86 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



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(ORRESPONDENCE 



^ ^^: AND iNrORMATimr 



Private Ownership of Public Roads. 



A question frequently asked is. Who 

 owns the trees, the shrubs and plants 

 that grow along the public roads? Not 

 only private individuals but officials 

 are confused by the question. Recent- 

 ly a resident of New York state order- 

 ed certain travelers to stop picking 

 apples from a tree that grows in front 

 of his property. They laughed at him 

 and said that he had no more right to 

 them than they had as the fruit was 

 growing in the public road. To main- 

 tain his position he submitted the ques- 

 tion to "The Rural New-Yorker." The 

 reply was that the owner is right and 

 the travelers wrong. The question 

 was submitted to Cummings & Lock- 

 wood of Stamford, Connecticut, as to 

 the situation in this state. They re- 

 port in an interesting letter that covers 

 the whole around and is here printed. 

 It appears that tree wardens are some- 

 what limited in their power. They do 

 not own the trees along the public road 

 as their actions not rarely stiggest. The 

 trees belong to the owner of the ad- 

 joining property. It appears from this 

 opinion of Cummings & Lockwood that 

 the owner of the adjoining property 

 owns not only the fruit but the flowers, 

 raspberries, huckleberries, strawber- 

 ries and the grass that grows along the 

 public road. Children especially some- 

 times think that they must ask per- 

 mission to pick the daisies from the 

 field, but that they are at liberty to 

 gather them up from the sidewalk and 

 the roadside. The owner of the adjoin- 

 ing property controls the flowers in the 

 roads as completely as he controls those 

 in his fields. It seems to be a general 

 belief that pedestrians may break down 

 shrubs and flowers and pick berries in 

 the public road without saying even, 

 "If you please." The public has no 

 such right. They have only the right 

 to travel over the road. We are sure 

 that the letter from this well-known 



law firm will be read with interest. It 

 would be a pleasing consummation if 

 the conditions as there described 

 should be respected not only by private 

 individuals but by some public officials. 

 A tree warden, acting in behalf of the 

 public, should keep clearly in mind 

 when he is trimming the trees that he 

 is dealing with private property. The 

 right of pasturage along public roads 

 belongs only to the owners of the ad- 

 joining property. No one has any right 

 to pasture his cattle along a public road 

 in front of private property than he has 

 to feed the horse or the cow in the mid- 

 dle of the owner's farm without saying 

 even so much as, "If you please." 



Stamford, Conn. 

 To the Editor : 



We have received your request for an 

 opinion regarding the law of Connecticut 

 as to ownership of land traversed by high- 

 ways, and rights in trees and herbage 

 growing thereon. We are glad to comply 

 with your request, but it is proper in 

 doing so to add a warning to your readers 

 that a legal opinion rendered upon any 

 subject without references to a particular 

 state of facts, should not be relied on as 

 controlling those facts. This opinion is 

 intended merely to give a very general 

 and nontechnical view of the law of Con- 

 necticut, as a matter of abstract interest 

 to your readers. 



it is safe generally to assume that each 

 proorietor whose land abuts on a highway 

 owns the fee of the land to the center of 

 the highway. The reason for this rule of 

 law is that the Town or the State by 

 which the highway is opened, does not 

 acquire any actual ownership (viz: the 

 fee ) of the land, but only a right to travel 

 over it, which right is held in trust for 

 the public at large. When the highway 

 is opened, therefore, the fee of the land 

 remains in the original proprietors ; and 

 I'ecause most highways are so ancient 

 that it would not be possible or convenient 



