162 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mass. 466; 13 Me. 250); while in the other case they were 

 not lawfully in the highway at all, although the owner was 

 not personally at fault. 



The proper legal height of all division fences in this State 

 is four feet; and they may be made of rails, tunber, boards, 

 or a stone wall. A brook, river, pond, ditch, or hedge may 

 also be sufficient, or any other things which the fence-viewers 

 consider equivalent to a four-foot rail-fence. The number of 

 rails is not prescribed by law. 



These division fences may be placed one-half on each side 

 of the line, even though ditches be used three feet wide (2 

 Met. 180) ; and both owners have a common interest in the 

 whole fence ; and they must be kept in good repair through- 

 out the entire year, unless both parties otherwise agree. But 

 the duty of maintaining partition fences by statute exists 

 only when both parties improve their lands. It would not be 

 just to make a man whose lands are wild, or not improved, 

 and on which he neither has cattle to stray away and injure 

 others, or growing crops which can be injured by other 

 people's animals, to pay the expense of building or maintain- 

 ing a fence which can be of no advantage to him. Accord- 

 ingly, if only one of the adjoining owners improves his land, 

 he has no right to compel the other to pay any part of the 

 expense of a fence; and if he needs a fence to keep his own 

 animals at home, or for any other purpose, he must build it 

 himself. If, therefore, A. owns a pasture-lot alongside of 

 B.'s wood-lot, the latter is not bound by statute to help 

 maintain a fence between them '; but, if A. puts cattle into 

 his pasture, he must keep them there as best he can, either 

 by watching them, or, if he thinks it cheaper, by building a 

 fence himself around his entire lot. So, if both are wood- 

 lots, the owners are not obliged to erect a fence; but, if 

 either allows his cattle to range the woods, he must take 

 care they do not browse through his neighbor's woods, or he 

 will be responsible. 



The sum of the whole matter is this : by the common and 

 general law every man is bound to keep his own cattle on his 

 own land at his peril. The duty of doing this hy a fence is 

 created wholly by a statute of the Commonwealth, and a fence 

 need not be made except where the statute clearly requires it. 



What we have thus far said as to the joint expense of 



