Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-08-30
TURNING OUT CATTLE.

Judging from the number Of people
gho have been in to speak to the edi-
tor about it, the matter of turning out
cattle after the crops have been gath
cred Is one Of the livest subjects that
has been touched upon in The Enqui-
rer In quite a while.
mo good farmer wants cattle run
ming on his land at any time." said one
farmer to the reporter. 1.-The place for
cattle" he continued. "is in the pas
ture, and if you have no pasture you
should not try to keep cattle"
Another farmer came along with this
proposition:
IF there is no law making it a mis-
demeanor for a farmer to turn his
stock out, there ought to be-"
The farmer made the statement with
such a positiveness Of conviction as to
arouse the reporter to argument, and
he said:
"Inasmuch as the law allows you to
take up stock that trespasses on your
land, and make the owner pay the ex-
penses, l don't see why you want any
law to make It a misdemeanor for him
to turn his stock out You don't care
so long as the stock does not come on
your land, and when 1t does come on
your land, you have a remedy"
But what If the stock Is on my
neighbor's land. and no fence between,
have | got ts sit down and guard my
place until they come on 1t, losing
whole lot of time before l can do any
thing?"
mo, II you will go about your busi-
ness, and If the cattle damage you In
the meantime you will collect the dam
age off the owner"
But I've got to take the cattle up
before | can collect damage, haven't
-" asked the farmer, land II the stock
do the damage and go away before
get back, what then? Again, suppose
II is hogs 1t Is no trouble to take up
cattle and pen them: but how are you
going to catch hogs? You are not al
lowed to dog them"
The reporter could not answer the
last question.
II like to be a good neighbor." said
another farmer. II am willing to lend
my tools, my wagons and my stock
under certain circumstances. and am
always glad to do anything / can In
case of sickness; but when 1t comes to
allowing my neighbor's cattle to run
on the fields l cultivate l draw the
line.
Yes, 1 know what all this involves"
he continued. II have paid the pen
alty more than once. l have Incurred
hard feelings and got the reputation of
being mean: but l can't help 1t. l try
to respect everybodys rights and l
want people to respect my rights at
least in some things. My experience Is
that to allow cattle to run on your
land, especially in winter. Is ruinous
to II. There was a time when l did
not know any better: but after a while
| paid to learn that whenever an AMI
mails foot goes down in wet soil there
is going to be a clod. and thousands of
tracks make thousands Of clods, and
thousands of clods reduce production to
almost nothing.
Years ago when ! first began farm
ing. I conceived the idea Of using my
cotton and corn land for winter pas
ture. l figured that the manure would
add to it's productiveness. The next
crop was smaller than that of the year
before. | did not know what the trou-
Bile was. The next years crop was so
much smaller as to suggest that the
land was not worth another trial.
From what others told me as tallying
with my own experience, l concluded
at last that pasturage was the trouble,
and so l just fenced the whole busi-
ness as a pasture and quit allowing
stock on cultivated lands. After two
years | plowed the pasture up and
found 1t better than ever. But no more
cattle on my cultivated lands, If you
please. | have taken up my neigh