The Barberry Law of Massachusetts. 303 
action against such owner or occupant, owners or occupants, 
before any Justice of the Peace, if under forty shillings, or other- 
wise before the Inferior Court of Common Pleas in the County 
where such Bushes grew, who upon proof of the cutting down or 
pulling up of such bushes by the person who brings the action, or 
such as were employed by him, shall and is hereby respectively 
empowered to enter up judgment for him to recover double the 
value of the reasonable expense and labour in such service and 
award execution accordingly. _ 
Be it further enacted that if the lands on which such Barberry 
Bushes grew are common and undivided lands, that then an action 
may be brought as aforesaid, against any one of the proprietors in 
such manner as the Laws of this Province provide, in such cases 
where Proprietors may be sued. 
Be it further enacted, that the Surveyors of the Highways, 
whether public or private, be and hereby are empowered and re- 
quired ex officio to destroy and extirpate all such Barberry Bushes 
as are or shall be in the Highways in their respective Wards or 
Districts, and if any such shall remain after the aforesaid tenth 
Day of June, Anno Domini One Thousand Seven Hundred and 
Sixty, that then the Town or District in which such bushes are 
shall pay a Fine of two shillings for every bush standing or grow- 
ing in such Highway, to be recovered by Bill Plaint, Information, 
or on the Presentment of a Grand Jury, and to be paid one Half 
to the Informer and the other Half to the Treasury of the County 
in which such bushes grew, for the use of the County. 
Be it further enacted, That if any Barberry Bush stand or grow 
in any Stone Wall or other Fence, either pointing on Highway, or 
dividing between one Propriety and another, that an Action may 
be brought as aforesaid against the Owner of the said Fence or 
the Person occupying the Land to which such Fence belongs ; 
and if the Fence in which such Bushes grew is a Divisional Fence 
between the Lands of one Person or Community and another, and 
such fence hath not been divided, by which means the particular 
share of each Person or-Community is not ‘known, then an Action 
may be brought as aforesaid against either of the Owners or 
Occupants of the said Land. 
Be it further enacted, That where the Occupant of any Land 
shall eradicate and destroy any Barberry Bush growing thereon, 
