Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1882-04-28
Agricultural.


This is the season when, in the midst of
other work that admits of no postponement,
the fences must be repaired To mend fence
is no holiday amusement. Every one who
has had much to do with farm labor has some
disagreeable remembrance of his experience
in quitting up" old fence. The mending of
an old, dilapidAted, brush, pole, log or rail
| fence is a tiresome work for both mind and
body. The mental stimulus is demoralzing,
and the Juggling and lifting of poles and drv-
ing of stakes beyond the natural reach, is
worse than the exercises that boys are put
through at a gymnasium. As no wooden
fence will endure many years without repairs,
all farms not enclosed with stone wall, which
is the only durable fence, have more or less
of this perplexing work But here in Yer
mont we have plenty of material for fencing
while the prairie farmer has generally neither
timber nor stone. Does the Vermont farmer
whose fields IRE inclosed with permanent
stone fences ever think of this? The cost of
maintaining fences even here is heavy tax
upon farmers, but it is small compared with
its cost in many other parts of the country
The agricultural schedules for the census of
1880, called for the cost of building and re-
pairing fences for the year 1879. The CEN
sus report will therefore contain summary
of the cost of building and repairing fences
for that year, made from the estimates of
each farmer of the cost for his farm. The
result will be sufficiently accurate for all
practical purposes-we are not aware that
full reports of the agricultural statistics of
the last census have been published and dis
tributed, although nearly two years have
passed since the schedules were completed by
the enumerators-and will show that the an
nual cost of maintaining fences is more Sc
rious tax ON the farmer than is generally sup
posed. The census has never before taken
statistics concerning fences. Estimates based
on answers to inquiries from the Department
of Agriculture give the cost of farm fences
in Vermont at nearly $4,000, coo, and the
annual cost of repairs, including interest on
the original cost, at nearly 81, 900, 600. If
43O, 900 cattle and horses are pastured in the
state, the fences to restrain them cost 800
for each animal, and about 50 per lead, an
nualy, for repairs of fences, and interest on
their first cost
1t has frequently been said that farms could
be bought in some of the towns of New Eng
land for less than the cost of buildings and
fences. In some instances they have been
sold for less than tho cost of the fences alone.
A farm in Jamaica, two or three miles from
either village in Wardsboro, was sold last
week for 1886, with hundred dollars worth
of sugaring utensils included. The farm has
three miles of stone wall, which would have
cost, if it had been built during the past year,
more than thousand dollars
The great cost of fences has caused the
question to be raised, whether cattle should
be fenced out, or fenced IN or in other
words whether the owner who pastures his
cattle should not be held responsible for any
depredations which they may commit on the
lands of another, thus doing away with the
necessity of fencing cattle out, and compelling
the owner of cattle turned to pasture to fence
them in; or whether, as a writer has stated
the question, fences were intended to avert
the destruction of corn by the cattle of neigh
bors, or to restrain ones own stock from
| similar depredations. In the older states,
as the larger share of the land becomes occu-
pied for meadow or tillage, or for other pur-
poses than paSturage, law making the own
er of cattle liable for damages done by them
on the lands of another, whether fenced or
not, will be likely to prevail but in Vermont,
where most of the farming lands are in pas
turage, we have no reason for q law of that
kind.