96 Germany. 



servitudes took place, due to the carelessness of forest 

 officials in keeping unjustified use of the forest in 

 check, when ancient usage of these rights of user was 

 claimed and new servitudes were established. 



In Bavaria, it became at last necessary (1852) 

 to positively forbid the further establishment of 

 new servitudes or rights of user. Laws having in 

 view the dissolution or buying out of these rights 

 were issued in Bavaria in 1805, and in Prussia in 1821, 

 giving the right to forest owners whose properties 

 were so encumbered, to call for a division of interests; 

 but as at first the only way to settlement was by ex- 

 change for definite parcels of forest property, the 

 progress in the abolishment of these rights was slow, 

 until money exchange was permitted (as in Saxony, 

 1832). At the present time, the state forest adminis- 

 trations have mostly got rid of these servitudes, or 

 at least have progressed so far in their regulation 

 that they are now rarely impediments to forest 

 management. These peaceable adjustments of the 

 rights of user constitute the last act of freeing property 

 socially and economically. 



2. Forest Conditions. 



In spite of the sporadic efforts which had been made 

 to bring about the recuperation of forest areas during 

 the 18th century, the conditions of the forest at the 

 beginning of the new century were most pitiable; the 

 division of the Mark, by which the peasants became 

 individual owners, profited little, and led to devas- 

 tation rather than to improving the condition of the 

 property. In addition, export trade in wood had 



