CHAPTER V 



THE RELATION OF THE FARMER TO THE LAWYER 



Doubtless more than one reader will be as- 

 tonished, perhaps even horrified, to think that 

 the writer should seriously suggest that there 

 ought to be any relation whatever between the 

 farmer and the lawyer. 



It has come to be generally believed by many 

 farmers that lawyers are at best a necessary 

 evil, which it is well to avoid if possible ; but, 

 strange as it may appear, this very feeling is 

 responsible for much of the litigation, with its 

 attendant loss and sometimes ruin, in wiiich too 

 many farmers have been engaged. It is not the 

 purpose of this short chapter to treat of the 

 subject of law, or to try to lay down any rules 

 to be blindly followed in legal matters. An 

 old and learned lawyer, who had all his life 

 been engaged in a country practice, once told 

 me that the most prolific sources of litigation 

 were alleged text- books of law, bearing such 

 alluring and seductive titles as '' Every Man 

 his own Lawyer," or ■' The Farmei''s own Law 

 Book." 



E (65) 



