SHACK

In English law. The straying and escaping of cattle out of the lands of their owners into other uninclosed land; an intercommoning of cattle. 2 H. Bl. 416. It sometimes happens that a number of adjacent fields, though held in severalty, i.e., by separate owners, and cultivated separately, are, after the crop on each parcel has been carried in, thrown open as pasture to the cattle of all the owners. “Arable lands cultivated on this plan are called ‘shack fields,’ and the right of each owner of a part to feed cattle over the whole during the autumn and winter is known in law as ‘common of shack,’ a right which is distinct in its nature from common because of vicinage, though sometimes said to be nearly identical with it.” Elton, Commons, 30; Sweet.