CHAPTER XII 



LEGAL FENCES 

 I. WHAT A LEGAL FENCE IS 



MOST of the states have fixed by statute what 

 shall constitute a legal fence. They vary from a 

 height of four feet in New Hampshire and Massa- 

 chusetts to six feet in South Carolina. Generally, 

 they may be of any material sufficient to form a 

 barrier. In many states barbed wire is prohibited, 

 while in some of the southern and western 

 states, as in Texas, barbed wire is made a 

 legal fence by statute, while in the state of 

 Washington in order to be legal a barbed wire 

 fence must carry a top rail of wood. 



In New York one may, of course, use barbed 

 wire for a division fence when the adjoining 

 owner consents to its use; it is also provided 

 that, when the adjoining owner refuses his con- 

 sent, a division fence may still be built with 

 four strands of barbed wire and a sufficient bar 

 of wood at the top, the size of the top bars, the 

 posts and supports and their distances apart to 

 be prescribed by the fence -viewers. Any person 

 building such a fence without consent is liable 



(184) 



