Decisions: The Ancient Right of Cows

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The sight of Farmer Austin Stottlemyer's 50 handsome Holstein cows moseying down the main street of Antietam Furnace might have seemed properly bucolic to a casual visitor. But not to the natives of the little (pop. 51) Maryland village. Stottlemyer was careful to obey the state law—one farm hand walked in front of the herd and one behind—but the villagers complained that the cows obstructed traffic, trampled flower beds, and left a trail of manure that was not only tracked into houses but sometimes caused children to slip and fall perilously close to passing cars. On their way between barn and pasture, the cows even poked their heads into the village store and let go with a loud moo. The citizens of Antietam Furnace took their case to the circuit court in nearby Hagerstown, won a ruling closing the road to the cows. But Stottlemyer appealed.

Last week the cows won a decisive victory. Ruled Maryland's Court of Appeals: "The age of the auto has not eliminated the ancient right. We think that the villagers have shown that the periodic bovine excursions and their lingering residue occasion some inconvenience and annoyance to them. But the obstruction of traffic for a few minutes, the presence of manure on the highway and the occasional tracking of it into buildings are not inconveniences serious enough in a rural community to call for the restraining power of a court."