DEVELOPMENT OF TRESPASS LEGISLATION 97 



laws of this character were made effective in each. While 

 some statutes, like the early laws of Ohio, Indiana, Alabama 

 and Mississippi, named the species of which the cutting was 

 prohibited, the majority of the state statutes made one liable 

 for the cutting of any tree upon the land of another without 

 his consent. A few statutes made an offender liable for 

 single damages only but most of them prescribed double or 

 treble damages and a few prescribed quintuple damages 

 where the circumstances of the trespass were aggravated. 

 Other statutes provided a fixed penalty for each 'tree sev- 

 ered, or such a penalty for the cutting of trees of a certain 

 species, quality or size and multiple damages for other trees 

 or underwood. 



In practically every state laws were early enacted making 

 the cutting of the tree of another without his consent a mis- 

 demeanor and providing a fine and imprisonment for such 

 offense in addition to liability for civil damages. The cut- 

 ting of timber from state lands was also made a crime in 

 most states. In nearly all states special statutes have been 

 enacted making it a misdemeanor to cut or injure fruit, 

 shade., or ornamental trees standing upon either private or 

 public land. 



Civil and criminal timber trespass laws have been so 

 numerous in the different jurisdictions now comprised in the 

 forty-eight states of the American Union that it is imprac- 

 ticable to attempt to trace at this time and place the de- 

 velopment in each state, or even to cite the multitudinous 

 enactments in the various states. 



87. Multiple Damages and Penalties under Stat- 

 utes. In many states statutes provide for exemplary 

 damages in the form of double or treble damages, or penal- 

 ties, for the unlawful cutting of timber on the land of an- 

 other or on public land. l 



1. Ala. Civil Code, 1907, Sec. 6035-6038, Chap. 143 (Penalties). 



Ark. Digest of Statutes, 1904, Sec. 7976 and 7978 (Double and treble). 

 Cal. Civil Code, Deering, 1915, Sec. 3346, p. 800, (Treble damages). 

 Col. Annotated Statutes, Mills, 1912, Sec. 2185 (Exemplary, not treble). 

 Conn. General Statutes, Revision of 1902, Sec. 1097 (Treble value for trees over 



1 ft. diam.; $1.00 under 1 ft.) 



Ga. Code of 1914, Sec. 4515 (Not treble, but rule for wilful and innocent tres- 

 pass.) 



Ida. Revised Statutes, 1908, Sec. 4531 (Treble damages). 

 (Footnote 1 continued on next page) 



