Bava Batra 53: Acquiring Property - Specific Cases

In their ongoing discussion about acquisition, Rav questions how one should acquire a gift.  Is it required for the giver to say out loud that the receiver should acquire the gift?    One who is giving a gift might very well give generously, which would assume acquisition even without clear spoken statements to that effect. 

Returning to the question of possession via breaching a fence, the Gemara questions how much is considered to be a bit" when breaching the fence 'a bit'.  If a person had previously built a fence and is now completing it to ten handbreadths tall, and had previously breached a weakness in the fence, possession can be embellished after widening the hole enough for a a person to step through the fence. 

But the rabbis ask further questions: does effort play into our estimation of the fence? Does it matter how much was changed about the fence?  What if a person placed a stone to help to serve certain perspectives and then removed it for the same reasons has one established possession?  Some examples include placing a stone that stops a flood or removing a stone to enhance the flow of water to another's field. The rabbis consider this to be analogous to "one who chases away a lion from another's property."

The Gemara questions whether or not one takes possession of a field in order to acquire it when there are two fields sharing one boundary.  What is the intention - to acquire both fields? Do we believe that each filed stands alone, or are they both attached to the boundary?  And what if one takes possession of the boundary in an effort to acquire both fields?  The Gemara leaves this question unresolved.

The rabbis extend this question to that of two homes, one inner and one outer, within one courtyard.  If the intention is to acquire both houses by acquiring the outer house, the person must understand that the homes are considered to be separate. 

If a convert has a palace and no heirs, a person can acquire that home by putting doors on the house.  Similarly one acquires the property of a convert without heirs if he applies plaster and even just one tile on his home.  Does the tile have to be at the entrance of the house, where it is easily seen? 

Rav Amram share wisdom from a baraita: One who spreads out mattresses on the property of a convert who died without heirs has acquired it.  This is used to explain that a Caananite slave is acquired through taking possession: when the slave places one's shoe for him, or unties his shoe for him, or carries his garments after him to the bathhouse, or undresses him, or bathes him, annoints him, scrubs the oil off of him, dresses him, lifts, him, one acquires the slave.  Thus taking possession should not be greater than other forms of acquisition.