Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1891-03-07

sHEEP-KILLING DOGS.
Pointed Interview With Davidson
County Farmer.
Nashville American.

to the Pacific, all over the wide dos
main of our country, we see the farm
ing community organizing them-
selves into unions and alliances?'
said prominent farmer yesterday.
at is because legislation for a long
series of years failed to protect their
interests and burdens have accumu,
lated until they can be borne no long
er. The capitalist, the bondholder,
the banker, the merchant and the
lawyer, and all classes except the
farmer, have been literally provided
for or protected by legislation. And
il is right that these should be pro-
tected, but it is wrong that the farm.
err should be neglected. And this
neglect Of the farmers has aroused
them to action. 1t has taught them
lesson, one they are not going to
forget soon. Their grievances are
many, and now they are organizing
and awake to their interests, they will
not be satisfied until proper remedies
are applied to relieve their oppres.
sions.
SIN the older settled counties of
Tennessee the fences are as IA general
thing very had, because nearly all
the timber has been used, and to buy
and transport it from other counties
is very expensive. Not one farmer
in ten perhaps has lawful fence
around ms farm, and Il negro or a
trashy white man may and often does
buy a few acres of poor land and
, build cabin, or rents an Clubhouse
on some farm, and then the agony
begins. He has brought with him
three old breachy cows or mares and
three proving dogs. The dogs are
} not well fed and not restrained, and
every night they are prowling over
, the neighborhOOd. Hens nests are
broken up and the eggs sucked, pigs
E are carried off and eaten, smoke
2 houses and cellars are broken into
and meat and lard destroyed, and the
sheep and LAMBS are killed and some.
4 times whole fiocks destroyed. And
e what is the farmers remedy against
e these dogs? None in the world ex-
; cept he sit up and watch for them al
night and catch them in the very act
r of killing his sheep before he dare
e hurt hair oftheir heads.
r "And the old mares or cows under
5 stand too that they must forage for 6
= living or starve. Every night per
. haps they are in some neighbor''
l. field running and devastating thu
e crops that he has worked hard t.
u make. And what is the remedy
= here? You must first build a Lawful
/. fence all around your farm or you arr
:, at the mercy of this scalawags
y stock. 1t would perhaps cost severa
{ hundred dollars to do this. Wher,
Is the justice in the Legislature re
quiring man to fence out his neigh
g boris stock? When the country wa
IS new and the grazing good, and bu
n few farms in cultivation, it was per
3 haps well enough to require person
II to fence IN the crops. The outlying
= land belonged to the State, and it
n citizens had right to Craze tn
r heritage from it. But there is n
n, land belonging to the State in tn
IL best counties now. 1t all belongs t
. citizens, and whether fenced or I'm
10 fenced, the land, "with all its appul
a. tenances," belongs to the owner, an
lie he ought to be protected in the use {
"a its grass and timber. The Legislator
"a has the same moral right to say to
at citizen You must put lock of cel
n tain kind ion your crib when yo
s. gather and crib your corn to protet
+ it from the owner as it has to sa
~ you must build fence of a certai
lie height all around your field to pre-
r. tect your growing corn from h
is stock. There is but one remedy fl
~ this evil. A law compelling ever
lie owner of stock to keep them on h
h own premises and in the event Of
failure to do so an action for trespa
and damage can be brought befoI
no magistrate, the judgment in a
cases to be directed against the an
mails. This will remedy the evil ar
a nothing short of this will protect IL
rs farmer in the crops he works hard
make and in the grass growing upC
his lands.
Nv "The Supreme Court of the Sta
has decided that a dog is property.