VIII 



could not be appropriately treated in a volume of moderate 

 size. Furthermore it appeared practicable to divide the 

 whole subject into two fairly distinct branches; namely, the 

 law that was concerned with trees, forest and forest pro- 

 ducts as subject to public or private property interests, and 

 the law that found its stimulus in the interest that the public 

 had in the protection, extension and maintenance of both 

 public and private forests as a means of preserving and ad- 

 vancing the general welfare. 



Accordingly the present volume is confined to a presenta- 

 tion of the existing law regarding trees and their products 

 as property, with only such observations and references to 

 historical development as are considered necessary to an 

 understanding of the reasons for existing law. No attempt 

 is made to present the substance of the existing statutes in 

 the various states, but much effort has been expended in as- 

 certaining and citing the page or section of the compiled 

 laws or session laws of the different states where the reader 

 may find the law set out in full. The author felt that by 

 this method he could best serve the requirements of both 

 foresters and lawyers. 



The statutory law, constantly subject to amendment and 

 repeal, can be ascertained at any particular time only by a 

 first hand study of the law in each state as established or 

 modified by the latest enactment of the legislature. On 

 the other hand, the interpretation of the law by the courts, 

 though ever subject to new definition and differentiation and 

 occasionally to reversal, has much greater stability and for 

 this reason prominence is given in this volume to the law 

 as determined by the courts. 



It is the purpose of the author to trace in another volume 

 the development in America of statutory law directed pri- 

 marily to the advancement of the social and economic wel- 

 fare of the people. 



J. P KINNEY. 



Washington, D. C. 

 August 1, 1916. 



