Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 110, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1904 — Japan Has Few Fence Posts. [ARTICLE]

Japan Has Few Fence Posts.

In Japan, when a farmer permits a telegraph or telephone pole to be erected on his land, he has nade a great concession to modern reform. Only the exceedingly rich have fences around their farms in Japan, not because of the cost of tlie fence, Im.t because of the value of the square Inches the posts and pickets would consume. If a border is desired around a field, It Is customary to plant mulberry trees. The total area' of ground in Japan thus devoted to the silk-worm tree, which otherwise woni«l be taken up with fences, amounts to a 1 tout 190,000 acres." This lias ivo ref erence to the mulberry farms tiutl groves, the area for-, which is over three times as much. The fact that a Japanese fanner is forced to figure 011 the amount of ground a fence-post would occupy, and the interesting fact that the government, in-its statistical enumerations, has had the areas covered by individual mulberry trees on farm boundaries eart-full.v computed, demonstrates the great value of arable land. —Rooklovers’ Magazine.