164 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
brethren. Thr oughout the United States, the system has pre- 
vailed of permitting horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs, to run at 
large, with no right of indemnity for any damage which they 
might do in cultivated fields, unless surrounded by a “lawful 
fence.” This may be a oee system for the pioneer, who tills 
little land, and wishes his horses and cattle to have a wide 
range; and it was well suited to the pastoral life of the Span- 
ish Californians previous to the American conquest: but it is 
of doubtful policy as applied to the present condition of affairs, 
at least in the principal agricultural valleys, where all the land 
is under plough. For instance, in the Alameda plain, along 
the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay—a district fifty miles 
long by three wide, and contaiving one hundred and fifty 
square miles, of which one hundred and twenty-five are culti- 
vated—there are five hundred farms, and probably two hun- 
dred miles of fencing, made at a cost of one hundred thousand 
dollars. This is a severe tax upon farming, and it is levied 
chiefly to protect the grain and fruit-trees from the depreda- 
tions of horses and cattle belonging to neighbors and strangers. 
A farmer would rarely go to the expense of fencing his own 
cattle and horses out: it would be much cheaper for him to 
keep them in a yard or stable. 
The legislature has prescribed what kind of a fence is “‘law- 
ful ;” and if any domesticated animal breaks through a lawful 
fence, its owner is liable for the damage done in the enclosure; 
and if the trespass be repeated by any neglect of the owner of 
the animal, he is liable for double damages. The farmer may 
take up the trespassing animal as an estray; but if he injure 
or kill it, he becomes responsible to the owner. The require- 
ments of lawful fence are not the same in all parts of the state. 
In the counties of Butte, Amador, Tuolumne, Calaveras, San 
Diego, Nevada, San Bernardino, Colusi, Placer, Santa Barbara, 
Yuba, Shasta, Klamath, Trinity, and Siskiyou, “every enclo- 
sure” (I quote the words of the statute) ‘shall be deemed a 
lawful fence which is four and a half feet high, if made of 
stone; and if made of rails, five and a half feet high; if made 
