204 BOARD OF AGEICULTURE. 



grounds for the purpose of cultivation, and to fence against 

 animals running at large. (3 O. S. 174.) 



In the State of Indiana the statute defining a lawful fence, 

 and prohibiting the recovery of damages for cattle breaking 

 into grounds not enclosed by such fences, applies only to 

 outside fences ; and as to inside divisions, parties in respect 

 to trespassing animals are left to their common-law rights 

 and liabilities. (33 Ind. 498.) 



In Wisconsin only occupants of lands enclosed with 

 fences are required by the statute to maintain partition 

 fences between their own and adjoining lands. (19 Wis. 

 49.) 



In Iowa the principle of common law requiring every 

 man to keep his cattle within his own close is inapplicable 

 to the condition of the country and the people of Iowa, 

 and is consequently not in force. (3 Iowa, 396.) 



And this rule, as stated in Iowa, has been and remains the 

 rule in general statutes in California, and throughout the 

 Southern and South-western States, as in North Carolina, 

 where the owner of stock is under no obligation to restrain 

 them to his own ground, and is not responsible for their 

 trespass upon the lands of others not properly fenced. 



In Illinois the same principle was long enforced, that the 

 owner of land, to be able to recover for trespasses committed 

 by the cattle of others, must enclose his lands with a law- 

 ful fence. A general law of 1845 permitted all domestic 

 animals to run at large between the months of April and 

 November, the same not to be taken up unless they had 

 broken into a lawful enclosure. Changes in this law point 

 to the advancing development of the State, and later 

 statutes devolve the whole question of free range upon the 

 option of local electors. The statutes requiring a legal and 

 sufficient fence were intended to apply to all enclosures. 

 (5 Oilman, 144.) 



Flagg's review of the Agriculture of Illinois from 1683 

 to 1876 (111. Ag. Reports, 1875, p. 328) says : — 



" A very important and expensive consideration in Illinois farming 

 has been the numerous fences to exclude predatory live-stock turned into 

 the highway by one's neighbors. The early French settlers had their 

 common fields enclosed together, a rule that prevailed for over one hun- 



