176 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



bodily harm, without giving notice of such hidden dangers 

 (4 Bing. 628; 37 Iowa, 613; 31 Conn. 479; 7 J. J. Marsh, 

 478). The old school-books, in my early days, had a picture 

 of boys stealing fruit in the boughs of an apple-tree, with a 

 farmer picking up stones, and a maxim, that, if words and 

 grass did not answer, he might throw stones. But, if in so 

 doing you should happen to put out the boy's eye, it might 

 go hard with you ; for you have not a right to kill even 

 your neighbor's hens while scratching up your melons and 

 cucumbers. The custom to do so, and toss the fowls over 

 the fence, may afford some satisfaction to the gardener ; but 

 it makes him liable to pay the full value of the nuisances, 

 although he had repeatedly warned their owner to keep them 

 at home," or take the consequences (14 Conn. 1 ; 107 Mass. 

 406). Whether this rule applies to an old cat which is 

 after one's chickens, I don't know ; but I mean to try it the 

 first chance I have. 



One of the most annoying forms of trespass to the farmer 

 is that of hunting and fishing. Many persons seem to sup- 

 pose, that by force of some general custom, or otherwise, 

 they have a right to hunt or fish over another's ground as 

 they please ; but. this is quite erroneous (4 Pick. 145 ; 13 

 C. B. (N. S.) 844). In all ordinary streams and ponds the 

 right to fish belongs solely to the person owning the adjoining 

 land. If the stream is navigable, — that is, if the tide ebbs 

 and flows, — the public have a right to boat up and down it, 

 and to fish from their boats, but not to go on shore to do it. 

 And, by a very early law in Massachusetts, if a farm contains 

 a " great pond," — i.e., a pond containing over ten acres, — 

 the public have a right of fishing and fowling there, " and 

 may pass and repass on foot through any man's propriety, for 

 that end, so they trespass not on any man's corn or meadow." 



The recent laws authorizing fish commissioners to lease 

 large ponds to private parties may, of course, modify the 

 former rights of the public therein. 



As to salt-water fishing, the law is somewhat peculiar ; for 

 although the owner of the upland ordinarily owns the land 

 down to low-water mark, as before stated, yet any other 

 person may go there, and dig clams or other shell-fish, if he 

 can do so by water, and without crossing the upland in going 

 or returning (8 Cush. 347 ; 7 Gray, 440). The Legislature 



