Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-04-18
THE FENCE CUES TION:

10 inc EulLOIs u OHlOu anu <LutElCdI.
BIG Rock, STEWART COUNTY, April Z,
1S72.-In your paper of April 4, there is a
Communication in answer to one sent you
by me some time since, and a very pretty
little piece of poetry it is, too. The gen
tleman starts out with very sweeping con-
demnation of all reformers, from the time
of Moses down, ard it strikes me that your
Agricultural Editor must feel SOrter bad,
for, in my eye, be is the chief reformer and
innovater among the farmers, not only Of
Tennessee, but of the whole country. As
for me, plead guilty, and wish l could
plead guiltier, guiltiest; for if the farmers
in Tennessee don't need reforming, what,
in the name of all that is slOuchy, slOvenly
and wasteful, does? And l do wish that l
had the ability to overturn the whole sys-
tenn as carried on at present, for love my
grand old native State, with her noble,
brave, hospitable, but impoverished people,
and l want to see them lifted out of the
ruts of past ages and ruinous Customs, and,
shoulder to shoulder, march on with even
step with the balance Of the world, and with
he broad sails of her immense resources
filed with the favoring breezes Of prosper
ity, sail on to a destiny unequaled by any
State,in the Union.
A. B. says that law prohibiting stock
from running at large would legislat5 the
poor mans stock out of existence. Well,
sir, with the present quality Of stock raised
by the ''pOOr men," as he calls them, if it
did legislate them out of existence it would
confer an immense benefit upon the people
of this State, and upon none more than the
poor man himself, and he says that it should
be entitled can act to prohibit the raising
of stock by the poor men Of Tennessee"
Well, | would call it an act for the proven
ton of cruelty to animals, lift did keep 'em
from raising the way they do now. Then
there is more hifalutin talk about giving the
poor man the beautiful groves and green
grass, where his cattle may roam at large
and eat from the bOuntiful hand of nature.
All this sounds mighty like Friday even
ing composition, and if was the school
teacher, would be sure to give my friend
A. B. the little gib-edged book. But hold
on, friend A. B., let us raise the flowers
aud furbelows, and look down to the truth,
noticing your second assertion about what
God gave etc. He gave 10 man at
the present day only green forest or waving
grass, but what he has paid his mOaey for,
and when his stock wander off his land, en-
ter his neighbours, it is a sheer trespaSs and
nothing else, you have no right by law OF
God or man to come upon my land and cut
a stick of timber, not even so much as .
small sapling. Then by what right doyOur
COWS and hogs and sheep come upon my
land and annoy and injure me by their dep
relations. l will tell you friend A. B.: by
the right of deliberate, premeditated starva-
ton at the hands of their owners.
God gave us the animals that we have
domesticated for our comfort and happiness,
but by a wise dispensatiOn of the giver,
when we took them from under his care, be
required that we should feed them and take
care of them and not get all the benefit
from them that we possibly could and let
him support them for us too; but we are de-
ing this very thing, and what is the cOnse-
quence? Why, that we have little "wiry
COWS, and little worthless, knOtty sheep and
little runty, sharp back, acorn twisted, hand
pike hogs" You say that the poor
farmer is not able to buy fine
stock; well, let him keep them he has up for
a few generations and pay attention to their
wants and his hogs will rival those of
Berkshire, or his sheep those Of South
down, and his cattle the Durhams and
Alderneys Of old England. Butyou say be
is not able to feed them, has no money to
buy clover seed, etc. Then, all l have to
say is, that he ought not to have them; and
| for one don't care to invest money in
land to raise pasturage for other peoples
stock. be it corn field or wood land, rye field
or briar patch. But there l think You are
mistaken; any man who owns forty, fifty or
seventy-fve acres Of land is able to have
clover fields and corn fields, too. Why,
man, how much land do you suppose the
farmers of England have where all this fine
imported stock comes from? From one to
ten acres; hardly ever fifty; and yet you vir-
tually say that the farmer OF fifty acres here
has to call on Providence to raise his stock
for him. That is all bosh. And that amt
all, Providence won't do it. l viii tell you
how he can get clover seed and fine stock too.
Let him take one half The money he would
spend for fencing in bis fifty acres and he
could buy dead loads Of clover seed and as
much fine stock as he would want, aye, and
have something left to buy fertilizers for his
worn out fields; and the manure that he
would save from his stock would give him
the largest kind of pay for the trouble Of
keepiug them up. Let me illustrate the
case and show YOU what keeping up stock
will do. Mr.. Peter Oneal, Clerk Of the
County Court of Montgomery county, has
a lietle son who for year or two past has
been buying the poor calves that run on the
commons around GAINESVILLE. They were
all calves of fine cows, but were allowed to
run ott by g their owners and