46 Germany. 



desirable to restrict the making of clearings to excep- 

 tional necessities, except in the northeastern parts and 

 in the distant mountain districts. 



Yet a growing population increased the need for farm 

 land, and since intensive use of the existing farm area 

 was not attempted until the end of the 18th century, the 

 forest had to yield still further. 



3. Methods of Bestriction in Forest Use. 



All ordinances issued by the princes to regulate the 

 management of their properties contain the prescription, 

 that permission of the Landesherr is necessary for clear- 

 ings, and that abandoned fields growing up to wood 

 were to be kept as woodland, this partly for timber 

 needs, partly for considerations of the chase. Still, Fred- 

 erick the Great in colonizing East Prussia, expressed 

 himself to the effect that he cared more for men than 

 for wood, and enjoined his officials especially to colonize 

 the woods far from water, which entailed even more 

 waste of wood than where transportation to market 

 allowed at least partial marketing. 



Improvident clearings proceeded even under his reign 

 on the Frische Nehrung between Danzig and Pillau, 

 starting the shifting sands of that peninsular. 



In the absence of all knowledge as regards the extent 

 of existing supplies or of the increment, and with poor 

 means of transportation, at least local distress was 

 imminent. 



To stave off a threatening timber scarcity, regulation 

 in the use of wood was attempted by the forest ordi- 

 nances, even to the extent of forbidding the hanging out 

 of green brush to designate a drinking hall, and the cut- 



