The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1882-01-21
JOHNSON GRASS.
Supreme Ceurt Deeis,an.
lClariOn.l


John MeCutchen vs.. o. NJ. Blanton ct al.
Appeal from the Chancery Court
OF Washington county, Hon. W. G.
Phelps, Chancellor.
"Johnson Grass Case.r This is
an appeal from the refusal of the
Chancellor to dissolve the iniunc-
ton which had been granted in the
cause. By the agreement of the
parties, the case is to be consid-
cred and treated as if submitted
on final hearing and disposition on
its merits. The gravamen of the
bill is that the defendant appel
lants here is about to SOW on his
land contiguous to, or in the vicin.
ity of lands of complainants, John
son Grass seed which are averred
to be most pernicious seed and
will surely cause lands of com.
plainants to be Overrun with this
grass, whereby they will be rem
dered unfit for other purposes, and
unsuitable for the production of
cotton, corn and other crops usu.
ally produced in the country. That
this will constitute nuisance, for
which the defendant cannot re-
spond in damages because of his
insolvency. The answer admits
that the defendant is about to SOW
the grass mentioned, but denies the
pernicious character, as charged.
and that his sowing will produce
the results alleged by the bill, and
claims the right in defendant to
sow the seed. The testimony Of
the many witnesses in the case is
quite variant. 1t is clearly shown
that the Johnson Grass is very
valuable. 1t makes excellent hay,
in large quantities per acre, yield
ing as much as six tons o year on
good land, and seems suited to
supply long felt want of the
South. Statements and opinions
differ widely as to the spreading
of the grass and it's destructibil-
ity and destructiveness of other
crops. According to some of the
witnesses, it is an unmitigated
curse, threatening ruin to the land
as to all else, obtruding Itself per
sistently where it is not wanted,
carried far and wide by wind and
water and birds and animals, and
sending forth its permcious roots
full of joints close together and
each possessing the germ of a new
growth to form the fruitfol cause
of further propagation by seeds
and roots in all the adjacent land,
bidding defiance to all efforts to
stay its dreaded march of destruc-
ton, and soon taking exclusive
occupancy of whole plantations,
which are thenceforth rendered
unfit for any thing else.
According to others, it is not
disposed to spread rapidly and is
hard to propagate, even with dill
gent effort, and is not destructive
of other crops and may be readily
destroyed by the means used to
destroy other grasses. 1t is said
to have been brought from Guinea,
on the western coast Of Africa, to
Jamaica, whence it was taken to
South Carolina, from which some
of its roots were brought to Ala
bama by Mr.. Johnson, from whom
it has its present name. Witness
es acquainted with it on the John
son farm in Alabama differ widely
about it as do witnesses who have
known it elsewhere.
Rucls s. Jayne and w. 2. & j.
D. Harris for appellants.
Percy & Yerger and Nugent &
Melville for appellees.
CAMPBELL, j.,
Held
1. The precise limits Of one's
liberty to do as he pleases with
his own property it is often diff
cult to define. 1t may be said that
this liberty stops just at the point
where the rights Of others begin,
but the inquiry arises, what are tie
rights of others which operate to
restrict the exercise of ones do
minion over his own property In
1 Fisher V. Clark, II Barb, 1928, the
Supreme Court of New York used
this language: Ones "right to use
his property as he pleases is I'M
limited and unqualified UP to the
point where the particular use be-
comes a nuisance What is a
nuisance, has been frequently an
nounced, but whether particular
thing is a nuisance is often hard to
decide. Every person has
right to the reasonable enjoyment
of his property, and so long as the
use to which he devotes it violates
no rirhtn of others. however muph