The following excerpt regarding fencing is from:
Adams, William Hampton
1990 Landscape Archaeology, Landscape History, and the American Farmstead. Historical Archaeology on Southern Plantations and Farms, edited by Charles E. Orser, Jr. Historical Archaeology 24(4):92-101.
³If there is any one thing more than another which is a source of constant anxiety and unremit-ting care to the farmer, it is the erection of suitable fences for enclosing his own grounds for the purpose of excluding lawless intruders, or keeping his own animals within proper bounds² (Todd 1860:57). Fences form a practical barrier to keep farm animals restricted to certain portions of the land. But they also serve legal and symbolic purposes as well. Fences provide boundaries to mark the extent of one¹s landholdings. The way the fences are constructed reflect the aspiredto permanence of the holdings. John B. Jackson (1969:33) has argued that fencing animals out of certain areas created a cognitive difference among farmers and ranchers which was distinct from those who fenced animals into an area: ³Spaces for containment are therefore apt to grow larger in the course of time, while spaces for exclusion are apt to remain the same or become fragmented.² In other words, the landholdings of people who fenced animals in created a situation whereby the holdings could grow.
Fencing laws varied from county to county. Farm animals were either fenced out of gardens or were fenced into pastures. Until the mid 19th century, fences were built around crops and gardens to keep animals out (for an excellent discussion of the kinds of fences, see Noble 1984:118-33). Few subjects raised a more spirited debate than that over fencing, for farmers wanted herds fenced in, while herders wanted the crops fenced. (For discussion of the role of fences in American agriculture see Allen 1888:313-23; Hart and Mather 1954, 1957; Jackson 1969; Leechman 1953; Zelinsky 1959.) Farmers were told to char their fence posts and to backfill the hole with rocks, ashes, charcoal, or lime to increase their durability and to use particular kinds of timber (Allen 1888:314): ³The best timber for posts, in the order of its durability, is red cedar, yellow locust, black walnut, white oak, and chestnut.² The importance of fencing to farmers can be seen in the amount of space devoted to fences in farming manuals. Edwards Todd spent 170 of 459 pages on fences and hedges in his book, The Young Farmer¹s Manual (1860).
ALLEN, HORACE L.
1881 The American Farm and Home Cyclopedia. Davis and Curtis, Indianapolis.
ALLEN, LEWIS FALLEY
1842 Farm Buildings. American Agriculturalist 1.
1852 Rural Architecture. Orange Judd, New York.
1888 New American Farm Book. Orange Judd, New York.
BEECHER, CATHARINE E.
1845 A Treatise on Domestic Economy, for the Use of Young Ladies at Home, and at School. Harper & Brothers, New York.
1848 Treatise on Domestic Economy. Marsh, Capen, Lyon & Webb, Boston.
BEECHER, CATHARINE E. AND HARRIET BEECHER STOWE
1869 The American Woman¹s Home. J.B. Ford & Co., New York.
CLEAVELAND, HENRY
1856 Village and Farm Cottages. Appleton, New York.
CONDIT, CARL W.
1960 American Building Art: The Nineteenth Century. Oxford University, New York.
DOWNING, ANDREW JACKSON
1842 Cottage Residences. [Reprinted 1967, American Life Foundation, Watkins Glen, New York.]
1852 The Architecture of Country Houses. D. Appleton & Co., New York. [Reprinted 1969, Dover Publications, New York.]
FOSTER, W. A. AND DEANE G. CARTER
1922 Farm Buildings. John Wiley & Sons, New York.
HART, JOHN FRASER AND EUGENE COTTON MATHER
1954 Fences and Farms. Geographical Review 44:201-23.
1957 The American Fence. Landscape 6(3):4-9.
JACKSON, JOHN BRINKERHOFF
1969 A New Kind of Space. Landscape 18(1):33-35.
LEECHMAN, DOUGLAS
1953 Good Fences Make Good Neighbors. Canadian Geographical Journal 47:218-35.
MCMURRY, SALLY
1988 Families and Farmhouses in Nineteenth Century America: Vernacular Design and Social Change. Oxford University, New York.
NEWTON, MILTON B., JR.
1974 Cultural Preadaptation and the Upland South. Man and Cultural Heritage: Papers in Honor of Fred B. Kniffen, edited by H.J. Walker and W.G. Hagg, Geoscience and Man 5:143-154. School of Geoscience, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.
NOBLE, ALLEN G.
1984 Wood, Brick, and Stone: The North American Settlement Landscape. (Vol. 2, Barns and Farm Structures). University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst.
REED, S.B.
1883 Cottage Houses for Village and Country Homes Together with Complete Plans and Specifications. Orange Judd, New York.
ROBERTS, ISAAC PHILLIPS
1907 The Farmstead: The Making of the Rural Home and the Lay-Out of the Farm. The Macmillan Company, New York.
SPRAGUE, PAUL E.
1981 The Origin of Balloon Framing. Journal of Society of Architectural Historians 40(4):312-19
TISHLER, WILLIAM H.
1976 Survey and Inventory Procedures for Historic and Cultural Features in Rural Areas. Echoes of History :54-56.
TODD, S. EDWARDS
1860 The Young Farmer¹s Manual. The American News Company, New York.
WARING, GEORGE E.
1880 Farmers¹ and Mechanics¹ Manual. E.B. Treat, New York.
WAUGH, FRANK
1914 Rural Improvement. Orange Judd, New York.
ZELINSKY, WILBUR
1959 Walls and Fences. Landscape 8:14-20.
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