170 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE • Off. DoC, 



stray upon tlieir Hack, ami are killed, the owner must suffer the con- 

 sequences, because he should have kept his cattle on his own lot, 

 and not allowed them to stray on others' lauds. 



WAYS OVER THE FARM. 



A way over the farm may be granted on a special permission, as 

 when the owner of the laud grants to another the liberty of passing 

 over his grounds to go to church, to market, to mill, or the like, in 

 which case the gift or grant is particular, and is conhued to the 

 grantee alone. It dies with the person, and if the grantee leave the 

 country he cannot assign over his right to another. 



A way may be also by prescription, as if all the inhabitants of 

 a certain town or village, or the owner or occupiers of a farm, have 

 immemorially used to cross such a ground for a particular purpose; 

 for the immemorial usage presupposes an original grant, whereby a 

 right of way may clearly be created. Prescription rests upon the 

 presumption of a grant, but to authorize such a presumption, the 

 user must be adverse, and under a claim of right. 



The period of twenty years has been adopted in England, in anal- 

 ogy to the statute of limitations in relation to land, which bars an 

 entry after twenty years adverse possession. In Pennsylvania the 

 period of limitation is twenty-one years and the same period has 

 been adopted to give rise to the presumption. So where a way has 

 originally existed, it may be a rebutted evidence of non-user for the 

 same period, which gives rise to a presumption of extinguishment; 

 but where it has been acquired expressly by grant or reservation, 

 it will not be lost by non-user, unless there was a denial of the title 

 or other act on the adverse part to quicken the owner in the asser- 

 tion of his right. 



Twenty-one years actual occupation of laud, adverse to the right 

 of way, and inconsistent with it, bars the right; but it must not be 

 understood that a man acquires a right of way over the lands of 

 another, in twenty-one years, to such an extent, and with such a 

 liberty, as to wander over the farm just where he has a mind to, and 

 just where his pleasure and convenience suits him. Xo man can 

 gain such a right, because that would be an intolerable nuisance to 

 the farmer. 



To gain the right by twenty-one years use, he must have actually 

 used the ideutical and particular way, or road, under a claim of right 

 to do so, aud not with your consent or permission. It is not neces- 

 sary that any one owner should have used it twenty-one years; if 

 successive owners have unitedly used it for that period of time, it 

 would be suflQcient as far as time is concerned. Kut if this prescrip- 

 tive right of way was gained onl}' by using it for some particular 

 purpose, as for hauling wood or timber from a woodlot beyond, that 



