The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1878-03-08
Pasturing Stock on the Public Roads.
To the Editor of The Egis:

SIR: Within the last few years have
repeatedly drawn the attention of the pub.
lie, through your columns, to the insuffer-
able nuisance and glaring violation of law
constantly committed by numbers of citi-
zens in using the public roads as feeding
ground for their cattle and hogs. At least
using the roads ostensibly for that purpose,
with the expectation of getting fuller
feed occasionally from the grain and pas
ture fields adjoining.
We have reprobated this practice time
and again; and Judge Walters, of this
county, drew the attention of the jury to
the fact and to the law, two or three years
ago, that no one had any shadow of right
to use the public roads for pasturing stock.
| am induced to revert to the subject again,
with the view of keeping it before the
people," as the politicians say, from having
seen the following remarks in the Balti-
more Daily Gazette, February 18th, 1878,
copied from the CentreoiUe (Md) Observer.
These remarks apply with os much force
to our county as to any other, and are us
follows:
"Some of our farmers are urging the ne
cesslty OF stock law for the State or at
least for our county; the provisions of
which shall make it a penal offense for the
owners Of stock to allow their stock to run
at large on the public roads or commons.
This measure is advocated as a means of
dispensing with so much fencing. 1t is q
fact, perhaps not generally known, that the
fences in the United States cost more money
than all the cities and towns in the coun-
try. With stock law our farmers claim
that they can do without so much fencing,
which, now that timber is becoming less
plentiful than formerly, is an expensive
thing"
AS Judge Waters stated, in the case al
ready referred to, there is law enough now
on the subject; what we need is its en-
forcement. 1t is only by sute,unce that
stock is allowed on the public roads,
There exists not one iota of right This
general sufferance, which has been permit
ted so long, on the principle of "what is
everybody's business is nobody's bust
ness" that it has become to be regarded by
those who thus habitually violate the law
as belonging to the rights and prigilegeS of
the poor man."
There is not the slightest doubt but that
every cow and every hog, which the 'poor
man" pastures upon the public roads of
Hartford county, costs the property owners
OF the county, in the one item of fencing,
to say nothing of the damages done by tres
pass, which is far greater, not cent less
than one hundred dollars each Think of
it, ye taxpayers! Will you longer submit
to such outrageous imposition Of annually
paying such enormous assessments for the
almost worthless cattle and hogs that you
permit to run at large on the highways p
The labor and money expended in fencing
against this stock would pay five-told for
every animal running at large.
In passing along one Of our roads few
days ago, my attention was specially drawn
to the peculiar grievance inflicted upon the
land owners. A neighboring farmer, whose
rail timber had become exhausted, like that
of many Others, set out an Usage orange
hedge last year along the public roads, ex-
tending distance of perhaps half
mile. 1t had grown beautifully; and
while admiring its beauty and thrift
ness, the owner himself appeared
Having some curiosity with regard
to the manner in which he proposed
to treat the young hedge, 1 stopped and
asked his views, as to whether he intended
to trim it so as to stand erect, or to hack
and bend it over. To my surprise he said
he had determined to bend it down, thereby
and rendering unsightly a
species of fence which, if allowed to grow
in its natural, upright form, is not only
useful but highly ornamental. His reason
for so doing, he informed me was, that from
his observations and conversations with
persons in Lancaster county, Pa, where
such hedges are much used for fences, it
was found necessary to bend the young
twigs down to prevent pigs from getting
through. The upright hedge was usually
proof against all other animals, even grown |
hogs, but after becoming few years old,
small pigs could generally find their way
through. Now, here is Il case-one in |
stance out of thousand similar-in which |
the land owner was compelled to disiigure
and injure the vitality of his fence by bend
ing and securing it in the bent position
and perhaps ruin his own back in bending
it the thousands of times that the thous
ands of branches necessary to be bent in
that half of mile of fence would require,
and cui bono? What for? Why solely for
the purpose of keeping out few road pigs
that contrary to law are allowed to run at
large! asked him if he did not think
that great hardships were imposed upon
farmers, compelling this extra fencing from
stock to pasture the roads. He
replied that he did look upon it as one OF
the most unreasonable and unjust imposi-
tions that one class of people were ever per-
mitted to place upon another in civilized
society.
In this respect it would seem that the
poor are the privileged class-the arstocra-
cy of the highway! Poverty is no dis
grace to anybody, unless it be brought
about by the individuals own viciousness,
when it should be so considered. But on
the other hand, however induced, poverty
does not confer any privileges
and least of all the privilege of injuring
ones neighbor by allowing stock to damage
his crops, or doing him injury in any other
way.
The absolutely poor have no cows nor
hogs; they cannot afford to purchase them;
and if they do own them the road pasture
only affords precarious living for part
of the year; for the remainder of the year
they are compelled to obtain other food for
them, by some means. When it becomes
question with the hog of root hog or die"
that hog is not likely to furnish any desir-
able pork for anybody! He (the hog has,
10y trespass, perpetrated an immense deal OF
damage to the neighboring farmers without
having greatly protited by it himself, SO far
as producing lard and bacon is concerned |
Road. hogs, that have to depend upon their
own resources for living, are always poor
er than their owners.
The miserable farmer gets no sympathy. |
His fences may be knocked down, his corn,
or wheat field ruined in single night; but
the moment we speak of the depredations
of road stock our ears are immeain 90