The Mena weekly star., 1910-01-27
Pasture and Free Range vs. Hog Law.


 country, wish to say a few words.
 There are two sides to every question. Several men have written on this subject, but men- tioued only the side they favored. Now let's figure out both sides and see which will be mos. bene- hcial to the farmer.
 What IS the cause of the pre- vailing high price of meat? Sev- eral causes are given; one is the scarcity of hogs, both north ana south. Now comes the q uestion, what causes the scarcity of hogs? h Polk county it is caused by there not being enough feed rro- duced to feed them on. To make hog raising iu Polk county sue cess, the people must avail them selves of way of raising feed.
 Will hog ,w raise the feed? Wi h Tree renge you are at lib- erty to keep your hog in an eight foot pen, in a pasture or on the range, just as you please, where if you had hog law, you would be cenpelled to keep them in an eight-foot pen or make you pas. ture.
 Suppose you had a hog law last summer throug h the drouth and had 10 keep your hogs in au eight-foot pen or pasture; what would those people have done who had to haul water? That pasture is good thing to have, and every farmer trying to raise hogs should have one. But will the hog law make the pasture, or will it make the people fix them ! It will not. Some of the farmers will fix them, but most of them will not, as 1t takes the best laud to produce clover and grass, and they cannot afford to take 1t foI pasture when it is more profitable for farming than hog raising.
 The result of hog law would be that most of the farmers would have but small place to raise hogs, and the renter would be eu' tirely knocked out, unless hs build an eig ht foot pen in tt, back yard. 1 say 1t is better iS have a pasture with free rangt than to have a pasture with hog law. With free range you hav' the liberty to turn your hog on when you please to get the mas and water, when in need of it, o to let the pasture rest, that is |, let the grass get a new start This last summer and fall is good example of how he shoult have done this, The dry weathe in the summer nearly killed th' grass, and if he had taken hi hogs off of the pasture in tn early fall and turned them on th range, they would get the mast while with the warm weather auC plenty of rain the grass would have grown enough to make : green pasture nearly all winter Where If you bad a hog law you would have been compelled to keep thtm in the pasture, aaC keep the grass down so you would have nothing for winter. Thert will be no trespassing in tbC neighbours field if,he people build a lawful fence, which they vii have to do with a hog law, il they raise hogs. As a genera rule the farmer depends on his field for pasture in the fall. IL order to do this with hog law, he must have fence the same as with free range, so 1t will cost just as much to build fence with a hog law as without one. know this to be fact, as 1 had the privilege of living in a coun- try with stock law iu my early boyheod days, and every farmer who tried to raise hogs had hog proof fence.
 The tresps ssing hog causes a great deal of mllice, hatred, strife, difficulties, law suits and even murder. What is the rem edy given? A hog law. This remedy would be like throwing oil on a blaziug fire to put It out; i; only makes a bad matter worse. We had stock law in our home county back in Missouri and there was more trouble with the neigh bors there, caused by having to ply penalties and damages done by escaping stock, in one year than 1 have seen iu Polk couuts in the last ten years. If you want proof of how a stock law will work in Polk county, just step up to Mena and investigate her stock law. The only way to keep peace is to keep the free range and build lawful fence.
 You may say. II we keep the free range what is the use of a