Forest Conditions. 47 



Mark forest in which cities had been co-owners, and 

 through secularized properties of cloisters. 



The worst feature, from the standpoint of forest 

 treatment, which resulted from these changes in 

 property conditions and relationship, was the growth 

 of the pernicious servitudes or rights of user, which 

 were either conferred to propitiate the powerless but 

 dangerous peasantry, or evolved out of the feudal 

 relations. From the 16th to the 19th centuries these 

 servitudes grew to such an extent that in almost 

 every forest some one outside of the owner had the 

 right to use parts of it, either the pasture, or the litter, 

 or certain classes or sizes of wood. 



These rights have proved the greatest impediment 

 to the progress of forestry until most recent times, 

 and only within the last few decades have the majority 

 of them been extinguished by legal process or com- 

 promise. 



2. Forest Conditions. 



Under the exercise of these various rights and the 

 uncertainty of property conditions, the forest con- 

 ditions naturally deteriorated continuously until the 

 end of the 18th century; the virgin woods were culled 

 of their wealth and then grew up to brush, as is usual 

 in the United States. 



Every forest ordinance began with complaints re- 

 garding the increasing forest devastation, and pre- 

 dicted a timber famine in view of the increasing 

 population, increasing industry and commerce, and 

 hence increased wood consumption. Especially along 

 the water routes, which furnished the means of 



