168 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



the land against the will of the vendee. An enormous 

 amount of liti2:ation has grown out of this department of the 

 law ; not so often, to be sure, in connection with the sale of 

 farms, or the transfer of farms by inheritance, as in cases of 

 manufacturing and commercial establishments. In an old 

 Pennsylvania case of some sixty years ago it was stated that 

 the criterion of a fixture in a mansion house or dwelling is 

 an actual and permanent fastening to the freehold ; but this 

 is not a criterion of a fixture in a manufactory or mill. 

 That rule, however, would hardly pass muster to-day, for, 

 even in the case of dwelling houses, in a good many instances 

 great liberality has been shown to the vendor in allowing 

 him to carry off certain articles as fixtures. 



A large iron kettle set in brick, which farmers frequently 

 have in one of their out-houses for the purpose of cooking 

 food for swine or cattle, would pass as part of the real 

 estate; but the same kettle, detached from any setting and 

 used in difierent locations at different times about the farm, 

 would be personal property. A steam engine permanently 

 set for lifting hay or ensilage or conducting of heavy opera- 

 tions about the farm would be a part of the real estate ; but 

 a detached movable engine, capable of being transported 

 from one farm to another, and doing work in either place, 

 would be personal property. 



The use to which an article has been put or is intended to 

 be put may sometimes be determinative as to whether it is a 

 part of the real estate, or personal property. For instance, 

 when an article has been used for some employment distinct 

 from that of the occupier of the real estate, it will be treated 

 as a fixture, and becomes removable by the tenant or ven- 

 dor, — that is, it will not be a part of the real estate ; and 

 lessees are in our day treated with more and more liberality 

 in regard to the removal of trade fixtures. If a cider mill 

 were set up by the tenant on a farm hired by him, and it 

 were perfectly clear that the chief purpose was trade, and 

 not the mere doing of the work of that farm, he would 

 doubtless be allowed to remove it before the termination of 

 his tenancy, even though the apparatus had all the elements 

 of permanency. 



A proper caution in connection with this subject is that, 



