Year: 1877

w On this point need only remar


that the best land in your State is unde


your fences Now, were they all remove
andsthe ground they occupy in wheat an
corp, would it not bread all the people O
yoTr State? All through the old fields, toe
and many rich spots. Our people have hun


tee mp all these, and are letting the poores


oftne land they had been cultivating Ii


and rest. Besides, it is nice thing to b.


nd o! the briers aud brush in the fence COZ
ners, and drive out in the clean road to turn
4 - CSeosr most observing people arc nov
convinced that the injury they did thei
helds by pasturing them was far greater thar
all the benefit 10 their stock. If turned in
lor only few days to CLEAN the wheat, oats
ana corn LETT, and not suffered to remain in
whch the ground is wet, the damage would
DC small. But not one in hundred would
be SO careful. Forty-five years ago heard
men discuss the question, why is it that n
held cleared now will not produce more than
half OF what the same kind of land in an
adjoining field produced when the country
was hrst settled? Some young men were dis.
posed to deny the fact, and hint that the
old men had forgotten, or had fallen into
the habit of telling big stories. But Mr..
James Hamilton Lowry, of Laurens District,
who was then an cid man and close obser.
,s ver' explained it thus: When I,gsy box
So loose that a walking stick could easily be
run down twelve or eighteen inches. Per
haps for hundreds of years growing roots had
been raising the ground, and as they died
and rotted they left it very open. It held
the most of the rain, and slowly supplied the
crops as needed. But by the time the cat
tie men had destroyed all the pea vines and
canes, the ground was tramplcd hard, and
ceased to produce as know it had done be-
fore" believe he was right. And if you
could see the crop of vegetation on our old
fields, which were formerly clipped bare by
everybody's stock, you would think so, too
for vegetation growing and dccaying tho
tops above and the roots beneath the surface
is what cnriches land. But when it is
cropped of, just when starting to grow, and
the ground trampled hard, there is no chance
WHICH .hindera the reeupeErqstipn !5oe7b6of fnJ5r
90 on it, only to haul out manure, till tho
land and gather in the crop; then far less
sabsoiling will be necessary to maintain the





(4) While canvassing for the stock law
some asserted that the enclosed region would
soon be without laborers; that renters would
have no place for their stock and would move
out. But, as some of us believed, the thing
works just the other way. With us, and
suppose with you, renters had to repair fen
ces to protect their crops. But they soon
saw that it was much easier to move old rails
and fence pasture than to repair fences
around all the fields. Nobody has ever
thought Of refusing them pasture any more
than a house. Nor are the rents any higher
than when they had fences to repair. Take
a case illustrative Of many: MIR. c., a renter,
,txas much opposed to the proposed change.
He and his son went to an election aud
helped to defeat it for time in our town
ship. He boasted that he and his son could
kill the votes of the landowner and another
tenant as often as they wished to try that
thing But the law provided for it, and it
was convenient to take that and few other
farms, where owners were willing, within
the enclosure of another township. Mr.. G..
was furiously mad, and threatened to leave,
though it was the first of April. BY NOV
ing about sixty panels of old fence he got
all excellent and convenient pasture, much
better than the landowner had. Still, he
grumbled; he did not like to be beat in that
way. Towards the close of the year it was
signifed to him that he might go out to
where he could find things as he liked them.
| But he made contract to rent over in the
township which had voted for the stock law
However, before he moved he and his man
disagreed, but not about pasture. Then
he had to move out on large old place
where he could repair fences to his hearts
content. Now, guess what he did He and
an adjoining landowner, who had also been
opposed to the change, rcsoiUcd on hduing q
iHfte fence Mw bct,oeen themselves Accor
dingly, they put up gates, threw an outside
fence around both places, and made them ;
pastures A mighty revolution of thought
and feelings in one short year was that
But this year they arc happy in having tn


great enclosure extended far beyond them


And many such cases have we.


i (5) When moving for the change
many Of us held itas theory that the stocl


law would enable not few to hold on t
harms from which the old fence law wa
about to drive them Now, We are happy t
know that we were not mistaken Almos
! every ncighborhood furnishes one or NOR
cases to the point. Take one as a fair sam
rlo A. II nune ,hont e;xty ooroo III