162 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



of 1886, and at which the full sum of $2,500 was paid 

 by the Massachusetts Society in premiums, the trus- 

 tees of that Society being again represented on the 

 board of directors. 



In 1884 the trustees reprinted for gratuitous circu- 

 lation a small volume entitled "the legal rights and 

 liabilities of farmers." Its author was Edmund H. 

 Bennett, LLD., dean of the Boston University School 

 of Law. In style it was familiar and concise. It was 

 generally appreciated by those for whose reading it 

 was intended, and the edition was soon exhausted. In 

 it the main points of common and statute law were 

 presented, as applicable to bargaining for a farm, to 

 farm boundaries, the hiring of help, rights in the public 

 road, rights of way over farm lands, railroad rights of 

 way, farm fences, impounding cattle, injuries to and 

 by farm animals, injuries by dogs, farmers' liabilities 

 for the acts of their hired men, fires in the fields and 

 woods, drainage and flowage rights, trespassing, over- 

 hanging trees, lightning-rod agents and peddlers of 

 patents. 



In May, 1884, the trustees granted the sum of $300 

 in aid of certain experiments to be conducted by 

 Desmond Fitzgerald, superintendent of the western 

 division of the Boston Water Works. The experi- 

 ments were designed to ascertain the scientific facts 

 and natural laws of evaporation, in out-door situa- 

 tions, and had primary reference to the conditions of 

 water supply. To this end they were conducted upon 

 an ample scale; and among the tests applied, were 

 such as would denote the relative evaporation of 

 cleared surfaces of land, and those which are covered 

 with forest. This latter inquiry was divided into 

 separate observations of forests of evergreen, and 

 those of deciduous trees. Contemporary records were 



