| Show A PLEA FROM PAYSON A few reasons for the despair that to is in the hearts of jhb farmers at least those who have suffered from the depredations of stock and sheep first that they destroy thousands of dollars worth of property every year as completely as if it had bad been consumed by ore fire second that this is the only safe iafe method known of converting taking by force without say any promise of re ration one mans property to the use of another either with or without intent without danger of a criminal prosecution in regard to the loss that we sustained last fall I 1 will state we had bad a number of acres of lucerne seed near pay son those owning land next to ours undertook to herd sheep on aitor rather hired a boy to herd the result was they get on our land while the seed was lying on the ground and threshed out somewhere oear near otis one hundred dollars worth of seed that is the estimate of disinterested parties the herder say at t core werts were other sheep on the land in question besides theirs this land had bad a good fence abou arou around nd it but the sheep tore the wire off and carried it into the middle of the street of course this seed was all destroyed Bt st the sheep getting but little of it now all this time we did not know there were any sheep there this being the first time that sheea sheep had been herded on our farms that I 1 know anything about it is ill well known that sheep will go through any kind of a f nee except a tight board one five or six feet high should we be compelled to put such a fence as this around our land so BO that these men can turn their sheep on their own land either with or without a herder it makes but little difference which as was proved beyond a doubt last fall not only la in thi this case but in others that I 1 could n ime does it not look a little more reasonable that they should fence their own land in this way so they could keep thorn them there and if we should wish to put sheep on our land that we should do the same but some will say any 11 hey will have to pay is not that sufficient J lim ID answer I 1 will say aay that we live three miles away and it is impossible for us to be there all the time ani and therefore not able to swear what sheep did the darn dam ge all that we know is what the herder will admit now this may be a good thing for the sheep man but how about the farmer and when we consider that out of this hundred dollars destroyed the sheep owner did not got get five dollars benefit bent fit perhaps it makes it much worse than if they had got the ull full benefit of it we might say that mat they burnt up 95 worth to get 5 benefit for that is about the status of it now I 1 would ask is this a profitable way for any people tu do business saying nothing of the right and justice in the case I 1 will say may in behalf of these men that I 1 have no idea but what the they y thought the sheep could be herded on their own land and might be considered an experiment As I 1 do not know of any one attempt ing to herd alteen in the center of our farms before it seems to me that they will be able to a see by this time that it lg ils impossible to do any such thing there are men no doubt with less legs principle aud and regard for the rights of others that will continue to do this thing no matter how bow much property their animals may destroy even it if they by utterly destroying ninety nine dollars of other peopled property could only get one dollar benefit in this cue case I 1 do not know what we coald do under existing conditions as it deems to me that this part of the country was made expressly forthe fur the benefit of the sheep and stockman to ams and d there would be nothing left for any ny one else after they had got all they want of 0 it it must always be barne in win gala 1 in studying this question that the farm ers era as a rule live in cities and towns from three to four miles away so BO that it to is utterly impossible for them to know when sheep or stock are on their land much less know where they are at the same time it maybe said truthfully that it the sheep aw owners ners or stoc stockmen kmen en either for that hat matter had to pay for all the damage they do they would be willing to fence their own land if they put their sheep there there to Is one more illustration I 1 win will give orivs to show how bow this mode of herding sheep cheep might work if persisted in same three or four years ago I 1 raised on ten acres of land one hundred and forty bushels of lucern seed beed this brought me in cash about eight hundred dollars dollan now if I 1 had had a neighbor that owned sheep and he had bad attempted to herd them on his big own land next to mine it would have hare been pretty certain that they would have hare made a threshing floor of my land and in a very short time with dogs after them three fourths of it at least or i in a other words six hundred dollars worth of seed would be destroyed tramped in the ground burnt up so to speak with this mode of herding sheep it to in plain that the sheep men run very little risk of having aj pay for the damage they do because their herder border can got get them off la in a short time and ami where people seldom trav travel ej no one but the herder knows wehing about it and as for the of the average herder under the circumstances circumstance ss the people will haye have to be their own judges yet ret the iii gays that you must prove whose animal they were that did the dam eatn age ae before you can got get any redress this is IB very good law as a general proposition out but under the conditions stated doted a forlorn hope for the farmer if the farmer should puta tight board fence sufficient to deop sheep out it would then be the sheep menla turn tarn to take it down in places his bia sheep could 00 0 o that get the feed the same name as the stockmen stoc kmen meu have done every year on this same P diece of land which no doubt they wald would do there to ie another phase of this question which la Is this thia that wherever sheep go if they do not destroy all there IN is stock will not eat what they leave the question may be baked asked who is responsible for this date of affairs my opinion la Is not the sheep or stockmen stoc kmen altogether but the tho people generally I 1 find in my experience that the man that owns a two is ia about as aa anxious to have bow w or his run loose as the man who owns a hundred head bond and aad we may rest real awn ared d that so long as this Is ia the oase case thin ads state 1 of things will always exist this ebli feeling of surprise comes from the a settlements Bettle ottle ments of now new coun tes tea that have 8 80 0 nuch government land that to is free range for sheep and stock but the uwe time will comes come m sooner or later when we will begin to examine these questions W more ore critically IQ in the interest of justice and economy in facts fact emerge from the back woods as regards these things as they have done in other countries A groat great mali many y men acknowledge this but think it will b be 0 a long time there is another thing that would huten hasten this much to be desired change jf if there were more people that had valuable crops on their land that were late in maturing so that they could no got them off offin in time to save them from being destroyed all such would bes ee the point at once but the principle te IN not interest alone that should move no in ali these matters but right and J justice us in all things I 1 will say also that a meat great many farmers own land in three or four different directions which mak it still worse for them JOHN johm DONE |
