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that the farmer is a great favorite of the law, yet the law makes 

 it a criminal offence for a person to commit certain kinds of tres- 

 passes upon his premises. 



There is a belief or impression among many people in the com- 

 munity that, by reason of custom or otherwise, they have a right 

 to hunt or fish over another's ground as they please, to pick berries 

 in his pasture or fruit and flowers by his roadside ; but, as a mat- 

 ter of fact, they are very imperfectly informed as to the law. In 

 all streams not navigable, and in all ponds of less than ten acres 

 in area, the right to fish belongs exclusively to the person owning 

 the adjoining land. And a person has no more right to hunt on a 

 farmer's ground than he has to play base ball or cricket thereon. 

 He has no more right to pick berries, fruit and flowers on the far- 

 mer's roadside than in the farmer's fields. The trespasser who 

 picks berries in pasture land or fruit by the wayside is liable not 

 only to the land-owner himself, but furthermore, those who buy 

 and consume berries and fruit so picked are also liable to the land- 

 owner for the fair value of the amount they thus purchase and 

 consume. And it makes no difference that they buy the same in 

 good faith, and pay the trespasser therefor, for by assuming 

 ownership and dominion over the property they render themselves 

 liable in trover to the true owner. Whoever wilfully and malic- 

 iously burns or otherwise destroys or injures a farmer's wood pile, 

 or his fences, bars or gates, or his hay, grain or other vegetable 

 products, whether severed from the soil or not, or his standing 

 trees or his soil, is liable to imprisonment in the state prison for five 

 years, or to a fine of five hundred dollars. Whoever wilfully and 

 maliciously throws down or opens a farmer's gate, bars or fence, and 

 leaves the same down or open ; or whoever wilfully and maliciously 

 enters a farmer's orchard, garden or field, and steals and carries 

 away without the owner's consent any fruit or flowers ; or whoever 

 wilfully commits a trespass by entering upon the orchard, garden or 

 other improved land of a farmer, without his permission, with the 

 intention to cut, injure or carry away the trees, grain, grass, hay, 

 fruit or vegetables there growing or being, is liable to be punished 

 by imprisonment in the house of correction for six months, or by 

 fine not exceeding five hundred dollars. 



In these cases, in order to secure the conviction and punishment 

 of the offender, it is necessary to prove that he committed the 

 offence wilfully and maliciously and with malice aforethought, as 

 it were ; but from the first day of April to the first day of Decem- 

 ber in each year the law assists the farmer in the protection of his 

 orchard, garden, mowing land, or any of his other improved or 

 enclosed land, by enabling him to prove the wilfulness of any 



