Government Supervision. 51 



and Western territories than in the Northern and East- 

 ern ones, where the development begins two hundred 

 years later. 



The oldest attempts of controlling private forest prop- 

 erty are found in Bavaria (1516), Brunswick (1590) 

 and Wiirtemberg (1614). Here forest properties were 

 placed either entirely under the supervision of the 

 princely forest adminstration, or, at least, permission for 

 intended fellings had to be secured. Later these restric- 

 tions were considerably reduced in rigor (Bavaria, 

 1789). 



In Prussia private forest property remained free from 

 government interference well into the 18th century. 

 An edict by the Great Elector in 1670 merely inveighs 

 against the devastation of forests by their owners but 

 refrains from any interference, and the Forstordnung 

 of 1720 also contained only the general injunction 

 to the owners not to treat their forests uneconomically. 

 But in 1766 Frederick the Great instituted a rigid super- 

 vision providing punishment for fellings beyond a 

 special budget determined by experts. 



Church and cloister property had always been severely 

 supervised, similar to the Mark and other communal 

 forest property under the direction either of specially 

 appointed officials or the officials of the princes. Finally, 

 in some parts (Hesse-Kassel, 1711; Baden, 1787), the 

 entire management of these communal forests was 

 undertaken by the government. 



In Prussia, by the Order of 1754, the foresters of the 

 State were charged with the supervision of the communal 

 forests, in which they were to designate the trees to be 

 felled and the cultures to be executed; but as there was 



