47° 



LAW— EVERY MAN HIS OWN LAWYER. 



executor of this, my last will and testa- 

 ment, shall, with all convenient speed af- 

 ter my decease, bargain sell and alien, in 

 fee simple, all my lands, for the doing, 

 executing and perfect finishing whereof, 

 I do by these presents give to my said 

 executor full power and authority to 

 grant, alien, bargain, sell, convey and 

 assure all the same lands to any person 

 or persons, and their heirs forever, in fee 

 simple, by all and every such lawful ways 

 and means in the law as to my said ex- 

 ecutor, or to his counsel learned in law, 

 shall seem fit or necessary. 



LAWS, FENCE, for Each State.— In the 

 older States the laws regulating fences are 

 substantially alike. As to height, a legal 

 fence is generally four and a half feet, if 

 constructed of rails or timber. Ditches, 

 brook, ponds, creeks, rivers, &c, sufficient 

 to turn stock, are deemed equivalents for a 

 fence. In case a stream or other body of 

 water is considered inadequate to the 

 turning of stock, the facts are investigated 

 by officers known as fence viewers, who 

 will designate the side of the water upon 

 which a fence shall be erected, if the 

 fence be deemed necessary, the cost to be 

 equally borne by the parties whose lands 

 are divided. Occupants of adjoining 

 lands which are being improved are 

 required to maintain partition fences in 

 equal shares. Neglect to build or to 

 keep in repair such fences subjects the 

 negligent party to damages, as well as 

 double, and in some States treble, the 

 cost of building or repairing, to the 

 aggrieved party. A persbn ceasing to 

 improve land cannot remove his fence 

 unless others interested refuse to purchase 

 within reasonable time. A provision in 

 the laws of several of these States, which 

 is well calculated to serve the interests of 

 neighbors, saving the expense of fence 

 building, is one permitting persons owning 

 adjoining lots or lands to fence them in one 

 common field, and for the greater ad- 

 vantage of all, allowing them to form an 

 association, and to adopt binding rules 

 and regulations for the management of 

 their common concerns, and such equit- 

 able modes of improvement as are 

 required by their common interest; but 

 in all other respects each proprietor may, 

 a{iis own expense, inclose, manage and im- 

 prove his land as he thinks best, maintain- 

 ing his proportion of the general inclosure. 



Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New 

 Hampshire, and Connecticut. — The laws 

 regulating fences in the New England- 

 States differ only in a few particulars. 

 The required height of a fence in Maine, 

 Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, 

 is four feet; in Vermont, four and a half 

 feet; in Rhode Island, and Connecti- 

 cut, a hedge, with a ditch, is required to 

 be three feet high upon the bank of the 

 ditch, well staked, at the distance of two 

 and a half feet, bound together at the 

 top, and sufficiently filled to prevent 

 small stock from creeping through, and 

 the bank of the ditch not to be less than 

 one foot above the surface of the ground. 

 A hedge without a ditch to be four feet 

 high, staked, bound, and filled; post-and 

 rail fence on the bank of a ditch to be 

 four rails high, each well set in post, and 

 not less than four and a half feet high. 

 A stone wall fence is required to be four 

 feet high, with a flat stone over the top, 

 or surmounted by a good rail or pole ; a 

 stone wall withont such flat stone, rail, or 

 post on top to be four and a half feet high. 

 In each of the New England States 

 there are plain provisions in regard to 

 keeping up division fences on equal 

 shares, and penalties for refusal to build 

 them, and when built for neglect to keep 

 them in repair. Fence-viewers in the 

 respective towns settle all disputes as to 

 division fences. Owners of adjoin- 

 ing fields are allowed to make their own 

 rules and regulations concerning their 

 management as commons. No one not 

 choosing to enclose uncultivated land can 

 be compelled to bear any of the expense 

 of a division fence, but afterward elect- 

 ing to cultivate, he must pay for one-half 

 the fence erected on his line. 



New York and New Jersey. — Similar 

 provisions for the maintenance of division 

 fences exist in New York; whenever a 

 division has been injured by a flood or 

 other casualty, each party interested is 

 required to replace or repair his propor- 

 tion within ten days after notification. 

 When electors in any town have made 

 rules or regulations prescribing what 

 shall be deemed a sufficient fence, per- 

 sons neglecting to comply are precluded 

 from recovering compansation for dam- 

 ages done by stock lawfully going at. 

 large on the highways, that may enter on 

 their lands. The sufficiency of a fence 



