LAW FOR THE FARMER. 321 



setting fires that have ever been given in any class of cases, be- 

 cause if they think the setter of the fire was any way in fault, they 

 may saddle him with all the necessaiy or probable consequences 

 of that fire, which may escape from his land to the land of A, 

 thence to that of B, C and D, clear down to the end of the alpha- 

 bet. This apparent bias may arise in part from the fact that the 

 sympathy of the jury is awakened in estimating the loss of the 

 sufferer, and perhaps comparing the poverty of one man with the 

 wealth of the other. But that is one of the incidents attending 

 our system of jury trials, which the law cannot fully remedy. 



If any man should set a fire to-day, dry as the earth is, td burn 

 stumps, or burn over a felled piece any where within reach of 

 civilization, and damage should ensue, I would say if I were a 

 juror, that he ought to be held responsible for it, because it is 

 not a proper time. This is a question of fact, not of laxo. Fre- 

 quently, I admonish xc\y neighbors not to set fires, so as to keep 

 them cautious and vigilant, but there are times in the course of 

 the year when my neighbors may set fires without my leave. It 

 is sometimes necessary that these fires should be set It was by 

 this means that the dense forests which sheltered savage men and 

 wild beasts were cleared, thus introducing the glorious civilization 

 which blesses New England. The right to set fires has not yet 

 disappeared, and it is for every man to judge for himself, at his 

 own peril, that he gets a fire at the proper time, and manages it in 

 a prudent manner. 



I think, as my friend Mr. Chamberlain says, in his works already 

 published, that a great many ti'ees have been destroyed that 

 should not have been, and if every farmer would read the admira- 

 ble paper he has written on that subject, I think there would not 

 be the wonderful hankering to burn up the forests which has al- 

 ready devastated a portion of the coiintry. I would commend that 

 paper to the careful perusal of farmers, because our forests are 

 now one of our most important elements of wealth, — one of the 

 elements which ranks Piscataquis county among our richest coun- 

 ties in natural resources. The wants of the world have become 

 such that every tree that can be sawed anywhere is valuable, and 

 the time is coming when the countries on the shores of the Med- 

 iteranean, and even as far east as Jerusalem and Smyrna, for 

 ought I know, will call upon the west for its forests. So be care- 

 ful how you destroy these trees by fire ; but when it becomes 

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