No. 4.] RURAL LAW. 199 



Question. Does cutting wood from a lot bring it under 

 the head of improved land ? 



Mr. Dickinson. No, not unless the land is improved. 

 The mere cutting of the wood would not make it any less 

 wild land. You must fence 3'our cattle in, and your neigh- 

 bor must do the same ; but he cannot compel you to fence 

 his cattle out. I do not know that there would be any 

 difference in the case of wood land fully grown, and sprout 

 land. 



Mr. Parker (of Holden). I want to get back to the sulv 

 ject of the tree warden. I think it is one of the most im- 

 portant questions Ijefore the agricultural people. Suppose 

 the land bordering a highway is a lot of wood land. Per- 

 haps the land for a rod back would be covered with a heavy 

 growth of wood. Could you, in any sense of the word, call 

 a strip a rod wide shade trees? 



Mr. Dickinson. I should apply to the tree warden for 

 permission to take out the trees not necessary for shading. 



Mr. Parker. We have always held that a man owned 

 everything to the centre of the road, including the shade 

 trees. Is this due process of law, when the Legislature 

 enacts a clause that that property on the highway, worth 

 perhaps two or three hundred dollars, shall be put in the 

 hands of a tree warden ? Is it due process of law for the 

 Legislature to take this property from the farmer? Hasn't 

 he a right to compensation ? It seems such an innovation 

 on what I consider the rights of the abutter, that I want it 

 made a little clearer to my mind. 



Mr. Dickinson. I think the supreme court would hold 

 that law constitutional. It is much the same as in the case 

 of street railways. They undertook to say, when the elec- 

 tric cars were introduced into Cambridge, that it was not a 

 proper use of the streets to allow the cars to run through 

 them. But the contention was not sustained. It is within 

 the power of the Legislature to say that the trees beside the 

 road shall bo treated as pul)lic property. 



Secretary Stockwell. During the summer the secretary 

 has had a great number of inquiries come in to know who 

 owns the trees by the roadside. You cannot take gravel 

 away from one man's land and carry it away to benefit 



