Wilmington daily commercial., 1874-10-08
FIRST EDITION.
I'respasscs Upon Farmers.

SOME RECENT EXPERIENCES IN AND ABOUT THE
cITI-A PARTY FIRED on LAST SATURDAY.
Ever since the facts in the shooting OF young
lukens by Mr. Woodward became known they
have furnished prolific theme of conversation
in all circles. There has not been an
occurrence which has taken place
for some months past which has ex-
cited such general attention in this city az this
unfortunate circumstance. Nor is it without
reason. The admonitions which it gives and the
lessons which it inculcates appeal directly to a
large number Of our citizens. Many of them
including those most exalted III life, have inno-
Gently committed trespass upon outlying farms
around the city, and this occurrence has brought
to mind these occasions with great freshness.
Then there is that other class of poachers
who have far greater reason to discuss the
subject with more seriousness, They (there are
multtudes of them -beardless youths and grown
up mem who have been guilty of the same Of
fence which cost young Iuiens his life, and who
like him, while they have not deserved such se-
we're punishment and which no amount of simple
trespass will Justify, have yet been liable to pro-
what of the weight Of the guilt which attaches
to them az well AZ the numerous escapes which
many of them have made in like manner AZ the
companions of Lukens aud Skelley escaped.
The occurrence has also brought to the sur
face the experience of many farmers in the mat
ter of tresspass. Some OF them have been most
ontrageously annoyed. We give few exam
pies Solomon Townsend owns farm on the
south side Of the city, Just beyond the limits.
He has fine fruit orchards, which are a constant
source of trouble to him, keeping him almost
constantly at home to guard them. Poachers visit
him by dozens, taking bags and baskets with
them, and they break up and destroy his trees
and fruit unnecessarily. Sometimes they are so
plentiful that it keeps him vibrating between his
pear and apple orchards. BY the time he drives
n from tO bf
finds it infested with trespassers Only ON Sat
urday last he felt constrained to employ his gun
to aid him in driving off crowd of young men
who were up in his apple trees and he fired two
loads OF shot directly into their midst. The
| shot, however, were fine, and he was at toe
| great distance to seriously injure them. Lucas
| Alrich, who lives down on the river, has some
what similar experience, and is greatly annoyed
| by these depredators.
| Sometimes violence characterizes the acts OF
these trespassers-they not only insist upon
their right to roam at will about the farms, but
even seek to enforce that right by force. Last
Sunday party of baseball players went out in
| to field Of neighbor of Mr.. Townsend anG
opened game and when he went out to order
| them away they began an assault upon him will
their bats and sought to frighten him from hit
| own premises.
These are only few taken from the many in
stances of vexatious annoyances which thii
shooting case has brought to our knowledge
| but they are sufficient to show the serious in
convenience which attends farming in tho neigh
borhood of cities, and the necessity which exist
| for some greater protection than that witt
which the law now invests the landholder. TIL,
profits of farming are considerably deprecated
by these pohchings, and Mr.. Townsend feel
that he will have to cut down his orchards alto
| gether.
NUT HUNTER SHOT IN DELAWARE COUNTY.
The Chester Nelos furnishes case parable
| in all but its consequences to the Woodward
| Lukens affair
"On Sunday morning. while a lad named Com
erford was foragng for chestnuts OH q farm
near Baldwn's Run, near this city, he receives
the contents Of a shotgun, presumably fired b.
the owner or an employe of the premises. SOM
of the shot entered the boys head and face, in
fiicting serious bus not dangerous injury.