The Barbci'ry Law of MassachiLsetts. 303 



action, against such owner or occupant, owners or occupants, 

 before any Justice of the Peace, if under forty shillings, or other- 

 wise before the Inferior Court of Common Pleas in the County 

 where such Bushes grew, who upon proof of the cutting down or 

 pulling up of such bushes by the person who brings the action, or 

 such as were employed by him, shall and is hereby respectively 

 empowered to enter up judgment for him to recover double the 

 value of the reasonable expense and labour in such service and 

 award execution accordingly. 



Be it further enacted that if the lands on which such Barberry 

 Bushes grew are common and undivided lands, that then an action 

 may be brought as aforesaid, against any one of the proprietors in 

 such manner as the Laws of this Province provide, in such cases 

 where Proprietors may be sued. 



Be it further enacted, that the Surveyors of the Highways, 

 whether public or private, be and hereby are empowered and re- 

 quired ex officio to destroy and extirpate all such Barberry Bushes 

 as are or shall be in the Highways in their respective Wards or 

 Districts, and if any such shall remain after the aforesaid tenth 

 Day of June, Anno Domini One Thousand Seven Hundred and 

 Sixty, that then the Town or District in which such bushes are 

 shall pay a Fine of two shilhngs for every bush standing or grow- 

 ing in such Highway, to be recovered by Bill Plaint, Information, 

 or on the Presentment of a Grand Jury, and to be paid one Half 

 to the Informer and the other Half to the Treasury of the County 

 in which such bushes grew, for the use of the County. 



Be it further enacted. That if any Barberry Bush stand or grow 

 in any Stone Wall or other Fence, either pointing on Highway, or 

 dividing between one Propriety and another, that an Action may 

 be brought as aforesaid against the Owner of the said Fence or 

 the Person occupying the Land to which such Fence belongs ; 

 and if the Fence in which such Bushes grew is a Divisional Fence 

 between the Lands of one Person or Community and another, and 

 such fence hath not been divided, by which means the particular 

 share of each Person or Community is not known, then an Action 

 may be brought as aforesaid against either of the Owners or 

 Occupants of the said Land. 



Be it further enacted. That where the Occupant of any Land 

 shall eradicate and destroy any Barberry Bush growing thereon, 



