70 The Farmsfpofl 



fact, but as almost all rules of law have their 

 exceptions, and as no one not versed in the law 

 is competent to pass upon them, they should 

 never be blindly followed by a layman. 



To illustrate this point : Not long ago a 

 prosperous farmer, relying upon the oft -repeated 

 assertion that twenty years of peaceable posses- 

 sion gave title, became involved in a lawsuit 

 with the town over a fence which had been 

 built in the highway adjacent to his farm. He 

 was an astonished man when the lawyer whom 

 he consulted told him that possession for a 

 thousand years of the land claimed would not 

 give him title as against the public. 



It seems almost incredible that a farmer, who 

 will drive his horse for miles to have him shod 

 by an expert, or who will summon a veterina- 

 rian to treat a sick cow, will be satisfied to 

 consult what someone has brightly termed a 

 necessity lawyer, — because necessity knows no 

 law, — upon matters affecting his farm, his home, 

 or his competence, rather than the experienced 

 lawyer. The cow might be replaced for forty 

 or fifty dollars if a mistake was made, but the 

 farm, the competence, have cost a lifetime of 

 labor. 



Perhaps the most striking example of neglect 

 on the part of the farmer is in regard to the 

 disposal of the fruits of his life-work. It is 



