C92 
Report  on  Wheat-Mildew. 
APPENDIX  VII. 
Communicated  to  C.  B.  Plowright,  Esq.,  by  Professor  F arlow,  of  Harvard 
University,  U.S. 
Province  Laws  of  Massachusetts,  1736-1761,  p.  153. 
Anno  Itegni  Regis  Georgii  II.,  Vicesimo  Octavo,  chap.  x.  (published 
January  13,  1755). 
An  Act  to  prevent  damage  to  English  grain  arising  from  barberry  bushes. 
A\  hereas  it  has  been  found  by  experience,  that  the  blasting  of  wheat  and 
other  English  grain  is  often  occasioned  by  barberry  bushes,  to  the  great  loss 
and  damage  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  province : — 
Be  it  therefore  enacted  by  the  Governour,  Council,  and  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, that  whoever,  whether  community  or  private  person,  hath  any 
barberry  bushes  standing  or  growing  in  his  or  their  land,  within  any  of  the 
towns  in  this  province,  he  or  they  shall  cause  the  same  to  be  extirpated  or 
destroyed  on  or  before  the  thirteenth  day  of  June  Anno  Domini  One  Tbousaud 
Seven  Hundred  and  Sixty. 
Be  it  further  enacted  that  if  there  shall  be  any  barberry  bushes  standing  or 
growing  in  any  land  within  this  province  after  the  said  10th  day  of  June,  it 
shall  be  lawful,  by  virtue  of  this  Act,  for  any  person  whosoever  to  enter  the 
lands  wherein  such  barberry  bushes  are,  first  giving  one  month’s  notice  of  his 
intention  to  do  so  to  the  owner  or  occupant  thereof,  and  to  cut  them  down,  or 
pull  them  up  by  the  root,  and  then  to  present  a fair  account  of  his  labour  and 
charge  therein  to  the  owner  or  occupant  of  the  said  land  ; and  if  such  owner  or 
occupant  shall  neglect  or  refuse  by  the  space  of  two  months  next  after  the  pre- 
senting said  account,  to  make  to  such  person  reasonable  payment  as  aforesaid, 
then  the  person  who  cut  down  or  pulled  up  such  bushes,  may  bring  the  action 
against  such  owner  or  occupant,  owners  or  occupants,  before  any  Justice  of 
the  Reace,  if  under  forty  shillings,  or  otherwise  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  publick 
or  private,  be  and  hereby  are  empowered  and  required  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  growing  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  an}-  stone 
wall  or  other  fence,  either  pointing  on  highway,  or  dividing  between  one 
property  and  another,  that  an  action  may  be  brought  as  aforesaid  against  the 
owner  of  tbs  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 
