For several years the writer conducted in The Michigan Farmer, and subsequently in The American Agriculturist, a department in which the LAW OF THE FARM was set forth in a series of short articles, and answers were given to inquiries by subscribers upon legal questions arising in the experiences of farm life. During that time the suggestion was frequently made to him that if the articles and the questions with their answers could he embodied in connected form they would make a book of practical use to farmers and the industrial classes generally. The present volume is in part the result of that suggestion; and while it is sought to give special prominence to those subjects which are of most common importance among farmers and artisans, still effort has not been spared to make the work useful to the general reader.
The book is not intended to obviate the necessity for the assistance of a lawyer. Such a claim for it would be neither reasonable nor candid. But it is hoped that its suggestions may be found useful in preventing mistakes of ignorance or carelessness, and thus help to keep its readers out of some of the entanglements of the law.
And if it shall serve to throw some light upon that subject of paramount importance, namely the laws of the land-among classes so numerous that they constitute the great mass of the population, the author will feel that he has not labored in vain. HENRY A. HAIGH.