The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1859-05-18
3fllooltbmp Argisttr.
WEDNESDAY, MAY Is, 1859,
Pasturing tho Streets,

we see, as usual, herds of street cattle, one
of the greatest ills that any good citizen
can be afflicted with. II there is a nuts.
ance on earth, that ought TO be abatcd ii
is street cattle, and Of all nuisances it is
the most easily abated. Every animal in
the street, which, without license, goes be-
yond the premises of the owner is a tres
passcr as really as though in an enclosed
field, and unless there has been some very
strange legislation on the subject within
two or three years, which has escaped our
notice, the mode of proceeding with such
is the same and no one should hesitate
to take the regular caurse.
1t is n mistaken notion that the Select
Men may give leave to certain persons to
PASTURE in the highway. Neither the Sc
lectmcn, nor tho Town. nor the State, has
any such rightto the highway and therefore
cannot grant any such privilege to individ-
uals. Let the individual who obtains leave
of the town authority to pasture the streets,
be informed that he might as well apply
to the Town Pump. In either case if a
trcspass is committed the sufferer will have
IL lien upon the animal for damage, if he
takes possession oft.
But suppose such a right were vested
in the Selcctmen, for the benefit of indi-
gent persons it is no Kindness TO use it.
Far better for all concerned, that the
needy should be helped from the Town
Treasury.
Our eye rests upon an article on this
subject in the Rural L~qtclllgencer which
is so much to the point, that VIC will cx-
tract from it:
The grass which grows in the road on
which q mans land lies, is MS much his as
the fruit or shade trees standing there.
All the public owns in the highway is the
right of passing over it and even the
town authorities can take no more of the
earth from it, or anything else, than is
necessary Tor making the passages safe
2na convenient for travellers. Horses
aud cattle, therefore, that run at large
and feed by the roadsides, arc, in fact, Just
as much taking what belongs to the per-
son over whose land the road runs, as a
nnn is stealing his property who should
cut down and cart off the apple trees or
shade trees that stand in front ofhis house.
But this is 4 small item in the objections
hat lie against pasturing in the highways.
Il obligcs every man to be at the expense
OF maintaining a high, strong fence. which
he ought not to be required to keep for
The sake of making a long pasture" for
MS ~peighbors. In France there are no
fences on the roads. All the fences there
on any farms, are those around the pasture
grounds. So in some other European
.~uations. Indeed, we know some of our
towns in Maine, where the citizens have
voted not to allow cattle to run at large;
ami the Law is SO well observed, that whole
farms 20 unfenced by the roadsides. This
Is q great saving, and one to which every
farmer ought to be lawfully entitled. The
Jaw ought 10 be as good a protector Of a
mans rights as cedar posts or stcnc-walls.
'Or II allowed to get their living for their
norscs, cattle, sheep and swine out Of the
highways, they are bound to keep a shop
nerd with them all the time, for really, in
law, no man is obliged to keep a rod of
fence between his cornfcld and the road.
If one man may pasture his cows in the
road, all have an equal right to do the
same; and when drovcs Of cattle are ali
wv N-+eO" iOAiilllS tDOul tlc StICclS iuu
and public ways, they are not only often
times i nuisance in the way Of entering
open gates, and breaking down fences, but
are sometimes dangerous to persons by
their i'll tcmpcrs and vicious habits. A
man cannot always have watch Of his gate
or bars to see that they are every moment
closed against the ingress Of bold and
br1achy animals. The evils, therefore. to
4 patient and suffering public, from the
too common practice Of pasturing in the
highways, are very great, and should be
either by the good sense of tho
community or ny the force Of law. Even
the owners ot such cattle themselves run
II risk which more than oyerbalances what
they gain by this theft upon the public
the risk of inpoundiug fees, Of bills of
damage to the enclosures they enter, Of
straying away beyond recovery ut night,
Of being stoned and manned by yexed
n~cighbors and unru!y boys, and OF being
logged by Il maddened canine race. We
hal rather buy our milk at ten cents per
quart n,l 49,, I,tinr OF Egtr, oorts ,>o.