294 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Fences are to some extent a modern invention. In old times, herdsmen 

 were employed to keep the herd in its proper place. These shepherds used 

 slings or a shepherd's staff instead of fences. Herdsmen are employed in 

 many old countries at this day. In Spain the herdsmen use the same kind of 

 sling in controlling herds that David used in his conflict with Goliah. Many 

 of these herdsmen, like David, are very expert with a sling. They have a 

 little bag attached to their belt, in which they carry the smooth stones from 

 the brook. It is wonderful how they will control a herd of half wild cattle 

 with these slings. 



The owner of land on which there is a public highway owns the soil on which 

 the highway passes, subject to the right of the public to use it for the purposes 

 of a highway. He is entitled to the timber and grass on its surface, and the 

 minerals below it are his, and he may maintain trespass for any injury done to- 

 them. There is no common right of pasture in a highway. You are under 

 just as much obligation to restrain your cattle from destroying the grass, trees, 

 or herbage, in the highway along my premises as you are to keep them out of 

 my cornfield, except so far as the public use will permit or deem necessary. 



As I have before remarked, every man is bound not to trespass upon the 

 land of another; so is he bound to keep his cattle from trespassing also: for, 

 if by his negligence they stray upon the land of another and do injury, he is 

 liable for the deniage. He is not only liable for the damage, but he is pre- 

 cluded from recovering for any injury which the cattle may sustain while thus 

 trespassing. And I will say here, that it makes no difference whether that 

 neighbor on whom you or your cattle trespass be a farmer or a railroad com- 

 pany. We are apt to think that railroad companies have no rights that people 

 are bound to respect. They are represented to us as being great monopolies, 

 established in some mysterious way by the patronage of the government; that 

 they are a part of that political hobgoblin called the money power; that, 

 instead of being a grand combination of capital for the purpose of develop- 

 ing the resources of the country and advancing the progress of civilization 

 and the public interests, giving employment to thousands and enhancing the 

 value of farms and farmers' products, they are grasping, tyrannical, unprin- 

 cipled, soulless corporations, entitled to no consideration or respect. Indeed, 

 farmers, like some other people, are apt to think that there is a natural hos- 

 tility existing between capital in railroads and themselves. 



As a general rule, a railroad company owns the land, or at least the right 

 of way over the land, on which the road is located. It frequently happens 

 that they have bought it and paid for it the same as you have bought and 

 paid for your farm ; and we have no more right to trespass upon their prop- 

 erty than upon that of any other individual, and we are generally subject to 

 the same law for damages as we would be in case of a trespass upon our 

 neighbor's property. You are under just as much obligation to restrain your 

 cattle from trespassing upon the property of a railroad company as you are to 

 keep them off your neighbor's farm; and if they are there committing a 

 trespass, through your negligence, you cannot recover damages for any injury 

 done to them, unless the company is at fault. A railroad company is not 

 obliged to fence its track unless required to do so by statute. 



It is very provoking sometimes to find a neighbor's cattle or hogs in your 

 cornfield, and if you have a dog you are very apt to set him on. In one 

 instance which came under my observation, a farmer found several hogs in his 

 cornfield and set his dog to drive them out. The dog so bit and worried them 

 that five of them died. The owner of the dog was made to pay for them. 



