No. 4.] RURAL LAW. 175 



with fences shall keep up and maintain partition fences in 

 equal shares ; that, in case of neglect to build and repair 

 by either party, the other may call in the fence viewer to 

 make an adjudication, and methods of procedure and reme- 

 dies are provided in such cases. 



The rules prevailing in different States in regard to fenc- 

 ing land are quite various. In souie of them the owner of 

 the land is required to fence out the cattle of other people ; 

 in others, he is required to fence in his own cattle. It was 

 early held in Massachusetts, in a case appearing in the sixth 

 volume of our reports, that a farmer is obliged to fence only 

 against cattle lawfully in the adjoining field ; and in another 

 case, arising twenty years later, that, if he turns his cattle 

 into the highway to graze, and if they pass therefrom into 

 an adjoining field through an insufficient fence, the owner 

 of the land may recover, as the farmer's cattle are not law- 

 fully in the highway. 



It also seems to be law in this Commonwealth, as set up 

 in a more modern case, that the farmer is responsible for 

 his animals if they escape while he is driving them along 

 the highway, and do damage to another's property ; and 

 about the time of the decision last quoted, it was also held 

 by our supreme court that a railroad company, though 

 bound by a law to fence its track, is not liable to the owner 

 of cattle killed by straying on unfenced tracks, if the cattle 

 were unlawfully on the land adjoining the railroad, from 

 which adjoining land they strayed. 



Highways. 

 The rights of farmers as regards highways on which their 

 farms abut is a matter of great practical importance. Most 

 of our country roads were originally cow paths, then be- 

 came lanes, and finally highways. In later years many of 

 them have had their boundaries defined by stone monuments 

 set at regular intervals, so that our highways are now gener- 

 ally enclosed within definite lines and limits ; but the own- 

 ership of the fee of the land of the highways in most cases 

 remains in the abutters, subject to the right of the public 

 to use the highway for purposes of travel ; and if such a 

 road is discoutinued, the land reverts to the original owner, 



