INTEODUCnON. 15 



us effeminate and sybaritic, or ttat such enjoyments may 

 become causes of envy and consequent crime on the part of 

 those who are less highly favored, it may be safely assert- 

 ed that there is no better cure for fruit-stealing, than to 

 give presents of fruit, and especially of fruit-trees, to your 

 neighbors, particularly to the boys — encourage each to 

 plant and to cherish his own tree, and he will soon learn 

 the meaning of meum and tuum, and will appreciate the 

 beauties of the moral code, which he will be all the more 

 likely to respect in every other particular. 



Some of the legislation of our country is a very curious 

 relic of barbarism. According to common law, that 

 which is attached to the soil, may be removed without a 

 breach of propriety, by one who is not an owner of the 

 fee simple ; thus, such removal of a vegetable product 

 does not constitute theft or larceny, but simply amounts- 

 to a trespass : whereas the taking of fruit from the ground 

 beneath the tree, even though it be defective or decaying, 

 is considered a theft. An unwelcome intruder, or an un- 

 bidden guest, may enter our orchard, garden, or vineyard, 

 and help himself at his pleasure to any of our fruits, 

 which we have been most carefully watching and nursing 

 tor months upon trees, for the fruitage of which we may 

 have been laboring and waiting for years, and, forsooth, 

 our only recourse is to sue Mm at the law, and our only 

 satisfaction, after aU. the attendant- annoyance and expense, 

 is a paltry fine for trespass upon our freehold, which, of 

 course, is not commensurate with our estimate of the value 

 of the articles taken : fruits often possess, in the eyes of 

 the devoted orchardist, a real value much beyond thoir 

 market price. 



