Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Dec. 20, 1906, edition 1 / Page 2
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Thursday, December 20, 1906. 2 PROGRESSIVE FAKHER AND COTTON PIKT. r ! ; i i r I I I ! i 1 ! Farmers Demand tKe Torrens System. Lawyer-Made Shackles Now Hamper All Land Transfers and Cost Farmers Millions of Dollars Our Legislatures Should Give Us the Torrens System. has been likened to that of the ex press train over the oxcart, and to that of the electric arc-light over the tallow-dip. And the practical point is that it will enable you to deal with your lands quickly, cheap ly, and safely. If you want to sell, you can show the purchaser your Certificate of Title, and he can tell at once without having to employ a lawyer to examine the title, exactly what land you have and what title you have to it. Torrens System Would Make Lands Sell More Easily. A Torrens Certificate of Title speaks for itself so plainly and sim ply that any one can understand it; ,and what a Torrens Certificate of Title says is final and can be relied upon. It is good against all the world. No one can go behind it except in the case of fraud, which vitiates every transaction and no one need look any further. Strang ers often hesitate to buy lands on account of fears, about the title. But no one would hesitate ta buy a Tor rens title. There are Immense tracts of land in North Carolina and Vir ginia unsettled and undeveloped be cause the titles are unsettled and un certain. This condition retards im migration and prevents the growth and prosperity of the State. Farmers should be specially interested in pro moting immigration, for many reas ons. An increased population will increase the demand for lands; will increase the price of lands; will in crease the markets for all farm pro duce; will increase the prices of all farm produce; and will increase the supply of labor. These are practical and vital considerations for the farmer. And You Could Borrow Money Far More Easily. In addition to this farming Is be coming a business requiring cash capital like every other business. Men in the cities deal chiefly with personal property which they can readily pledge as collateral security; or they operate through corporations in which real estate is represented by bonds or shares of stock that can be quickly hypothecated. This gives all their property a cash value in the market, and enables them to raise such funds from time to time as may be necessary. Men in the country should have equal opportunities. Farmers need cash as well as other people. But the lands of the farmer are worse than a drug on the market. They can only be dealt with on the prescription of a lawyer! And law yers' prescriptions cost more than $2.00, the price rising in proportion to the delay and trouble they cause. Now the Torrens System will cut out the lawyers' fees for examining titles, and will give lands a negotiable qual ity which will tend to make them marketable. In other words, it will give to the lands of farmers a cash value, and will enable them to use their property freely. You will find some lawyers to op pose it. But the farmers hold the balance of power both in the Caro linas and Virginia, and if they can be aroused to united action they can soon get the Torrens System. In every campaign you should inquire how the candidates for the legisla ture stand on this question, and give no man your vote who will not vote for you and your welfare and for the "Torrens System." EUGENE C. MASSIE. Richmond, Va. Messrs. Editors: In this busy aga men have no time to waste. The successful man has learned that he can afford to waste nothing, and that the greatest folly of which he can be guilty is a waste of time. . The Torrens System is designed to prevent the waste of time, the .waste of energy, and the waste of moneys and if the farmers will take time to understand and consider it, they will find that no time can be better spent than in demanding and securing its adoption. The purpose of the Torrens System Is to-clear up titles to lands; to give good titles, and to keep themgood; to make lands readily saleable; to render lands desirable securities for loans y to simplify, quicken, and cheapen transactions with lands; and to remove the dangers and: uncer tainties now attending every such transaction. Land is the ultimate, basis of the wealth of nations and the chief asset of the farmer. The prosperity of every nation is dependent upon the prosperity of its rural districts and population. Every citizen, there fore, but particularly the farmer, is deeply concerned with whatever af fects the value of lands. No Progress for 300 Years. Do you realize that-in every essen tial respect lands must now be dealt with in practically the same manner as when the "God-speed," the "Susan Constant," and the "Discovery" land ed our forefathers at Jamestown Island in 1607, and - laid the first permanent foundation of Anglo-Saxon civilization in the Western Hemis phere? What tremendous advances have been made in these three hun dred years in science, in literature, in art; what vast strides in com merce, in trade, and in all methods of business! But how little has been done to relieve our real estate from the burdens fastened upon it by feudal institutions and by successive generations of lawyers! Instead; of getting simpler and clearer, the ti tles to lands are becoming more and more complicated with every trans action; and the labyrinth becomes more torturous and dangerous as we drag the lengthening chain. Every moment is clogged and impeded by the dead weight of musty records, linked on the limbs of progress, which must be carried forward with every new step. Lawyer-Made Shackles. No stranger will buy nor will any one lend money on real estate with out having the title examined by his lawyer; and you have to pay the bill. A lawyer will ask 'for your "chain of title." What are chains but fetters? What are fetters but the badge and instruments of serfdom? Truly your lands are bound with chains, forged by the legal fraternity.' Neither yoa nor your real estate is free under the present Jaws, and it is high time you were throwing off the galling shackles. The Torrens System has been tried in many countries and under many different conditions. No community that has ever tried it has been willing to give it up. It has been found applicable to large estates, to wild and uncultivated lands, as well as to small tracts and city lots. It deals with clearness and precision, not only with fee simple estates in lands, but with every tenement and heredita ment, corporeal and incorporeal, in cluding easements, rights-of-way, and the whole list known to the law. Its superiority 'over the