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Destroying, &c. vegetable productions not growing in gardens, &c.
Second offence.
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24. Whosoever shall unlawfully and maliciously destroy, or damage with intent to destroy, any cultivated root or plant used for the food of man or beast, or for medicine, or for distilling, or for dyeing, or for or in the course of any manufacture, and growing in any land, open or enclosed, not being a garden, orchard, or nursery ground, shall on conviction thereof before a justice of the peace, at the discretion of the justice, either be committed to the common gaol or house of correction, there to be imprisoned only, or to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour, for any term not exceeding one month, or else shall forfeit and pay, over and above the amount of the injury done, such sum of money, not exceeding twenty shillings, as to the justice shall seem meet, and in default of payment thereof, together with the costs, if ordered, shall be committed as aforesaid for any term not exceeding one month, unless payment be sooner made; and whosoever, having been convicted of any such offence either against this or any former Act of Parliament, shall afterwards commit any of the said offences in this section before mentioned, and shall be convicted thereof in like manner, shall be committed to the common gaol or house of correction, there to be kept to hard labour for such term, not exceeding six months, as the convicting justice shall think fit.
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