20 Transactions op the 



the State (leaving out the hogs, because the principle is already recog- 

 nized and enforced by the present laws as regards them) and placing 

 their value at their market prices, and we have the total of that value 

 in round numbers — thirty million dollars — or just one third the total 

 value of the other agricultural products or growing crops. 



Here, then, we have among us thirty million dollars of aggressive 

 property and ninety million dollars of passive, owned to a great extent 

 by different parties. If the former are allowed to roam and seek their 

 living without restraint the latter will necessarily, to a great extent, be 

 destroyed; and -the question arises upon which class of property or upon 

 which set of owners shall the expense of such necessary restraint be 

 placed? Not taking into account the amounts or values of the different 

 classes, and only considering their nature, a disinterested umpire would 

 naturally say the expense must be paid by the cattle or their owners. 



Again, in all associations of property for the general gain — incorpo- 

 rated companies for instance — the greater number of shares or the 

 majority in value controls and manages the whole interest, and that con- 

 trol and management is uniformly one of the conditions of the associa- 

 tions. Why should not the same rule of action obtain in this case and 

 be enforced by the State in the management of the property of its citi- 

 zens, as the State, so far as property relations is concerned, is but an 

 extensive incorporation, founded for the purpose of enforcing the rights 

 and equities of those relations. 



EXPENSE OP FENCES. 



The number of acres of land under fence in the State, according to 

 Assessors' returns, is four million nine hundred and eighty-two thousand 

 nine hundred and forty-two. This fence has not cost less than three 

 dollars per acre for every acre inclosed, or a sum total of fourteen 

 million nine hundred and forty-six thousand eight hundred and twenty- 

 six dollars, a trifle less than one half the value of all the stock in the 

 State. 



The annual interest on this sum at one and one fourth per cent a month 

 would be two million forty-two thousand and twenty-three dollars. The 

 annual expense for repairs of fences, and the natural depreciation beyond 

 the possibility of repair, can hardly be less in this destructive climate 

 than twenty per cent of the original cost, a sum equal to two million 

 nine hundred and eighty-nine thousand three hundred and sixty-five dol- 

 lars, which, added to the interest account, gives us five million thirty-one 

 thousand three hundred and eighty-eight dollars, the annual expense of 

 keeping up the fences of the State. This is noAv a tax and incumbrance 

 on our agricultural industries and energies. If levied exclusively on the 

 stock raising interest it Avould amount to an annual tax of over one 

 sixth, or nearly seventeen per cent of its present value, and would work 

 an immediate ruin of the business itself. Deducted exclusively from the 

 annual products of the other agricultural industries, as under the pres- 

 ent rule it really is, it forces upon them an annual loss of about eight 

 and one half per cent, and is truly a serious burden for them to bear. 



SCARCITY OP TIMBER. 



It is not improper, in this connection, to consider for a moment the 

 scarcity of lumber in this State. Indeed, this scarcity and the cost of 

 lumber for the building of fences may be instanced as one of the 



