The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1872-12-19
The Stock Law Considered.


candidate for ofice. q
The Stock Law Considered.
To the Editor of the Pleniat;on:
An important question will soon come before
the neopie of Georgia, and it is: Shall there be
a stock law or not? The bill leaves it to every
county in the State to decide for itself, whether
ar not they are for such law. 1t is new and
important question spfnng upon the people, and
at first sight ft i1eoSsai it would be decided
against in every. county. But there are SO
many good reas6sa why there should be stock
law we trust. It viii receive that careful consid-
Grafton that. assleast, ID counties peculiarly
circumstances. iE;may be adopted, and become
the law. Ttis question embraces three promi-
nent and important considerations:
/. For the preservation of'timber.
9. To guaM against expensive and insecure
fencing, and 2he protection of field crops; and
8. The bepeft twill be in improving all
kinds of stock -
am outand ont for the stock law, and shall
proceed tolstate my reasons why. cannot IL
fustrate the destruction of timber better than
what has been made known by statistical IN
formation reported by "a committee" appoint
ed by the "Beach Island Farmers Club" gen.
tlemen of the most practical and intelligent
standing. to report on the propriety of enacting
stock laws and abandoning the fencing OF crops.
Tn relation to the destruction of timber, 1t is
said that,
more than the houses, cities included; more
than the ships, boats and vessels of every de-
scription. which sail the ocean, lakes and
rivers: more than our manufactures OF all
kinds, with their machinery; more than any
enc class of property, aside from our rea! es-
tate, except it may be the railroads OF our
country" :,
stands, and to what cost the farmers are put
to-what cost, to the country, Is sustained oy
"the destruction of its timber for few SCRUB
stock of cattle and hogs, that are not worth 10
Zach neiphborhood the cost of fencing farm OF
three hundred acres" We shall now further
extract from this valuable and interesting re-
port. what is the actual cost of keeping up
Fencing. 1t seems fabulous to one that has
neyergiyer theeubject consideration but as
the report !has been made UP from statistics
which are facts, it will show how we are going
IN this wholesale work of destruction, in utter
ignorance as to the damage we are doing our
selves and to the country. The report goes on
to say: .ssr
tThe usual form is the worm or zigzag fence,
requiring about eight hundred rails to the mile,
costing variously from one dollar to five dollars
DER hundred for timber, splitting, hauling,
clearing fence-row and erecting. Perhaps two
dollars per hundred would be safe average es-
innate. The amount of land covered by fencing
and lost in the turning, not including the mar
gin too frequently surrendered on the fence,row
to scrub bushes and briers, would be ABOUT
three and one-third acres to the farm:
GOur improved lands, apart from the build
Ing we're worth THAT is to say in South Caro-
Una the estimate has been made) in 1850, not
exceeding an average of ten dollars pei acre,
would scarcely average in market above 50 per
acre now. Estimating the improved lands of
the State at this time as of the same extent as
In 1850. we would have the following result
from these calculations 100000 acres OF
unimproved lands worth $20,000,000, inclosed
by 100 900 miles of outside fencing, costing, for
its original construction. Sl6,000,000. besides
encnmbering and rendering valueless 100000
acres of land, worth S5OO,0O0. The duration
of such fences vary from four to fifteen years,
according to timber and other circumstances,
apart from casualties of floods and fires. But
the annual cost of repairs cannot be less than
ten per cent, or 81, ,600,0 900, equivalent to tax
of forty cents an acre of all unimproved lands
in the Stase, or eight per cent of its value, be-
ing lust eight times the rated tax, State and
COUNTY, we will have to pay on the same prop
erty next year. To this should be added at
laast seven per cent interest on the original
cost. making the tax fifteen per cent, oEseven-
ty-6ye cents per acre. Experience has estab-
Gshed that this tax is lighter than the damages
that would result from insufficient fencing for
protection. Yet, it is probable that all the
stock permitted to run at large in the State, for
whose benefit this burdensome expenditure is
exacted, if taken directly from their several
panges and sold in market, would scarcely real
he the expenses Of our fences, or even the half
of it."
Extrayagant as these statements may appear,
some years ago the cost of the fences in the
United States were estimated by Burknap at
more than twenty times the amount of specie
In the country.
shall now make another extract from this
report. showing the advantages in having to
keep up stock, and will conclude by adding
some opinions of my own:
"In the first place, every farmer should en-
deayor to procure and raise only fine stock,
knowiup it takes no more attention and food for
fine stock than it does for scrub stock. His
COWS would be selected for their milking-qual-
ities. his sheep for their WOOL or for their NUT
ton. as he may DESIRE and his hogs for their
weight and fattening qualities. Being COM
pelied to keep them up, they would always be
ander his eyes and care hence, in breeding,
the crosses deemed necessary could be selected,
and soon, like in raising colts, particular stock,
as may be deemed the best, would be chosen
and bred from. By so doing, fewer number
would give us more milk and butter, more wool
and mutton, and more bacon and lard, than we
now get from four to six times their numbers
Of rowing, unmanageable stock, and all our
uneasiness from theft, and being damaged and
Killed from getting into our neighbor's fields
would be cast right off, as they would be in
their own pasture and inclosure. But the
greatest @ advantage to be derived from this sys,
tenn is: /. The improvement of the breed and