Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-01-14


the rails, he must pay 80 cents per day and
find the laborer in food. An ordinary labor
er will split 100 rails per day would require
say nine days-to split the required number
of rails. But the laborer must be fed, and
hired laborers are celebrated for their enor-
NOUS appctites. So that the cost of food will
be at least 30 cents per day, making S2.70
in addition, or total cost of S7.2O tor the
rails. If the owner builds the fence himself,
it will require two days to build it, at 30 cents
per day, for labor, making all aggregate OF
$500 for fencing Il single acre.
If, however, the owner has no timber lands,
and therefore purchases the rails, he pays
$500 per hundred, or $500 for the total
number required for fencing an acre, exclu-
sive of the cost of hauling, which acre Of ara
ble land can be purchased in this county for
$500.
The great hope of ameliorating the condi,
ton of the poorer classes can best be realized
by increasing the facilities of their becoming
owners of land. Yet, our laws declare to the
poor man, as we'll as to the rich, you may buy
ten acres of land with your $50, yet you can
not cultivate it to produce bread for your
family until you expend from $50 to 500 to
fence out your neighbours cow, worth about
S15; and your rights Of property in the soil
are subordinated to your. neighbors right to
permit his cattle to roam over the entire coun-
try. You are not required to lock up your
smoke-house to keep your neighbor out Of 1t.
but you must lock up your farm to keep his
COW out Of that.
This system, it will be seen, is peculiarly op.
pressive to the small capitalists, whose money
is consumed in building fence, when it
might be applied to building more comfor.
table cabin and the purchase of agricultural
implements. When the fence is built, he can
not ensure it from destruction by fire, and the
very next camper.out will probably burn a
number of the rails and open the farm to in.
vasion by rowing stock; and campers.out u.s.
ually select the fences Of the poorest farmer
in the neighborhood. Moreover, if fence is
broken through by stock and the crop destroy
ed, it would be almost impossible for the own
er to recover a judgment in his favor in the
courts, rs there are so few lawful fences IN this
county. For practical purposes d lawful fence
may be defined as "a fence horse.high, bull
strong and pig-tight," and who has such
fence in York?
In addition, Gentlemen Of the Grand Jury,
by reason of the fencing, the public roads have
been reduced to the condition of mere cutters
or bitches, instead of being safe avenues of
travel, as the fences shield them from the wind
and the sun, and prevent them from being
thoroughly dried until a long period after a
rain; and as the earth blown from the fields
collects along the line Of the fence, the water
falls from the slopes, thus created, into the
road below, and there it remains until re-
moved by dispensaton Of Providence, or by
the action of some exceptional board of Coun-
ty Commissioners.
The objection to repeal of the fence law
is that poor man, owning few head OF cat.
tie, and being obliged to fence them in, will
have to part with them at any price that he
can get-having no pasture lands on which to
keep them. This objection is a potent one,
and must be met practically in order to Sc
cure repeal of the fence law. The only way
to meet it is for the landowners to guarantee
that they will furnish enclosed pastures at a
low charge-say twenty-five centspe month
for each head Of stock, and that they will sup
ply sufficient quantity of pasture lands,
gratis, for the stock Of their laborers. These
pastures can be easily enclosed with small
portion of the rails taken from the farms.
It is certain that if we, from the rapid con-
sumption of timber in this country, for the
purposes of cooking, fencing, and the build
ing of houses and railways, do not dispense
with fences, our children aud our grand chill
dren must, as the timber will certainly be en-
tirey exhausted.
For the reasons mentioned, 1 therefore ad-
wise the grand jury that they should at least
recommend, through theSenator and the Rep
resentatives from this county, that the Gener'
al Assembly pass bill to submit to the peo'
pie of York county, at an early day, whether
the present law shall be repealed, and stock
shall be fenced in instead of being fenced out
At the conclusion of his Honors charge, a
number Of witnesses were sent before the
grand jury, and the State docket was taken
up. The cases in which Deputy U. S. Mar
shall Hubbard is defendant, were continued
on account of absence of the defendant, it
having been shown to the satisfaction Of the
Court that he was prevented from attending
this term in consequence of official duties
which he had been charged to execute. A
number of cases of assault and battery were
disposed of. Joe Leech, Dallas Rawlinson
and Manuel Hill, charged with the larceny of
bale of cotton, we're arraigned. A mol. pros.
was entered as to Hill. The other defend
ants we're convicted and sentenced to the
neutrality-suspicious. for twelve months,
and Leech for five months.