Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force Jan.[January] 16, 1836.

AN ACT for the protection of Stock against Castor Beans.
1

Cultivation of castor beans.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That no person or persons shall hereafter be permitted to plant and cultivate castor beans, without securing the same with as good and sufficient a fence or fences as is generally put up, and used, for the protection of grain crops in the neighborhood.2

Fine.

Sec. 2. That all persons violating this act shall be fined in the sum of twenty-five3 dollars, to be sued for, and recovered, by any person, before any justice of the peace within the proper county, in an action of debt, the one half whereof shall go to the person so suing, the other half into the treasury of the county where such penalty is recovered; nothing herein contained shall in any wise prejudice the owner or owners of animals which may be injured by the negligence of any of the persons aforesaid from recovering adequate damages for such injury.

This act to take effect from and after its passage.

Approved, Jan. 16, 1836.

1Nathaniel Buckmaster introduced HB 50 in the House of Representatives on December 21, 1835, and the House referred the bill to a select committee. On December 23, the select committee reported back a substitute for the bill. The House then amended the substitute bill by striking out “fifty” in the first section and inserting “twenty-five” in lieu thereof. On December 30, the House referred the substitute bill to a select committee. On December 31, the select committee reported back the bill with an amendment, which the House approved. The House then passed the bill as amended. On January 14, the Senate passed the bill. On January 16, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 66, 113-14, 133-34, 178, 187, 334, 345, 358; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 147, 245, 267.

2Castor beans, produced by the castor oil plant, contain the highly poisonous toxin ricin and can cause death when chewed and ingested by livestock or humans. The plant itself is also highly allergenic and can pose a health risk to humans simply by contact. Farmers in early Illinois commonly turned their livestock loose to graze on the prairies during mild weather. Crops were typically fenced to keep the animals out. Open-range methods of livestock raising were common into the 1850s and in some areas continued until the 1870s, when the advent of inexpensive, durable barbed wire made possible the fencing of large tracts of grazing land.
Walter H. Lewis and Memory P. F. Elvin-Lewis, Medical Botany (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2003), 70, 80; Paul C. Henlein, Cattle Kingdom in the Ohio Valley, 1783-1860 (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1959), 19, 62-64; Allan G. Bogue, From Prairie to Corn Belt (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963), 73-79, 140.

3On December 23, 1835, the House amended the bill by striking out “fifty” and inserting “twenty-five” in lieu thereof.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 134.