REPORTS OF AUXILIARY SOCIETIES. 309 



property they carry away. The third are a class mostly of juveniles, some of 

 whom are very sly, take to thieving naturally, and are conscious of doing 

 wrong; others of this class are too young to realize fully the wrong, and 

 believe the proprietor of a fruit orchard a mean man if he will not allow them 

 to take off even the unripe fruit as they want. 



Now, it is in the experience of every fruit-grower to know some of each 

 class I have described. In some localities they have been and are still quite 

 numerous. How can the orchard ist and fruit-grower effectually protect his 

 products against their depredations? 



He may use the prerogative of his muscle, he may employ others to watch 

 and catch, and he may invoke the protection and aid of the law and the law 

 officers. 



If he exercise his personal prerogative he may use all reasonable and suffi- 

 cient means and force to arrest or eject a thief or trespasser on his premises ; 

 but may not shoot, maim, or use any unreasonable or deadly weapon in so doing, 

 to his injury, for he will be liable at law for damages unless the injury be done 

 strictly in self defense. And so he may not place any deadly instrument or 

 device, dangerous to life or limb, such as trap-guns, deadfalls, poisons, or the 

 like in his orchard, fields, or garden for the purpose and intent of injuring any 

 person who may unlawfully enter, and on the plea of protecting his fruit or 

 otherwise, for the law regards such devices as imperiling the lives of the inno- 

 cent as well as the wrong-doer, and cannot be allowed or justified upon any 

 grounds whatever. 



"Every man's house is his castle," is a common law maxim ! And a man 

 will be justified, and his servants will be justified, in killing, by any means at 

 hand, a thief or burglar who enters and attempts to rob or murder him. Not 

 so may he or they do to a trespasser on his orchard or garden. 



It is evident that the employment of a police force sufficient to fully protect 

 each and every orchard would be too expensive and is therefore impracticable. 



It may be possible, but I doubt if practicable, for the fruit-grower to erect a 

 fence around his property, which, either in its construction or material, will 

 prove an effectual barrier against depredators. He may, and perhaps to some 

 advantage, keep, for a like purpose, a live fence in the shape of a dog, but he 

 must be careful that the character of his dog is good, and his disposition and 

 temper is not habitually vicious, and that his intelligence is sufficient to distin- 

 guish, if allowed to act on his own responsibility, the intentional trespasser or 

 thief from the person of honest intentions, or he may involve, by his indiscre- 

 tions, his owner in trouble, more serious and expensive than the loss of the 

 fruit he is kept to guard and protect. 



Let me now direct your attention to some of the provisions of law which are 

 directly applicable to the subject under consideration : 



First, any person who shall enter a vineyard during the months of August, 

 September, and October, and eat or carry away any of the fruit of such vine- 

 yard, without the consent of the owner or occupant of the same, shall be liable 

 to a fine for each offense committed of five dollars or twenty days imprison- 

 ment in the county jail, or both, in the discretion of the court. — C. L. "73. 

 chap. 245, laws of 18G9. 



Any person who shall willfully and maliciously or wantonly and without 

 cause cut down or destroy, or otherwise injure, any fruit tree, or any other tree 

 not his own, standing or growing for shade, ornament or other useful purpose, 

 or shall maliciously break down, injure, mar, or deface any fence belonging to 

 or inclosing lands not his own, or shall maliciously throw down or open any 



