First, we don't even know if it's a reportable offense to fence in a homesteader yet.
To Xidian: Humans are nasty horrid little creatures. If you want to bring in reality, lets talk reality. In a situation like this, slavery would immediately arise (by whatever name it would be called). Brutality, genocide, theft, simple homicide, all of those would immediately deplete the population even further.
Hey, I was a history major, I understand how things really work. And now I'd like to play a game. What are games? Well, just like books and movies, they are means of escaping ugly reality.
If you want realistic, don't play games.