“Vestiges of the old Germanic system of common fields are to be found in almost every ancient town in New England. In the town of Plymouth there are to this day some 200 acres of Commons known as Town Lands. This tract is largely forest, where villagers sometimes help themselves to wood in good old Teutonic fashion.... In the old town of Sandwich, near Cape Cod, at the point where the ship canal was projected in 1880, there is a little parcel of 130 acres known as the Town Neck. This is owned by a company of twenty-four proprietors, the descendants and heirs of the first settlers in the town, and this tract is managed to this day as a common field. Originally the Town Neck with other common lands belonged to the whole town. In the MS. town records of Sandwich I find under date May 22, 1658, this vote: ‘If any inhabytant wanteth land to plant, hee may have some in the Towne Neck, or in the Common for six yeare and noe longer.’ Later, in 1678, April 6, townsmen are given liberty to improve Neck lands ‘noe longer than ten yeares ... and then to be at the townsmen’s ordering again.’ In the year 1695, the use of the Town Neck was restricted to the heirs of the original proprietors, and the land was staked out into 38 lots. The lots were not fenced off, and the whole tract continued to lie under the authority of the entire body of proprietors, like the arable fields of a German village community. In 1696, April 4, it was agreed that the Town Neck should be improved for the future by planting and sowing as a common field, until the major part of those interested should see cause otherwise to dispose or improve the same. The common fence was to be made up, and a gate to be provided by the first of May. A field driver or hayward was to keep the Town Neck clear of creatures and to impound for trespass. In 1700 it was voted that the Neck be cleared of creatures by the 16th of April, and that no part of the land be improved by tillage other than by sowing.