330 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. EoBiNSON. It is not an uncommon thing. They are the 

 most vexatious, the most hurtful, the most foolish law suits in the 

 world. 



Now, g-entlemen, what is the remedy ? -I can give you a rule. 

 It is not a legal rule, but I can lay down a rule which will relieve 

 you from all this trouble, and which will save your time, temper and 

 money. It is not a very profitable rule for the lawyer, but it is an 

 excellent one for the citizen; and that is, just so often as your 

 neighbor's cattle come upon your premises, just so often drive them 

 home to him. 



Mr. Lebroke. There was one thing which I was determined 

 more fully to explain in my speech if I neglected everything else. 

 How often it is, when a creature gets into a man's enclosure, that 

 he goes and puts an advertisement iu the papers that that animal 

 will bo sold, if the owner does not take him away and pay the* ex- 

 penses. Let me say, there is no such law. Your advertising in 

 the newspaper does not amount to anything, except to give the 

 publisher so much money. If you take up such an aninial and do 

 not take it to the pound within ten days, you are liable for tres- 

 pass, and liable to pay one per cent, of the value of that animal, 

 however valuable he may be, and lose his keeping besides. There 

 is no law for advertising in the papers except by the pound-keeper. 

 Whenever the animal is worth more than ten dollars, he must, in 

 addition to the three notices he is required to post up, put an ad- 

 vertisement in the paper, 



Mr. Robinson. That question was in my mind while the gentle- 

 man was speaking: What are you to do with an estray ? It is a 

 most embarrassing question. For instance, a year ago I found a 

 stray horse in my pasture. I inquired of all my neighbors and no 

 one could tell me to whom the horse belonged. My first impulse 

 was to turn the horse into the road ; but in making my iiKinirics I 

 came to the conclusion that the horse was what is technically called 

 iu the statutes "an estray," and it occurred to me, Suppose the 

 owner pursues the horse, and finds that he has been in my field, 

 and says, " What has become of my horse ?" " I have turned him 

 into the road." " Why did you do tliat ? Here is the law, requir- 

 ing you to put him in the pound, I shall hold j'ou to answer for my 

 property." Suppose I had taken the horse up and attempted to 

 advertise it, witli all tlic loopholes iu the statute, in view of 

 which even I would not undertake to receive a title myself. Or 

 suppose I had advertised it as an estray, and some person had 



