158 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



public travel. If he leaves such things outside his fence, 

 and within the limits of the highway as actually laid out 

 (though some distance from the travelled path), and a trav- 

 eller runs into them in the night, and is injured, the owner is 

 not only liable to him for private damages (15 Conn. 225), 

 but may also be indicted and fined for obstructing a public 

 way. And, if he have a fence or wall along the highway, he 

 must place it all on his own land, and not half on the road,, 

 as in case of division fences between neighbors (4 Gray, 

 215). But, as he owns the soil, if the road is discontinued, 

 or located elsewhere, the land reverts to him, and he may 

 enclose it to the centre, and use it as a part of his farm. 



"WAYS OVER THE FARM. 



Others may acquire a right of way over your farm in 

 either one of three modes : 1st, By purchase or grant from 

 you ; 2d, By long-continued use, or prescription ; 3d, By 

 actual necessity. As to the first method, to gain a perma- 

 nent right by purchase or grant, it must have been by a reg- 

 ular and complete deed, executed in the same way as a deed 

 of the land itself. If the bargain was only oral, or if it 

 was even in some simple written paper, but not in a formal 

 deed under seal, it would, even though fully paid for, be in 

 law revocable, — a mere license as it is called, — and might 

 be terminated, at the mere wish of the land-owner, by a 

 notice to the other party to use it no longer. Being a kind 

 of interest in land, the strict law requires it to be conveyed 

 by a deed (2 Gray, 302; 2 AUen, 578). 



2d, The second mode, by prescription, requires length of 

 time, — twenty years at least; and the way must have been 

 used continuously, peaceabl}^ and under a claim of right 

 to do so, and not by your permission or consent. If it 

 was only very rarely used, if it was not peaceably used, but 

 against your protest, or if used by your tacit consent, the 

 use would not ripen into a legal right, however long con- 

 tinued (8 Gray, 441 ; 11 Gray, 148). And, if used under 

 all those conditions, it must have been in some regular and 

 uniform place. No man can gain a right by such means to 

 wander over your farm just where he has a mind to or 

 where his convenience suits him. That would be an in- 

 tolerable burden to the farmer (5 Pick. 485). 



