FLOWAGE AND DRAINAGE. 173 



As a protection to themselves, however, railroad companies 

 are authorized to get the i^roperty along the route insured 

 for their benefit; so that, if obliged to pay, they may remun- 

 erate themselves, and thus the burden is more equally 

 divided. Different States may have different statutes upon 

 this subject. 



WATER EIGHTS AND DRAINAGE. 



"Water is flowing and fleeting, and the rights of farmers 

 therein are much of the same kind. If a stream of water 

 flows through a farm, the owner has a right to use any 

 reasonable quantity of it as it flows along, for watering 

 his stock, irrigating his land, or supplying his house for do- 

 mestic use. But he must not monopolize the whole : his 

 neighbor's cattle must have water also. He may, to some 

 extent, change the course and flow of the brook on his own 

 land, provided he turns it back into the natural channel 

 before it reaches the land below him. He has no right to 

 conduct it into his neighbor's land, without his consent, at 

 a different point or place than where it naturally entered 

 therein. He may build fish-ponds, or otherwise dam up the 

 stream, provided he does not thereby flow back on the land 

 above him. If he does so, he is liable to a suit for trespass, 

 and finally, if he continues it, to an injunction. A farmer 

 acquires no right to flow another's land without his con- 

 sent, as a mill-owner has ; for the statutes giving such right 

 upon payment of a fair compensation, apply only to mill- 

 dams, cranberry-dams, and the like : and, if your neighbor 

 below you does so dam up the stream as to flow back on you, 

 you may enter on his land, and take down enough of the 

 obstruction to relieve your land of the overflow. 



So, if a natural stream becomes obstructed by leaves, sticks, 

 and rubbish, you have a right to go on to the land and re- 

 move the obstructions, so that the water will flow as freely 

 as before (5 Met. 429) ; and the natural deposits you may 

 place on the banks of the stream (21 Pick. 341). The same 

 rules prevail as to artificial water-courses or ditches, provided 

 you have acquired a right to have a ditch running through 

 another's lands. But you have not ordinarily such a right, 

 unless you or your predecessors have purchased the privilege 

 of him, or have enjoyed it so long and under such circum- 

 stances as to have thereby gained a prescriptive right as it is 



