Excerpt from The Fence Question in the Southern States as Related to General Husbandry and Sheep Raising: With the History of Fence Customs, and Laws Pertaining Thereto; And a View of the New Farm System of the South, as Shown in the Census of 1880

If an acre of land be worth Sixpence rental, before it is inclosed, it will be worth eightpence when it is inclosed.

The Oppressions arising from the old military tenures were discontinued during the civil wars in the reign of Charles Ist. And in the time of the Commonwealth were entirely abolished in a strong movement of the landed gentlemen of England, by express statute under Charles II, (12, C. II. P. 26 and from that time English farm and rural life assumed permanent traits which extended from the mother country to all her colonies and dependencies.

Up to that time there had existed in all parts of the kingdom, even in the vicinity of the large towns, vast areas of common and waste fields so incum bered by mixed tenures and customs that their cultivation was impossible. By special acts of Parliament on petition of commoners interested. One after another these commons were laid out, subdivided and inclosed by special com missioners. The first act on the subject of commons, had in the time of Henry III, (20 H. III, c. 4) defined the rights of lords of manors to improve to the profits of their tenants, by inclosing, cultivating, or building upon the woods, wastes, and common pastures.

The first of the Inclosure Acts so called, upon whose fruits the pride and beauty of rural England so largely rest, was passed under Charles II the next under Queen Anne. At considerable intervals these acts followed, in the face of much opposition, the movement becoming general early in the last century. Thus from 1719 to 1759 there were 249 acts; from 1764 to 1777 their number was 941, an average of 58 annually; from 1780 to 1794, there were 445. In 1795, and 1796 the number was 144, and from 1797 to 1805 there were 794. In the first forty years of the reign of George III, there were 1213 Inclosure Acts covering acres.

The total area of land inclosed by 2591 Acts up to the end of 1805 was acres. Since then these acts have been very numerous, even in our own time.

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