No. 4.] HIGHWAYS. 227 



electric railways may be built thereon under municipal 

 direction, and with the consent of the proper boards, for 

 local passenger accommodation. The modern extension of 

 this doctrine was strenuously resisted somewhat less than 

 ten years ago by certain inhabitants of the city of Cambridge, 

 who contended that the public easement in the streets did not 

 include the carrying by the abutters of so serious a burden 

 as the passage of electric cars over the street involved ; 

 but our supreme judicial court took the opposite view, 

 holding that it was not an unreasonable extension of the 

 easement under existing modern conditions. 



Authority may also be given municipal boards to lay 

 water, gas and sewer pipes in the street ; also wires for con- 

 ducting electricity and tubes for the pneumatic mail service ; 

 but all these things must be done under proper orders 

 and regulations established by the municipal authorities. 



In so far as these uses of the highway prevent other uses 

 of it, the abutting owner's practical advantages from his 

 oAvnership of the legal title to the soil of a highway are very 

 essentially diminished, yet for this diminution he seems to 

 have no redress. 



Most of what I have just been saying on this subject 

 applies of course to the streets of both cities and towns. 

 But in the country it frequently happens that the whole 

 highway is not needed for highway purposes. Wide borders 

 on either side the travelled way ma}^ be covered with grass, 

 or trees may be growing there. Of late it has become the 

 fashion to lay out boulevards with a reservation for the street 

 railway and equestrian paths in the centre, and travelled 

 portions on either side. 



The abutter may take such advantage as he can of the 

 growth of grass or of the trees along the highway. He may 

 cut the grass ; he may pick the fruit from the trees. He 

 may forbid others to do these things, and sue them in trespass 

 if they infringe his rights in this respect. I am told that in 

 New Hampshire there have been seen notices by abutters on 

 berry bushes growing wild on the side of a road, forbidding 

 the public from picking the berries. The owner was un- 

 doubtedly witliin his legal rights ; but it would probably be 

 very hard to find a Yankee jury that would award any very 



