18 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



of the United States. Every subject within the scope of Civil Goverumeut is 

 liable to be dealt with by the Legislature. Oar State coustitutioa establishes 

 the division of the State iuto counties, townships, cities and villages, all of 

 which have, to a limited extent, legislative power 



I will direct your attention to some of the powers conferred upon you to act, 

 within your respective townships or counties, in legislation for your farming 

 interest. For instance, the law for the use of public highways, and the rights 

 of adjacent laud owners. By the general law all animals are forbidden to run 

 at large in any public highway, but certain legislative powers are conferred 

 upon the Board of Supervisors of each county, giving them the right to legis- 

 late upon this point within the jurisdiction of their respective counties. 



Act No. 185 of the Laws of 1867 is entitled, "To prevent animals from run- 

 ning at large in the public highways." 



Section 1 contains a full and absolute prohibition, extending to all th& 

 animals named therein, " Cattle, horses, slieep or swine," from running at large 

 in the public highway, but this is restricted by the proviso, that the Board of 

 Supervisors may, by resolution, render the act inoperative as to the whole or 

 part of the county. 



The Supreme Court, in Cook vs. Bassett, 23 Michigan, 117, says: "Section 

 2 contemplates that the Board of Supervisors may see fit to allow a larger 

 range to some of the animals named therein than to some of the others, and 

 this construction is required to make it sensible. 



In Campau vs. Konan, .39 Michigan, 3G5, the Court says: "The owner of 

 lands adjoining the highway is entitled to the herbage growing thereon, and 

 whatever rights the public may have in the highway, a 'common or pasturage/ 

 is not among them." 



" The inhabitants of each township may, at any legal meeting, by a vote of 

 qualified electors thereof, make all such orders and by-laws for determining the 

 time and manner in which cattle, horses, sheep and other animals shall be 

 restrained from going at large in the highways." Section (573, Howell's Anno- 

 tated Statutes. 



This law has a restrictive force. It does not abrogate the common law lia- 

 bility of owners of cattle for trespassing upon the land of others. Its proNis- 

 ions do not by any implication authorize such animals to run at large thereon 

 at any time. The Board of Supervisors alone have power to suspend the gen- 

 eral law forbidding the running at large of animals in any public highway of 

 this Slate. 



There are many laws specially designed to protect the interest of farmers,, 

 but to speak of them in detail would weary your patience. But I desire to call 

 your attention to another subject of a legal nature of great interest to farmers^ 

 as well as other business men. The transportation of farm products by rail- 

 roads, as affecting the interests of the farmers. 



THE RAILROAD QUESTIOis^. 



We have most ample and excellent water communication, by way of the- 

 great lakes, that enables us to ship our products at less expense to the markets 

 of the world. We are in the center of the great railroad system lying between 

 the east and the west, and we ought to have cheaper transportation for the pro- 

 ducts of our farms to the eastern markets. 



There is just cause for the complaint that railroad corporations absorb the 

 bulk of the profits of the farm. The people who make the Legislature have 