present system "NO FENCE LAW" FOR ALL NORTH CAROLINA. Mr. Keith Urges the Coming General Assembly to Make "No Fence Law" Apply to Entire State Legislature Should Also Adopt More Progres sive Good Roads Legislation. "Some things of the greatest importance await wise,, brave, and honest legislators of: North Carolina. Will the incoming Leg islature be sufficient in power and qualities to do for the peo ple of the State, regardless of party, what is best for the State? If so, they can go down in history as patriotic statesmen rather than .tools of selfishness, politically or otherwise." I. One of the greatest needs of North Carolina is the "No Fence Law," not locally but a State law. The time has come when the biggest cost that many a farmer has, since labor and timber have become so scarce and high, is in rebuilding hia fences every few years. It is not like it was with our fathers when they had but small farms to fence and the choice heart timber to fence with, and when the lasting qualities were many times greater than those of the timber of the present date. Besides, the piney woods hog running at large, is de stroying annually more wealth in rooting up the young pines in the sandy belt of North Carolina than the hog would bring after being fattened and put on the market If any one doubts this statement, let him visit the local section where the No Fence Law has been in vogue for eigfit or ten years and fee will find the land-owner places greater value upon his timber than upon his land, and under no conditions could he be induced to go back to former circum stances. The writer recently had a conversation with a gentleman of an adjoining county whose section was placed under the No Fence Lawabout eight years ago. He said that as- he had a good many cattle running at large at the time, he felt then as if he had been ruined by a hardship of the law, as he regarded it, and felt as if he would like to take his gun and defend his "rights". But he con cluded that if others could stand it, he could; and he consequently sold all of his cattle but two cows, and all of his hogs but two sows. He fenced off a small pasture, put them all in It, giving them the same feed that he had : been giving his other stock; and when fall came he had suf ficient hogs and had them well enough fattened to make hi3 meat for the entire coming year raised mostly on slop and wasting3 from the garden, etc., and he further said that it was the first time in his mar ried life that he had enough bacon to last him. He lost none by disease, as was often the case when his hogs ran In the woods, and the same con ditions exist with him now, he mak ing his own bacon each year since. Under old conditions with all of his cattle he bought butter, though now he has reversed it has all the milk and butter that his family can use, and sells butter to the stores Instead of buying. This case well represents the re sults of the No Fence Law, to say nothing of the many little spots of fertile soil that it would pay to tend if they did not have to be fenced. Notwithstanding adjoining my farm there are several thousand acres of wooded land for stock to run at large, by actual experience I have raised bacon more than two cents a pound cheaper where I have kept part of my hogs up than frOm those which were allowed to run in the woods. A great many people would say that it would be a hardship on the poor men, yet if it is cheaper to raise his bacon in a lot and keep his cow in a pasture and he can easily make ar rangements with those who have pas tures it surely would; be to his ad vantage rather than a disadvantage, as a tenant has to do his part of fencing; the, farm which he tends. This extra work would give him the privilege-, of pasturing with some of his neighbors.- Will our legislators give us this needed reform? ? n. Equally as important is Better Public Roads, and the only way to get them is to enact better laws regu lating the building of them. Every dollar invested in main roads well, built where a team can carry three times as much as he could formerly carry over the same road, increases the value of the land it passes through two dollars for every one dollar expended on the road, to say nothing of the easy and comfortable transportation for the horse as well as the man. Justin proportion to the coming of facilities on our public highways, just in the same proportion will our school-houses and churches increase, thereby increasing our In telligence and moral growth, which in itself will right all wrongs. And in fta few years each township .will have its high school teaching chemis try and improved methods of farm ing, and the brightest boys will have inducements other than those offered by the so-called learned professions. m. These conditions will follow and will be the farmers' millenium the feeders and clothiers of the world will no longer be the foot-ball, but a great factor in the Council of the Na tion, and our orphan asylums will not be so crowded and our Reformatory will be nearer home. These needed reforms cannot be brought about by selfishness, so let every North Carolinian remember that the progress of hia neighbor is his progress, and instead of being in. the way of the forward movement both commercially and morally, let him lend a helping hand, thereby helping himself as well as his neigh bor. . B. F. KEITH. New Hanover Co., N. C. The Best Game Law. Of all the laws that have ever been put on the statute books for the pro tection of partridges, that which pro hibited the birds being sold or offer ed for sale was probably the most ef fective. Partridges are plentiful in this country now. We believe they are much more plentiful than they would have been had it not been for this law. The law, therefore, should not be repealed. One further meas ure that might prove beneficial along the same line would be to limit the number of birds that a single hunter shal be allowed to kill in a day. Some of the States have put this lim it at fifty. Fifty is rather too many. Twenty-five Is enough. If the Legis lature will limit the number of birds that may be killed by a singte hunter in a day to twenty-five, and continue the prohibition, against the sale of bird3 as heretofore, the partridges of this country will be safe for all time. Yorksville, S. C, Enquirer. For Weevils In Peas. Air-slaked lime, sayone pint to the barrel, sprinkled over the top of peas will kill weevils or prent them. Keep the barrels covered. A. B. MULLIGAN. Spartanburg, S. C. Every house is a temple, every heart an altar, every human being a priest. The Talmud. (I M
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Dec. 20, 1906, edition 1
2
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