Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-02-02

ted mainly to topics pertaining to the FARM and
HoUsEHoiD The farmer readers of the BULLE.
TIN are cordially invited to write for It.
The Herd Law. /
From the Iowa Homestead.
There is subject of great inter-
est to the present and prospective
farmers of Iowa, which demands
particular and immediate attention,
now that our law makers are as
sembled at the Capital; and as it is
q subject mainly important to far
mers, and as they have not the ad-
vantage of a representation in the
lobby, they must get at the ear of
the Legislators through the news
paper, and that the farmers news
paper. The subject l refer to is the
ssHerd Law,"-whether this "free
commoner" nuisance shall continue
to hang like an incubus upon the
farming industry of the State, re-
tafdihg its growth, exhausting its
resources, creating perpetual neigh
b0fhood disturbances, destroying
our scanty timber, and sending emf
grafton through and beyond us to
States whose customs and legisla-
ton are wiser than ours.
Two years ago, a law, based upon
the sound proposition that any per-
son owning stock should be respon-
sible for its acts, and be liable
Justly for all damage which such
stock might do, passed the Assem-
bly,, but was almost imperative, if
not something worse, by tail sub
hitting it to the people, and allow
ing counties to accept or reject. it.
The result was that in many cases
adjoining counties voted in oppo'
site directions upon it,, and the bor-
der wars which have ensued make
matters worse than before. We
need a general statute or nothing,
and it is the duty of our Represent
atives to put this matter at rest this
winter. Petitions for such law
will not be wanting; the whole bent
and tendency Of civilization is in its
favor, and there is nothing opposed
to it but the vestiges of very early
condition of things, which linger
about the timber, and look with i'll
concealed dislike upon those who
are toiling to make homes on the
prairie, and by making them, are
''spiling the range"
A dozen columns of the Home
stead might be filed with facts and
data, all proving the folly of our
present lawless habits in this re-
spect, and of the Immediate and
general improvement which would
follow the enactment Of this most
wholesome statute. 1t costs Iowa
to-day more than one hundred mil
lions of dollars tor her fences, and
but q small portion of her area is
under cultivation. More than nine
tenths of this enormous expense is
worse than utterly wasted, for. this
fence taxiis not only q burden in
itself, but it necessitates whole
sale destruction of that system Of
forest belts which has mainly saved
our prairies from the aridity and
desolation of the rainless deserts,-
a destruction, which; if it is not
balanced by a vigorous and extern
sive replanting of timber, and re-
ligious saving Of what the vandal-
ism of the past has left us, will give
our open country over to the sage
bush and the sirocco. What more
direct argument in favor Of herd
law, in an economic point of view,
personal to every farmer in the
Northwest, are the columns of the
Homestead, filed as they are every
week with estray notices Of cattle
and horses which have been "turned
into space" in the fashion common
here, and which have wandered
aimlessly off, to be recovered only
at an expense, as often as anyway,
equal to their value. Surely this
experience ought to teach us some
thing. Again, what improvement
is possible in stock, while Our cows
and heifers are allowed to stray off
into the bad company of the scraw-
ny natives which Intestine prai-
rie? Again, this fence tax is bur
den upon the new settler, more on
erous and hard to bear than any
of the many which he meets, for it
is direct outlay Of time, money
and hard work; with no return. l
repeat it, no return. OF course, it
in a measure protects his corn and
potato crops from the .inroads Of
his neighbors' stock; so would a
mounted howitzer and a squad of
regulars protect his hen roost and
pork barrel from the thieving habits
of his neighbors; but what is. the
quantity and quality of the civiliza-
ton that might demand such pro-
lection? His house, his stable, his
orchard, his breaking, his home
comforts, his everything that he
calls property, is sacrificed to that
detestible string of fence, and more-
over, it is no sooner built than it
begins to rot and to need perpetual
repairs. A celebrated statistician
has estimated that the fences of the
country cost more than the whole
cash capital Of the country; and
what commentary is this fact up
on the good sense Of the nation!-
Let any man travel through, those
sections Of new country where by
custom or by law this fence nui-
sance is abated, and he will be at
once struck by the rapid progress
which has been made in genuine,
substantial home improvements,
such as add to- The beauty and at
traction OF a ;neighborhood, as we'll
as to the comfort and convenience
Of a home. He will see the fence
money gathered into good build