28 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Discussion of the Subject. 



Dr. Tuck of Farmington. I would inquire what is covered by 

 dividing fences between pastures ? In my section there is hardly a 

 farmer but pastures his whole firm some time during the year. I 

 can see that this proposed law if applied would materially change 

 the status of the land owner. 



Mr. Wasson. In answer to the question, I will avail myself of 

 the Yankee privilege, and inquire of the Doctor if in his judgment 

 the Legislature could do a better thing than to pass an act 

 whereby it would become impossible to pasture mowing fields? 



Dr. Tuck. I have had the idea that there is a surplus growth 

 of grass on the mowing fields in September and October, and that 

 both the soil and the crop are improved by having it fed off, 



Mr. Wasson. The Doctor will agree that physicians make 

 mistakes sometimes. 



Hon. C. J. GiLMAx of Brunswick. In regard to the point made 

 bj' Mr. Wasson as to the liability of the owner of cattle in an 

 action of trespass for damage done to the property of another, our 

 statutes and the decisions of our judges, as embodied in our re- 

 ports, leave it in great obscurity. It is to my mind about as clear, 

 well-defined and perspicuous, as the definition which Rufus Choate 

 once gave of the boundary line between Massachusetts and Rhode 

 Island. He said that according to the rule laid down by the 

 opposite counsel, that line might be defined as the fliglit of a 

 jay-bird or the tracks of ten thousand foxes with fire-brands tied 

 to their tails. I think that the manner in which the fence ques- 

 tion has been treated is an insult to the intelligence of the State, 

 and I cannot doubt that all classes of our people would rejoice in 

 the passage of a reasonable and clearly expressed law which 

 should determine the rule. Whether it would be reasonable to 

 require the owner of a pasture to make all that fence between 

 his' pasture and his neighbor's field, as our friend proposes, I am 

 not ready to say. It involves considerations on which I should 

 want to reflect before expressing an opinion. 



In relation to the other question, as to the liability of A for 

 damage done by his cattle on the land of B, the one owning land 

 on one side of the road and the other on the other, it is one which 

 involves several questions. B says the cattle are his. Why does 

 he not prevent their passing over ? A says that he did, by his 

 fence. Then the question arises whether. A was bound to exer- 



