36 Germany. 



hunt, fish and cut wood, and to abolish tithes, serfdom 

 and duties. 



2. Forest Treatment. 



As stated, the German tribes which settled the 

 country were herders and hunters, who only gradu- 

 ally developed into farmers while the country was 

 being settled. At first, therefore, as far as the forest 

 did not need to give way to farm lands, its main use 

 was in the exercise of the chase and for pasture, and 

 especially for the raising and fattening of hogs; the 

 number of hogs which could be driven into a forest 

 serving as an expression of the size of such a forest. 

 Oak and beech furnishing the mast were considered 

 the preferable species. It is natural, therefore, that, 

 wood being plentiful and the common property of 

 all, the first regulation of forest use had reference to 

 these, now minor benefits of forest property, as for 

 instance the prohibition of cutting mast trees, which 

 was enforced in early times. The first extensive 

 regulation of forest use came however, from the exer- 

 cise of the royal right of the ban and merely for the 

 avowed purpose of protecting the chase. 



Real forest management, however, did not exist, 

 the forestarii mentioned in these early times being 

 nothing but policemen guarding the hunting rights of 

 the kings or other owners. The conception that wood 

 on the stump was of the same nature as other property 

 and its removal theft had not yet become established : 

 "quia non res possessa sed de ligno agitur" (wood not 

 being a possessed thing), a conception which still per- 

 vades the laws of modern times to some extent. 



