174 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



And then the poetical reporter, Mr. Browne, concludes 

 as follows : — 



A less poetic version, 111 allow, 

 You'll find reported in the first of Cow. 



An act of our Legislature, passed in 1884, provides in 

 rather curious terms that no barb-wire fence shall be built 

 or maintained within six feet above the ground along any 

 sidewalk located in any public street or highway, and pun- 

 ishes the offender by a fine of not less than twenty dollars 

 nor more than fifty dollars. The use of the words " above 

 the ground" in that statute is quite significant, as you will 

 see. The statute does not forbid the re-enforcement of a 

 proper board fence by a barbed-wire top starting at the 

 height of a tall man's head. 



An act of the Massachusetts Legislature, passed in 1887, 

 provides that the erection of a fence unnecessarily exceed- 

 ing six feet in height built for the purpose of annoying a 

 neighbor, is a private nuisance, and the person injured may 

 maintain an action of tort to recover damages for the an- 

 noyance. This statute was up for consideration before the 

 full bench of our supreme court in 1888, and objection was 

 made to it that it was unconstitutional ; but that objection was 

 overruled in a carefully considered decision by the present 

 chief justice. The verdict in the lower court was for the 

 plaintiff in the sum of one cent ; but the supreme court set 

 this verdict aside and sustained the defendant's exceptions, 

 on the ground that, if there was a bona fide use of the 

 structure, beneficial to the defendant, even although the 

 motive to annoy existed, the plaintiff could not recover. 

 In other words, the court held that a structure must be 

 erected for the sole purpose of annoyance, in order to in- 

 voke the penalties of the statute. Other provision con- 

 cerning fences and fence viewers are grouped together in 

 chapter 36 of our Public Statutes. In that chapter may be 

 found many provisions that it behooves the intelligent 

 farmer to understand and abide by ; such as that fences 

 four feet high and in good repair shall be deemed legal and 

 sufficient fences ; also brooks, rivers, ponds, creeks, ditches 

 and hedges ; that the respective occupants of land enclosed 



