The Mena weekly star., 1910-03-10
Hog Law Will Come.

~ etiC LIlbOI u 1ilG OLdf.
 Dear Sir:-I have read with amusement the articles pro and con on the subject of law in Polk coun- ty to prohibit hogs, sheep, goats and geese from running at large.
 have lived in Polk county forty years; have seen the days when farmers had to lot their hogs at night to protect them from bears; have seen hogs that had so much mast to eat that they would not eat corn. Those days are passed for most parts of Polk county. The most of our best lands have been put in cultivation; the mast bearing tim Der has been cut for use.
 Now. brother farmers, know that many parts of our county is not ready for and does not need a hog law, while other parts are in need of such law. Most of you say it will ruin the tenant farmer. A ten ant farmer, one who cultivates large crops and makes lots of produce, said to me short tine back that if we did not get a hog law soon rent CTS would be forced to leave this settlement. He said that land own CTS principally owned the hogs and that their fences was not sufficient to keep out breechy and starving hogs. Most renters don't like to jump into lawsuit with their land- lord. Now farmers, let US lay down all selfishness and look at things as they exist and try to comprehend what the near future will bring to us.
 This county needs just such law as Act POI, passed by the legislature of Arkansas in 1907; granting the farmers of our sister county, Pike, the opportunity of availing them selves of hog law just when they need it, and in such parts as now need such law. When any settle ment or community becomes thickly populated 1t becomes very necessary for such stock as hogs to be restrain ed. Why does the city of Mena have a stock law? Because stock run hing at large does more damage to its owner and his neighbors than the profit derived by letting such stock run at large, and the rule works just the same in rural districts.
 The article written by Mr. Gatlin and printed in The Star few days ago, fairly illustrates the conditions now prevailing in some parts of this county.
 Now, brother tenant farmer, don't be scared about the hog law. have a relative in the state of Texas who has farmed as a tenant for twenty years under strict stock law for all kinds of stock. He raises his own meat every year for his family on this plan: All hog law counties have good breeds of hogs. They cannot afford any other kind" The man mentioned buys two or three small shoats in the spring and puts them in pen. His wife saves all of the kitchen slops for his hogs and feeds them some corn, and at killing time his hogs will dress 250 to 300 pounds each. Thereby he raises meat for his family use cheaper than most of us landLolders do with free range. The slops act as balanced ration for the corn and his hogs are thrifty all of the time.
 Now, brother farmer, let us get down tc facts. This county is not what it once was, and we must ad- just ourselves to the changes or else get up and hike. The great news papers of the country such as Har- per's Weekly, Chicago Inter Ocean, Louisville Courier Journal, the New York World and others, have turned their blowguns on the South, espe- cially the two tiers of states lying next to the Gulf of Mexico, and Ar kansas is among them. The great publications will turn the tide of immigration to the South, and with the probability of another railroad through Polk county, you will soon see a home built on every 40 or 80 acres of land that can be cultivated at all. Then the shiftless man, who can't raise a hog without free range and acorns, will have to migrate elsewhere or locate so deep in the forest reserve that no stock law can reach him.
 The hog law is coming not many years hence. Take notice to this: All thickly populated counties have a stock law because it is necessity.
 Respectfully submitted,
 T. J. Walker.
 Euoar Ark