The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1882-01-19

| VOlFeu. .Nu pleseHI pIOpTlctOI, WldL>
ever sum he has paid for his title, can
stand on higher ground than the origi.
nal grantee from the State through
whom he claims. Until now it has
not been sought by Legislation to place
him higher. When he improved his
lands and fenced them, as existing le-
gislatioD required, he was carefully pro>
tectcd by law from intrusion by men or
animals. When he failed to improve
his lands, aud left them unenclosed,
though paying his taxes on them at
their unimproved rate, the law pro-
tected him in the enjoyment of such
value as ne derived from them-the use
of its timber and water. But that
value which was left, i. e., the right of
pasturage, which he had not appro,
priated BY improvement, was left to
public enjoyment. The first infringe-
meut upon this common Of pasturage By
our Legislature occurred iu 1866, when
it was enacted that every entry on the
enclosed or unenclosed lands Of another,
after notice from the owner or tenant
prohibiting the same, should be o
IN isIemeanor.
The Act which we are now discuss
ing goes further, and absolutely abolishes
common of pasturagc. 1t makes it a
trespass for the owner of any live stock
to permit it to run at large beyond the
limits Of his own land
While the lands of the much larger
part of our State are devoted to agri>
culture, there remains sections IN which
it is not so. Small areas there are
highly improved and devoted to profta-
BILE culture, while the larger portion
remains iu state Of nature and affords
Only wood and water and pasture Of
limited value.
Even in the most highly improved
sections portions of the country are
waste, and there would seem to be
neither policy nor propriety in forbid.
ding to general public the consumption
of the pasturage on these lands
which the owner does not himself ap-
propriate, and the consumption of which
does not impair the value Of the lands
themselves.
1t seems to me therefore that the Act
to provide General Stock law is seri-
ousIy defective in abolishiug common Of
pastuTage, and should be amended so
as to restore this ancient right while
retaining all the economic advantages
proposed BY the Act.
Let common of pasturage be re-
stored upon all unimproved lands, pro,
perly defining what constitutes improved
lands, and require no fences around i'm,
proved lands to protect them FROM tres
pass of man or animals. The account
between the landholder and the gen
eral public will then be fairly adjusted
upon equitable principles. The land
holder will have unnecessary burdens
imposed upon him in the development
OF the property upon when whle-. ne pays
taxes; and the non.landholder will en-
JOY that right which remains from the
original general fund, and has not been
appropriated by the grantee through the
Improvement contemplated in the grant.
Observe now with such amendment
the operation of the law. The agricul>
tural landholder is relieved Of the heavy
burden of fencing of which he con-
plains. The pastoral landholder or non
landholdcr is deprived of no right which
he possessed. He may still have the
pastoral use of all waste lands; he is
only required, in SO using them, not to
abuse his neighbor. While pasturing
his stock upon his neighbor's waste
lands, he is not to pasture them upon
his neiehbor's crops. That is all and
surely unless the ownership of live stock
without the ownership of land confers
extraordinary rights, there is no iniquity
10 the rsquisition.
A system of individual or cp-opera-
tive herding, entirely practical and
comparatively inexpensive, as evidenced
in the experience of other countries,
will take the place of our present in
efficient and expensive system of en-
closures, and we will as a people soou
recognize the passage Of the Stock Law
as an era IN our progress.
JOHNSON HAGooD,
Governor.