Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1878-05-23
Give Us q Deg Law.
Is the Cry that Comes from East
Tannaerno

not adduce any statistics to con
vince your read rs that il is pref
table. TIis is self evident. Suf
fice it,tbe sheep gu stion is one Of
the mostIimportant matters claim
ing the attention of our people.
If we cmld only eliminate from
it the ever present and ever .vexi
ing element and arch enemy dog,
the interest now manifest is only
drop in the bucket. The oil
most universal experience is that
about the time your average farm.
er gets a good lot of sheep the
dogs will come along and away
go bis sheep and the result of
years OF care aud expense. OF
course he does not care to renew
an experiment that is so likely to
follow the same train Of misfor-
tune, aud an important and CON
mendable interest lags, becomes
dormant, and he must pay for
wool and wooden goo Is that have
been raised with profit by some
body else. We o'ten Lelr it said
that the enactment Of the dog
law was not only an Infringement
on the reserved lights of the
dear people, but also an expense
Of every little utility The dem
agogues even now like to cast I
stone at that unconstitutional e.
law, and impute all kinds of mo
tives Except the true one) to lib,
originators. But | venture tc
say that that one law, if duly en-
forced, would havs added mil
lions to our productive industry
They tell US, too, that this law
was not in obedience to an intel
ligent, popular demand, and that
in a free country any interest thai
could not protect Itself was not
worthy to exist; Tl.ey forget thai
the matter of sheep husbandry il
an exceptional one. only subje1
to a contingency in the shape OF a
formidable enemy with undue In
stincts in the way of appetite.
The columns of the Sun intelli
gently attest the fact that the law
for the protection of sheep was
popular with almost the bet
ter class of farmers; and | am in
clined toihink lar e proportion of
the farming masses of the State
are 10 favor of some adequate pro
lection to this branch of husband
ry. If the sentiment and enthu-
siam of our late meeting of the
East Tennessee farmers conven-
ton be any index. you may safe
ly say that East Tennessee farm
ers are strenuously In favor of 9
dog law. The practical results
of such laws in State in advance
of US are SO prolific OF good re
suits, and they were so apparent
during a precarious existence here,
that thinking men wonder how a
legislature and supreme court
could so ignore the material in.
terests of the State as to annul SO
good q Law, merely on legal
technicalities and in demand to
the voice of "Tray, Blanche and
Sweetheart" Evidently that
class Of our citizens so devou;ly at
tached to the dog have no better
friends than the sheep raisers and
sheep, for obvious reasons. The
friends of sheep huSbandry cannot
do the State a better service than
by agitating the matter ir the
forthcoming canvass; for if no re
straint is put upon this dog-rais
Ing vocation the sheep interest will
suffer, for even now the business
of dog reproduction is increasing
more rapidly than the plaques of
ancient Egypt, and we may ex
pect these uumberless ours of low
degree to ply their vocation with
renewed zeal. Give US dog law,
or we retrograde to the dark days
prior to rs. WALLACE.
Andersonville, Tennessee, April g. 1878.