16 The Forest of the Ancients. 



the pagan, and retained the restrictions which had 

 preserved them. Thus the cutting and selling of 

 cypress and other trees in the holy grove near Antioch, 

 and of Persea trees in Egypt generally (which had 

 been deemed holy under the Pharaos) was prohibited 

 under penalty of five pounds gold, unless a special 

 permit had been obtained. 



In Attica as well as in Rome the theory that the 

 State cannot satisfactorily carry on any business 

 was well established. Hence, the State forests were 

 rented out under a system of time rent or a perpetual 

 license, the renters after exploiting the timber usually 

 subletting the culled woods merely for the pasture, 

 except where coppice could be profitably utilized. 

 The officials, with titles referring to their connection 

 with the woods, as the Roman saltuarii or the Greek 

 hyloroi (forestguards) and villici silvarum, the over- 

 seers, both grades taken from the slaves, had hardly 

 even police functions. 



Forest management proper, i.e., regulated use for 

 continuity, except in coppice, seems nowhere to have 

 been practiced by the ancients, although arboriculture 

 in artificial plantations was well established and 

 occasionally even attempts at replacement in forest 

 fashion seem to have been made deliberately. 

 Not only were many arboricultural practices of to- 

 day well known to them, but also a number of the 

 still unsettled controversies in this field were then 

 already subjects of discussion. 



The culling system of taking only the most desirable 

 kinds, trees and cuts, which until recently has char- 

 acterized our American lumbering methods was 



