No. 4.] RURAL LAW. 201 



districts, who want the right to cut the trees al)utting their 

 premises. I think tlie committee on agriculture did well to 

 get as good a law as they did. It can, no doubt, be improved 

 as time goes on. 



I think care should be taken to discriminate between an 

 actual hardship and a purely theoretical case of a man who 

 thinks he might be prevented by a tree warden from cutting 

 the trees along his property. I do not think a tree warden 

 who prevented this would be re-elected the next year. 



Mr. Parker. In answer to Mr. Bennett, I want to say 

 that at the convention of tree wardens there wasn't a word 

 of doubt expressed that the tree warden didn't own every 

 tree, and they said they were going to own the bushes inside 

 the limits of the highway. I asked a selectman of an adjoin- 

 ing town what he would do. He said if he wanted to cut a 

 tree he would do it when no one was around, and after it was 

 cut the property would be his. 



Mr. Bennett. In case a shade tree is cut down by a tree 

 warden because it is in the way, or a public nuisance, who 

 owns the wood ? 



Mr. Dickinson. I should say the owner of the abutting 

 land. 



Mr. Bennett. That applies to the trees Mr. Parker 

 speaks of. The tree warden does not own them. You 

 simply cannot find phraseology in which to state that some 

 trees may be controlled by a warden and others not con- 

 trolled. When the wood is cut, it belongs to the abutter. 



Secretary Stockwell. I want to leave Mr. Bennett and 

 Mr. Ellsworth right in this matter. The Legislature of 1899 

 did a good work in bringing this before the people and bring- 

 ing the matter to the front. That the law does not provide 

 for all contingencies is simply a natural eftect. The Board 

 of Agriculture and the Forestry Association are working for 

 the good of the State in this line, and the little mistakes 

 will be rectified for the good of the whole State ; and we 

 shall find that the work of Mr. Ellsworth and of Mr. Bennett 

 will redound to the glory of the State and the beauty of its 

 landscape. 



Mr. RiNDGE (of West Brookfield). How long must one 

 pass over land or use a spring to gain an acquired right? 



