"An attention to fencing, a feature of English agriculture since about the fifteenth century, was perpetuated by English settlers in North America. Though often not without overtones of possession, fences were built for mainly practical reasons. In the southern colonies, livestock of all kinds was accommodated in the woods surrounding the cultivated fields. As the animals could be branded or otherwise marked for owner identification and cleared land was often limited, crops came to be enclosed and livestock was thus fenced out. Conversely, in New England and parts of the middle colonies, livestock was customarily fenced in. By no means restricted to agricultural use, fences also defined and protected all types of rural and urban spaces, such as churchyards, gardens, and workyards, throughout the colonies." --
Partitioning the Landscape by Vanessa E. Patrick
