"Many New England stone fences built between 1700 and 1875 were laid by gangs of workers who piled stones at the rate of so much per rod. {Naturalist and writer) Edwin Way Teale says that in the latter years of the past (19th} century, before economic and social developments began obliterating some of the walls, there were a hundred thousand miles of stone fences in New England.''

-- William Least Heat Moon, in Blue Highways