Titles and Abstract s 69 



posed to be a valuable mortgage was depreci- 

 ated one -half by reason of the neglect and 

 incompetence of the country conveyancer. 



So, too, there are questions as to line fences, 

 water courses, rights of way, encroachment 

 upon the highway, and an innumerable train of 

 threatening evils, continually arising, any one 

 of which, if neglected or referred to the many 

 wiseacres common to every community, may lead 

 to costly litigation, or even to the loss of the 

 farm itself. A bit of counsel at the right time, 

 which is when the matter first appears, will pre- 

 vent, at trifling cost, all the attendant evils of a 

 law suit. 



Such instances are very common in the ex- 

 perience of every lawyer who enjoys even a 

 moderate country practice ; and it is an alarm- 

 ing fact that perhaps fifty per cent of the titles 

 to all the farms, especially in the older states, 

 have flaws more or less serious, any one of 

 which is a microbe of trouble, liable to assert 

 itself when least expected. This being so, the 

 general and inflexible rule should ever prevail, 

 never to take a deed of property without an 

 abstract of title which has been examined by a 

 competent attorney. The so-called maxims of 

 law, often repeated and distorted, especially in 

 farming communities, are extremely dangerous 

 to follow. They may have some foundation in 



