miles of plain wire fences
were built before the barb came to be
known. Since that time over two hun
dred and fifty Thousand miles of barb
| fencing have been built, some part of
which must find representation in the
above fence statistics for 1879, since
twenty-six thousand miles of barb fence
were erected in that year, according 10
the statistics of the iron and steel in
dustry. The same figures show that
sixty thousand miles of barb fence were
built in 1881, costing $l0,000,0 900. .
One feature of the fence question
made possible by the great portability of
wire fence material is the growing Gus
tom of inclosing immense areas of pas
turage in regions previously given up as
free ranges, a system likely to become a
thing of the past. In Neuces county,
Texas, eighty thousand acres are In
closed in one pasture by barb fence.
In southern Missouri, thirty thousand
acres are being inclOsed as dOg-proof
sheep pasture. But the largest inclosed
pasture in the world is that of the fa.
nous Maxwell grant, in New Mexico, on
which over two hundred miles of wire
fence are in use, and seven hundred
thousand acres held in one inclosure
Some Of the lner Enclosures on the same
grant are ten miles square A wire fence
manufacturer not long ago received a
single order for three hundred miles of
barb wire fencing, TO build one hundred
miles of fence on tract in Oregon. Nor
are these large figures confined to this
country. The Australian government
recently contracted with an English fenc-
ing company for two hundred and fifty
four miles of wire fence.
One important part of the fence ques-
tion has to do with the fencing of rail
way lines, which is enjoined with more
or less strictness in most of the states,
and in some way or other is made OBJ
ligatory in all. The many thousand lines
of railways call for close fencing through
out their whole extent, and the necessity
has grown with the rapid incorporation
of smaller local lines into through routes,
with an increase of traffic aud heavy
trains. So far from being an obsolete
requirement, greater strictDess is in
forced by recent legislation in several
states, notably Massachusetts in 1879,
where the amended railroad statutes re-
quire the railroad companies to build the
fences even where the adjoining land
owner has been paid TO build the fence.
In New York state the law on this sub
ject is almost penal in its character.
The census of 1880 shows an expendi-
ture in the United States of S78, ,629, 900
for building and repairing fences in the
year 1879. The states reporting the
largest outlays are: