EMBLEMENTS. A tenant in the possession of land for an uncertain time is entitled to emblements or the right to take crops growing from the seed sown by him. These crops must have been actually sown and no allowance is to be made for preparing the soil if the seed is not sown. Emblements emanate only from annual crops, and not grass or fruit and are grantable only on estates that are uncertain. A tenant who owns crops may go upon the land to harvest, but must do no more. A tenant may take from forests saved for fuel, his fire-wood, but can take no more than he needs and not to sell or for exchange. A tenant, unless restrained by the time of his lease, has every right during his term that the owner has, except the right to commit waste. " CONTRACTS. Blackstone says a contract is an agreement to do or not do a particular thing. There must be a consideration. The consideration for a contract need not be expressed in it. A contract for the sale of land must be in writing. A contract to answer the debt, default, or miscarriage of another must be in writing. This is not true, however, if he receives a benefit. A contract that it is impossible to fulfill within a year must be in writing. A contract in writing must be signed by the party charged. One may sign, print, or stamp his name by his initials only and with any instrument. A contract for the sale of goods and chattels over $5.00 is not binding, 1. Unless the vendee accepts and receives a part of the goods sold at the time. 2. Unless some earnest be given to bind the bargain. 3. Unless part payment be made and accepted; or 4. Unless the memoranda in writing be signed by the parties charged. Contracts to deliver goods after one year must be in writing. If consideration is not named can prove it, consideration named can not be disproved by parol evidence. One may bind himself by contract for an inadequate price, as to work for ten cents a day. A contract with a minor is voidable, not void. The parent or guardian may collect his wages, even after he has been paid. He may terminate the contract before the end of the time and no damage can be set off against his wages. But if before the end of the time. named in the contract he becomes of age and continues under its terms, he ratifies it and binds himself for the whole time. This is true of all contracts by minors. A contract to do an illegal thing is void. "A contract made on Sunday is void. This applies to deeds and notes. Wills made on Sunday, unless afterwards ratified on a week day, are void. A contract to pay more than ten per cent interest is void in our State, and all in excess can be regained. A bank forfeits its charter by taking interest in excess of the amount allowed by the charter. Fraud vitiates all contracts. It is hard to define fraud. It is generally a question of fact. Every misrepresentation does not amount to fraud. Nor is it a fraud if not intended to deceive, or on immaterial points. A goes to B and tells him pork or beef is worth four or five cents per pound when it is worth six cents. This is held not to be a fraud, for every man should know the condition of the market. A proposition by one party and accepted by another is necessary to every valid contract. The proposition must be clearly accepted before it is binding on either party. If the offer be not withdrawn, but be accepted within reasonable time, it is binding. Acceptance may be signified by words, signs, or acts-as the wink at an auctioneer binds a party to take if the block is struck. A writes a certain offer to B. B mails an acceptance. Both are bound from the time the acceptance is mailed, although before A receives the acceptance A mails. a revocation of his offer. However, an acceptance, to be binding, must be in the very terms of the offer. PERSONAL PROPERTY. Possession of personal property is prima facie evidence of ownership and a warrantee of title. The rule caveat emptor (purchaser beware) is an important one to farmers. WARRANTEE. There is, as a rule, no implied warrantee of the quality of goods or soundness of animals. Title is implied because as to the title to personal property the purchaser cannot readily inform himself except as to the sales on record, but quality is that of which we can and must judge for ourselves. Quality varies with the price, and as a rule a round price entitles the purchaser to sound articles; but if one orders an article to be manufactured for a particular purpose there is an implied warrantee that it is fit for the purpose. So groceries and provisions must be fit for their intended use. An article sold by sample must correspond with the sample. A very slight circumstance may amount to an express warrantee. A sold B a cow, saying "she is all right,' and it was held to be a warrantee by A. Articles sold at a public auction must conform to the notice of sale. If express warrantee fail, the purchaser can keep the goods and collect damages, or return the goods and receive the purchaser's price. A distinct affirmation that causes any sale is an express war. rantee, but mere praise is not such warrantee. SERVANTS. In law any one who renders service is a servant. The rights of master and servant are modified by a well-known custom of a particular employer or of a particular community. A contracts with B to work for B a certain time. If A leaves without just cause he is liable for damages or loss to B. 2 Parsons, 26; 2 Cowen, 63. This rule holds even though he returns and offers to resume work. The contract is entire and must be complied with in full. B dismisses A for bad conduct, and A cannot complete the contract nor recover on it, after dismissal. If prevented by act of Providence from performing a contract, neither are liable for damages. If B dismisses A without cause, A may have redress in these three ways: 1. A may sue for services, treating the contract as rescinded by B. 2. A may sue on the contract for its breach; or 3. May wait until the expiration of the time and then sue for services and recover for the entire time, unless A can get some kind of work at the same place and the same wages, but A is not obliged to run after a job. A child who continues to reside at home after he becomes of age, or a person who resides with a relative within the third degree of consanguinity, is supposed to pay for his support by his services, and to be serving for his support, and to recover for either an express contract must be proven. With the above exception all persons are entitled to fair compensation for services rendered even in the absence of an express contract. Services can not be restored to the servant, and he who accepts them must make compensation therefor. NOTES. No particular form is necessary for a promissory note. The words “I. O. U." $100 to be paid on demand, has been held in England to be a good promissory note. It must be a promise to pay a definite sum unconditionally and at a definite time, to a definite person or order, or to the bearer, in order to be a good promissory note. A chattel note is a promise to deliver chattels at a certain time. If the chattels are not delivered at the time specified, it becomes a promise to pay money. USURY. Want of consideration or failure of consideration can always be shown between two parties. If a note be made payable to A or to "A only," a defense against it follows it. If payable to A it can be transferred by assignment only. If either the words "bearer" or "order" are used it becomes negotiable, and if transferred before maturity for valuable consideration, to an innocent purchaser, defense does not follow it. If payable to A or order, it can only be transferred by A writing his name across the back, and thus A becomes an endorser and as such he is bound to pay the note if the maker fails to pay it at maturity. If it is made payable to A or bearer, it is transferred by A simply delivering it. The liability of an indorser is not generally understood, but is very important. If a note indorsed in blank is not paid on the third day of grace, payment must be demanded of the maker if he can be found. The note must be protested and the indorser immediately notified of the maker's failure to pay, when he becomes liable to pay it at once. If he holds an indorsed note he must demand payment, protest the note, and serve the indorser notice of protest on the third day of grace to bind the indorser. For farmers in taking an indorsed note it is better to have the indorser write the words "demand and protest and notice of protest waived," before his name and save the trouble of all these last named acts. In indorsing a note it is best not to write the words "demand and protest and notice of protest waived," as then, if all of these acts are not legally done he escapes the responsibility. If A pays a note indorsed by him in blank, believing it to have been legally protested when it had not been protested, he can recover amount so paid. Ignorance of fact excuses, but ignorance of the law does not. One may indorse a note payable to himself or order so as to transfer the title and not become liable as indorser by writing before his name the two words "without recourse." For the indorser this is desirable but not for the indorsee. If no time of payment is named in the note, it is payable on legal demand, and notes may be post-dated or ante-dated and be legal. If no interest be named in a note it does not bear interest until due, and then bears seven per cent. If the words "with interest" are used, it bears seven per cent from date. If a note reads "interest at a given per centum per annum," no compound interest can be taken, but if to the above the words "payable annually" are added, the interest due at the end of each year draws interest; but in no case can interest on the same interest be computed twice. The time of payment named must be a time sure to come-thus, if it be payable when a certain vessel arrives at New York, it is not a good note, for the boat might never arrive; but if it be payable at the death of A it is a good note, for death is certain. LARGE AND SMALL FARMS. BY H. C. HODGE. (Read at the Albion Institute.) It has been my fortune, during my travels, to visit farms, ranches, and plantations of all sizes, from the few acre garden farms in the suburbs of our great cities, to the extensive farms of thousands and tens of thousands of acres in the great west and south west, and I have many times, under widely different circumstances, been led to consider the advantages, or disadvantages connected with the ownership and tillage of large and small farms; also the moral and social surroundings connected with the same, which in my estimation are of paramount interest and importance in the discussion of the subject. In this day of great inventions and improvements, farm machinery has become an important factor in the successful tillage of lands, and has to a great extent changed the system of farming carried on by our grandfathers fifty or one hundred years ago. While facilities have been given the farmer of the present day to cultivate more land and do it better than his grandfather did, it has added in like ratio to his expenses in the purchase of modern, improved machinery. The old-time farmer considered himself well-equipped for farm work with his wood mouldboard plow, a brush tree top for a harrow, a few clumsy and ill-shaped hoes, forks, rakes, sickles, etc., costing in the aggregate not over twenty or thirty dollars; while the farmer of the present day must have his reapers, mowers, tedders, sulky rakes, rollers, hay forks, harrows, etc., all covered by patents, and in the aggregate costing what would have been considered by the old time farmer almost a fortune. The result is this: a modern farmer, in order to pay interest on the investment necessary to successfully manage a farm, requires more land than the old time farmer did with his simple and cheap farm implements. This one fact is an argument often urged in favor of large farms. But to arrive at a just solution of the question as to large farms bringing a large profit to the farmer, we must take into consideration the price of produce, the distance from market, the price of farm laborers, etc. I find by conversation with some of our most successful farmers that, with the present price of farm products, the value of land and of farm machinery, and the wages of farm laborers, there is but a small margin of profit for the best of farmers over and above the interest on his investment. If this is a fact, and I am inclined to believe it such, then with low prices for farm produce, as we have had for months past, large farms are of no benefit to their owners. The query now arises, is the small farmer any better off than his brother, the large farmer, and do not the same facts operate and affect him in like manner? I do not think it affects him in like ratio, from the fact that with a small farm of forty or more acres of tillage land, all worked by himself, his profits on his crops are not almost or wholly used up in the payment of hired help. He can also, by combining with his neighbors, as is often done, buy the necessary machinery for farm work, and thus, have all the benefits of improved farm machinery the same as the large farmer, with a much smaller investment of capital. Another query arises in the discussion of the question, and that is, what is a large and what a small farm? This depends entirely upon the location and surroundings. In the neighborhood of our large cities, 80 acres would be con sidered a large farm, and 10 to 20 acres a small one. With us in central Michigan, and generally throughout the older settled portions of our country, a farm of 320 acres or more would be called a large one, and that of 80 acres or less a small one. On the great prairies of the west, and on the savannahs, plains, and bottom lands of the south and southwest, a farm, ranch, or plantation would not be considered large unless it contained thousands of acres, and a small farm in those regions would with us be considered large, very large. There are certain facts and principles, however, which I think should be taken into consideration, and which will apply with equal force to all locations, be the same the vicinity of large cities, or the broad prairies of the west or south. Happiness is, or should be, the grand object in life, and true happiness can only be obtained by a life of industry, intelligence and virtue. 1st. Industry-to labor in some honorable, honest and useful employment, that will add to one's own store of creature comforts, and to that of others. I am one of those who believe that "in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" instead of being a curse, is one of the greatest blessings to mankind. 2nd. Intelligence-Not merely book learning, but including with it a knowledge of the principles which should govern mankind in all their dealings and intercourse with each other, and especially an intelligent understanding of those moral principles and obligations which can alone raise mankind above the savage and the brute creation. 3d. Virtue-Which can alone raise man to the highest pinnacle of true manhood, respected and beloved by men and honored of God. Now, to be truly happy, and in order to confer happiness on others, these three qualities of industry, intelligence and virtue should be combined, and act in unison and harmony. A man or woman may be industrious, but without the qualities of intelligence and virtue their industry will never confer real happiness on themselves or the world. The same may be said with respect to the intelligent man or woman without industry and virtue; and also respecting the virtuous man or woman devoid of industry and intelligence, and right here I desire to make my application of this theory in relation to large and small farms. I have observed time and again that on large farms where many young and middle-aged men are employed, there is always more average ignorance, more shirking of honest duty, more bad habits, such as drinking, swearing, gambling and other kindred vices, and less virtue manifested than on a small farm where but one hired man was employed, who for the time being became as one of his employer's family. I have seen this difference more especially when I have compared our small farmers and their hired help with the large farmers and their hired help in the far west. Take for instance the great Dalrymple farm in Dakota and the Doct Glenn farm in California, each of which employs from 50 to 400 men during the year. On the Dalrymple farm the laborers have employment from 3 to 7 months during the year. I have been on the farm several times and learned that there were not over a half dozen females on it, and the result was, the men, shut off from female society, were low and debased. When the summer work was done, they mostly resorted to the towns, where they passed the winter spending their money in rioting and debauchery, returning to work in the following spring destitute and steeped in vice. To the casual observer who visits the Dalrymple farm in spring or fall, the scene is of wonderful interest. Gangs of 15 to 20 men with teams can be seen during plowing time at different points for four miles, and at harvest from 20 to 30 self-binders cutting the golden grain, and soon after can be seen some 20 or more steam threshers at work. Thirty-five |