208 FORESTRY INVESTIGATIONS U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



side, ready to move aud change domicile at any moment. The soil which was conquered, conse- 

 quently, was not divided, but owned as a whole, managed by and for the whole tribe. It is only 

 in the sixth century that signs of private property in woodlands are discernible. Before that 

 time it was res nullius, or, as it is expressed in legal manuscripts, " quia non res possessa sed <le. 

 ligno agitur." 



Wood being plentiful and yet needed by everybody, it appeared a crime only to take wood 

 which had been already appropriated or bore unmistakable signs of ownership, such as being 

 cut or shaped. But severe punishments were in earliest times inflicted for incendiarism and 

 for damage to mast trees, since the seed mast for the fattening of swine was one of the most 

 important uses of the forest. 



There was not much need of partition, especially ov the forests. The community, to which all 

 the land of a district belonged, aud which was managed by and for the aggregate of society, was 

 called the "mark," a communistic institution of most express character, and every "marker" or 

 shareholder was allowed to get the timber needed by him for his own use without control. 



This early communal ownership of forest laud undoubtedly explains the fact that even to-day 

 over 5 per cent of the forest is owned by communities, cities, or villages. Gradually the necessity 

 of regulating the cuttiug of the wood became apparent, as the best timber in the neighborhood 

 of the villages was removed, and we find quite early mention of officials whose duty it was to 

 superintend the felling, removing, and even the use of the timber. By and by even the firewood 

 was designated by officials. Manufacturers received their material free of charge, but only as 

 much as was needed to supply the community. Occasionally there were rules that each man had 

 to plant trees in proportion to his consumption. So that by the end of 'the fourteenth century 

 quite a system of forest management had been developed. 



Meanwhile the Itomau doctrine of the regal right to the chase had also begun to assert itself 

 by the declaration of certain districts as ban forests or simply forests, in which the King exclu- 

 sively reserved the right to chase. The Kings again invested their trusted followers aud nobles 

 with this right to the chase in various districts, thus gradually dividing the control of the same. 



While at first these reservations did not bring with them restrictions in the use of the timber 

 or pasture or other products of the forest, gradually these uses were construed as exercised only 

 by permission, and the former owners were reduced to holders of " servitudes," i. e., holders of 

 certain rights in the substance of the forests. The fact that the feudal lords frequently became 

 the obermarkers or burgomasters of the mark community lent color of right to these restrictions 

 in the use of the property, besides the assertion that the needs of maintaining the chase required 

 aud entitled them to such control. 



It is interesting to note that through all the changes of centuries, these so-called servitudes 

 have lasted until our own times, much changed, to be sure, in character, and extending by new 

 grants especially to churches, charitable institutions, cities, villages, and colonists. Such rights, 

 to satisfy certain requirements from the substance of an adjoining forest, were then usually 

 attached to the ownership of certain farms, and involved counter service of some sort, usually in 

 hauling wood or doing other forestry work. 



Sometimes when the lordly owners of large properties exercised only certain prerogatives to 

 show ownership, these, in the course of time, lapsed into the character of servitudes, the forest 

 itself by occupation becoming the property of the community. With changes in value aud other 

 changes in economic conditions, these rights often became disadvantageous and more and more 

 cumbersome to either or both sides. 



The present century has been occupied with the difficult labor of relieving this state of things 

 and making equitable arrangements by which the forests become unencumbered and the bene- 

 ficiaries properly satisfied by cession of land or a money equivalent. 



This chapter of the history of forest policy is especially interesting to us as a tendency, nay 

 the practice exists of granting such rights to the public timber to the settlers in the Western 

 States, which by and by will be just as difficult to eradicate when rational forest management is 

 to be inaugurated. 



Over 5,000,000 marks and several hundred acres of land were required in the little Kingdom 

 of Saxony to get rid of the servitudes in the State forests. The Prussian budget contains still an 



