Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-07-11

for the interest of others, In treating
: subject of this sort men should as far as pos
s be ignore self and al selfish consideration
and lock to the generalsgood of the State
Ills certainly true Of such thing wer
possible) that the policy of No Fence woull
| be to the interest OF a few individuals, ant
perhaps some inconsderalle communities
but where it would benefit one, it would
certainly, in my opinion, be to the nantes
injury of dozen. No Fence argues agains
letting stock run at large, and applies the
name scrub and motley to all cattle tha
run outside of the owners enclosures, as i
the spontaneous production of the eartt
outside Of the clover-field naturally inclined
to deteFiorate stock, r.
Mr.. No Fence, who owns tract of fine
rich land-all rich-eVery acre good fol-
grass, corn, or some other valuable crop
and who, in his greed for gain, has brought
every avails bic acre into cultivation, burn
ed up, or hauled to town, or sold to the
railroad, all his timber, and though he isrich
nland, vet, by his own reed, has come short
of timber to fence it, begins to cry out in
favor of a sweeping no fence law; he wants
to COMPEL every body to keep his stock in
side. He says there is no, justice in a law
that allows A's stock to run at large and
roam over BIS C's and DIS lands. Well
suppose A has one thousand acres he only
has one hundred fit to cultivate, as mat
ter of course, he will fence his hundred and
| leave the nine hundred out. B 9 and d
have one hundred each, they fence theirs
| all then, all turn their stock out to range on
| AS nine hundred. Who is benefited? Each
man has just fenced Just what they actually
needed. Or we viii suppose no fence has
l20 acres of land this year he has forty acres
in corn, 40 in grass aud 40 in small grain;
next year his corn land must be put in
grass, his grass land in wheat and his wheat
stubble in corn, how is he to effect the
change and pasture his stock on any given
piece of land without fencing to confine
them just where he pleases.
MIR. No fence reminds me very much of
the fox in the fable who lost his tail in a
eteel trap and then tried. to prevail upon all
his fellow foxes to have their tails cut off
because be said it was the latest style.
Now, it is a well known fact that there is
large portion of Tennessee that never can
be made available for cultivation in any
kind of crop, and yet it is valuable in a
greater or less degree as stock raising
Country. There is lying on the east bank
OF the Tennessee river about two tiers of
counties, extending from the southern to
the northern boundaries of the State, en-
bracing the counties of Stewart, Montgom-
cry, Chatham, Dixon, Humphreys, Hick-
man, Perry, Lewis, Wayne, Hardin and
Lawrence, the one-fifth of which never can
be brought into cultivation, the remaining
four-ffths producing a great deal of
il as fine wild grass as the best
meadow grass and upon which there is
roaming at this time thousands of as fine
and as fat, though Il will admit) not as
large cattle as can be found in any part of
the State. Besides the above named coun-
ties are to great extent covered with the
best mast bearing timber any where to be
found, white, black and chestnut oak, hck-
CRY, beech and chestnut, besides many other
mast, berry and fruit bearing trees, and
there is at this time thousands of hogs rum
ming at large that have scarcely tasted corn
since last November, many of them now fat
enough for pork; all upon the spontaneous
production of the forest. know one
man in this county, the largest cattle
raiser in this county, who has one of the
best farms on Duck river, and more clover
than all his stock can consume, and who
has the best blooded cattle to be had in the |
every year, because, he says, they do better |
than to keep them up, and they will COM
pare favorably with any cattle in the State. |
Now what is true in regard to the above |
named counties will apply with more or |
less truth to large portion of West Ten |
Iessee and to nearly all of East Tennessee. |
The time is not far distant when East Ten |
nessee will Cor ought toy be one of the best |
wool growing districts in the Union, and it
is fact known to every one at all CONVEX |
SAINT with sheep raising that they do better |
upon large range, than they will confined |
upon given spot, though the pasture may
be never so good, provided they have pro-
per attention.
! In regard to the Western part of Middle
Tennessee, l venture to assert that if there |
was a law passed compelling every man to
keep his stock inside, not permit them to
tramp the earth or browse the shrubbery, |
that In less than ten years this whole sec
ton would become such dense thicket of |
bushes, briars, vines and every species of |
Wild shrubbery, it would surpass the chape- |
rel of Mexico or the eVergla les of Florida |
and would be one general nursery and !
harbour for wolves, wild cats, foxes, rae
coons, and every species of beasts OF prey |
known TO our country; that it would be i'm |
possible to raise pigs, lambs, poultry or any |
81 the small domestic animals, for even now |
We are troubled no little with these same
enemies to the farmer,
But aside from all these reasons |
Why we should have our farms |
enclosed and let our stock run |
out if we choose, there are some others which |
[ see have been argued by ADLER pens than |
mine, such as the driving stock from place !
to place, and the travel on the public high |
way when stock, and men too, would, from |
absolute necessity, be compelled to treSpass |
upon the growing crops. Now, would |
Ike for Mr.. No Fence, when he gets his no |
fence law passed, or before be gets it passed, |
to devise some plan to keep the stock from
Kentucky, Mississippi and other adjoining |
States, from crossing over and trespasSing |
upon cur rights, OF will be have a law |
passed compelling the taxpayers to erect a
fence like unto the Chinese wall around |
the State, for assuredly something of that |
sort will have to be done before the plan |
will ever work successfully. But contend |
that So far as the masses OF the people OF |
Tennessee are concerned there is |
no necessity for any such law,
nor any other law upon the subject |
more than we already nave. IL Is True,
as admitted at the outset, some men /
are scarce of timber, but this is by ne means
general, and where it is the case is gener-
ally in the fat limestone counties where
the land is very rich and very valuable, and
where Hmestone can be had in any guam
tity which makes the best fence in the
world; and where this cannot be had there
are various kinds of shrubbery that may |
be used for hedging, such as the Bots Fare
and thorn apple, which answers very good |
purpose. To test the sentiment Of the people |
upon the subject, if the subject should be
brought before the Legislature and should |
become or he made an issue before the peo-
pie, predict that the man who takes ground |
for no fence will be beat so had ne won't |
know be was in the race, and viii swear he |
never run at all. As | have no ambition |
to have my name appear in print, | shall
subscribe my name y. I.