124 Germany. 



timber is not even called theft, the word used in the 

 laws being Frevel (tort), and, like other infractions 

 against forest laws, it is punished by a money fine, 

 more or less in proportion to the value of the stolen 

 material or the damage suffered. This money fine 

 may be transmuted into imprisonment or forest 

 labor, but corporal punishment, which still prevailed 

 in the first decades of the century, has been abolished. 

 Wood stealing was very general and rampant during 

 the beginning of the century, but improvement in 

 the condition of the country population and in the 

 number and personnel of the forest officers since 1850 

 has now reduced it to a minimum. 



Formerly, and until 1848, the administrators and 

 even the forest owners acted at the same time as 

 prosecutor, judge and executioner, and only in 1879, 

 was this condition everywhere and entirely changed, 

 and infractions against forest laws adjudged by 

 regular courts of law, holding meetings at stated 

 times for the prosecution of such infractions. 



Nevertheless, the court proceedings in forest matters 

 still vary from the usual court practice, providing 

 a simpler, cheaper and more ready disposal of testi- 

 mony and witnesses, and quicker retribution, which 

 is largely rendered possible through having every 

 forest officer under oath as a sheriff, and his statement, 

 and perhaps the confiscated tools employed in the 

 theft, being accepted as prima facie evidence of the 

 infraction. 



The social position of the underforesters and the 

 forest protective service has also been improved 

 until all charges of incompetency and immorality, 



