houses set in a
square, connected from end to end of the outside walls by stockades
with gates; thus forming a close front. On the James River, on Manhattan
Island, were stockades. The whole town plot of Milford, Connecticut, was
enclosed in 1645, and the Indians taunted the settlers by shouting out,
"White men all same like pigs." At one time in Massachusetts, twenty
towns proposed an all-surrounding palisade. The progress and condition
of our settlements can be traced in our fences. As Indians disappeared
or succumbed, the solid row of pales gave place to a log-fence, which
served well to keep out depredatory animals. When dangers from Indians
or wild animals entirely disappeared, boards were still not over-plenty,
and the strength of the owner could not be over-spent on unnecessary
fencing. Then came the double-rail fence; two rails, held in place one
above the other, at each joining, by four crossed sticks. It was a
boundary, and would keep in cattle. It was said that every fence should
be horse-high, bull-proof, and pig-tight. Then came stone walls, showing
a thorough clearing and taming of the land. The succeeding "half-high"
stone wall--a foot or two high, with a single rail on top--showed that
stones were not as plentiful in the fields as in early days. The
"snake-fence," or "Virginia fence," so common in the Southern states,
utilized the second growth of forest trees. The split-rail fence, four
or five rails in height, was set at intervals with posts, pierced with
holes to hold the ends of the rails. These were used to some extent in
the East; but our Western states were fenced throughout with rails split
by sturdy pioneer rail-splitters, among them young Abraham Lincoln.
Board fences showed the day of the sawmill and its plentiful supply; the
wire fences of to-day equally prove the decrease of our forests and our
wood, and the growth of our mineral supplies and manufactures of
metals. Thus even our fences might be called historical monuments.

A few of the old block-houses, or garrison houses, the "defensible
houses," which were surrounded by these stockades, are still standing.
The most interesting are the old Garrison at East Haverhill,
Massachusetts, built in 1670; it has walls of solid oak, and brick a
foot and a half thick; the Saltonstall House at Ipswich, built in 1633;
Cradock Old Fort in Medford, Massachusetts, built in 1634 of brick made
on the spot; an old fort at York, Maine; and the Whitefield Gar