Attorney General v. State Board of Judges

Rhodes, J., delivered the opinion of the Court: We agree with respondents, that, although there is in the Act of 1868, for the encouragement of silk culture, a section repealing the Act of 1866 in relation to the same subject, the second section of the Act of 1868, providing that persons may claim premiums under the Act of 1866, and forbidding those claiming premiums under either Act from claiming under the other Act also, shows that the Act of 1866 was not repealed for all purposes. It was, in our opinion, left in force for the benefit of all those who had, at the time of the passage of the Act of 1868, already planted mulberry trees under the encouragement offered by the Act of 1866.

The question of the greatest importance in the case is, whether a parcel of land which is planted in mulberry trees can be subdivided by imaginary lines, so that each subdivision shall constitute a plantation, within the meaning of the Act of 1866. The decision of this question, we shall assume, is desirable and important, not only to the State, but also to the State Board of Judges and the claimants; for the claimants would not desire to receive, nor the Board of Judges to award, premiums that had not been earned in accordance with the provisions of the statute. We are of the opinion that the manner in which the premiums have been awarded presents an opportunity for the decision of the question.

The statute offers a premium of $250 for “ each plantation of five thousand mulberry trees of the age of two years.” A plantation is “a place planted; land brought under cultivation ; ground occupied by trees or vegetables which have been planted; especially, in the United States and West Indies, a large estate, cultivated chiefly by negroes, either slaves or free, who live, in a distinct community, on the estate, under the control of the proprietor or master.” (Webster’s Dictionary.) Bouvier, after saying that the term is applicable to the English Colonies in America, defines it as a farm. A cotton or sugar plantation is an estate or farm [296]devoted to the cultivation of cotton or sugar. Its ordinary signification is a farm, and those terms are nearly synonymous. The Legislature adopted that term, for the want of a better one,- to express the idea of a parcel of land devoted to the cultivation and growth of mulberry trees. The term orchard is not applicable, for that signifies an enclosure or assemblage of fruit or nut-bearing trees; nor would nursery express the meaning of the Legislature, for the well known signification of the word, as used in this State in respect to horticulture, is a place where young trees are propagated for the purpose of being transplanted into orchards, plantations, etc. The intention of the Legislature, as we construe the Act, was to give for each farm or assemblage of mulberry trees of the age of two years, amounting to five thousand or more, a premium of $250. Had it been intended to give a premium for each five thousand trees, such would have been the language of the Act, and the interposition of the word “plantation” would have been useless—for it would neither qualify, explain nor limit the other words. But that word was inserted, it must be presumed, for some sensible purpose, and none can be assigned to it if the cultivator was entitled to as many premiums of $250, as there were multiples of five thousand trees growing upon his farm.