The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-01-22
Wednesday, Jan. %. 1879.
The Stock Law-.Its Iardships. Benz
Gifts, and Faliacics.

The Stock Law-.Its H%lardships. Ben
Gifts, and Fallacics.
1t is right for our people to be right in
any great measure affecting them so
closely as the Stock Law, and although
we have written 80 much already there
anent, we feel called on again TO say
something that may help us all to think
right about ii, and to understand why
there should be some opposition to the
measure. No law ever was an unmiNcd
good. The best of laws has sharp angles
that hurt somebody. Any cause of con-
duct about which the whole world IL
agreed is Il law of itself without lcGiSias
tive enactment, aud if everybody had
wished for the Stock Law, there would
have been no need to ask the Legislature
TO pass it. Like all other laws, even the
best, the Stock Law has its hardSllips as
we'll as its benefits, and about it too there
are several fallacicS entertained Doth pE
its advocates and its advcrsarics. y
quiet consideration of them will enable
us all to understand why omc arc OPP
poscd to tho law which, according to our
idea of it, all our people should bcglad to
get passed.
HardShips. 1t is a hardship on poor
people who have no rasturaSc. At flrs'
sight it seems a hardship to poor people
both in the town and rural DISTRICTS.
But the rural poor can easily and cheaply
rent q cows grass from their richer
neichbor or from their employer. Iht
moor of the towns and villages cannot SO
easily do so. TO relieve this temporary
hardship, entcrprising and thrifty men
should establish dairics in the vicinity of
our towns and villages, and send thclr
milk-carts around every morning selling
milk and butterfly all means for M'
cash.
It is also a hardship on some farmers
who had sown down their best pasture
lands in grain, but the hardship is only
very temporary.
1t is also a hardship in cases where far
aers have enclosed all their arabic and
I'm one continuous and expensive fence
while their cattle roamcd ut large III
woods and meadows that were unoccu-
MED. Such men cannot be expected in
dividually to fall in love with the Stock
Law.
The nero obligation to build 1"
pasture-fence, no inexpensive or conve'
nient piece of work for some OF us, MI!
also DO added as a hardship. VIC have
heard, indeed, that one of the stoutesl
advocates of the Stock Law who was
greatly instrumental i'll procuring it,
passage, finds that part of the WORK not
50 pleasant or profitable.
Benefits. The establishment of dairy
farms already mentioned WILDE no smal
benefit as-ofering a new II profitable
Industry to u people.
The stock will be greatly improved.
Better breeds will be introduced, COWS
will be fed better and more regularly,
and both beef and dairy produce will be
of q better kind. If the COWS had q vote,
they would lift their horns on high, and
low unanimously for the Stock Law.
It will save this poor county of Able
Vile half a million of dollars annually
in fences. At % to so cents 4 panel he
fences of Abbeville County cost W and
q half million dollars. 4 fence is vlr-
tually renewed every five years, i. e.,
our fences cost annually 5000 0O.
The fencing-in of stock will vastly in
crease the growth of timber, as young
trees will not be in danger Of being nib
bled up or tramplcd down.
The preservation Of IL timber, i'll it
self q great direct benefit, indirectly will
work for our good III inducing and rcSu-
:slatingour rainfall. This is demonstrahlc,
no matter how some Of Il people may
doubt it. Protect Il forests and our
forests will save us from drought.
The saving in actual tillablc area made
upo of fence corners in itself is no incon-
siderable benefit. The fence corner is
proverbially fertile, and some ingenious
person should calculate how many acres
in the County, hitherto occupied by
fences, will now be under tho plough.
Another benefit to the poor man that will
accrue is the lowering of rents that will
inevitably follow the execution of the
law. The number Of farms now offered
t O rent will be greatly increased, as the
great obstacle to the renting of fariis-
the building Of fences has 0cen re-
moved; and as the supply Increases the
rents will decrease. I
Fallacies. One 81 the fallacics about
the Stock Law is this-that the rich pco-
pie grudgo the grass. "Thcy grud5c the
grass" is the cry, as if it were a measure
whose prime object was to Cypress the
POOR. Our poor arc poor indeed if they
claim a right to evena blade of grass that
does not belong to them. 1t is no ques-
ton of "grudging grass at all. It's a
question Of individual right and public
good. 1t is not a question of 'grudging
the grass" but of "grudging' the mil
lions annually spent in keeping up worm
fences that cumbcr the ground. 1t is a
question too of ''grudglng' the destruc-
ton of our magnificent forests to supply
rails, and of ''grudging' the destruction
of our crops which the worm fences did
not protect.
1t is fallaciously urged that the Stock
Law is in the interest of q class. Ills
tho voice of the Communc; we hear ii
complain. To refute this fallacy, it is
desirable that those who believe in it
should state it more plainly. If they
would state it as it is when reduced to its
last analysis, namely, that any one
class is bound TO consider any other class
as paupers and to feed thcm-no rcfuta-
ton would be necessary.
Other fallacies, such as that it is a rich
mans law, and that it imposes an addi-
tional tax, ssare Of the same stripe and
need no comment.
Hon. B. IL. HILL
This distinguished citizen of Georgia
has undertaken to destroy Ii character
of Governor Colquit in reference to that
officers action in signing Railroad bonds.
When a great man like Ben Hill goes out