Methods of Administration. 77 



for tills severance was tiie increase of wood prices, which 

 made a more technical management desirable, and also 

 a decrease in the passion for the hunt. Still, although 

 the forests, in Bavaria, were declared in 1780 to 1790 to 

 be of more importance than the hunt, the two services 

 being distinctly separated, the head of the hunt still 

 ranked above the head of the forest service. 



In Prussia the professional men became early inde- 

 pendent and influential, and by 1770 an organization 

 had been perfected which excelled in thoroughness and 

 simplicity. The salaries of the foresters consisted origi- 

 nally mainly in a free house, use of land and pasture 

 rights, their uniform, and incidental emoluments, like 

 toll for the designation of timber, etc. Later, when a 

 regular money management had been everywhere else 

 introduced, the absence of a cash income and general 

 poverty forced the foresters to steal and extort; and the 

 bad reputation established in the last part of the 18th 

 century, as well as the bad practice, persisted until the 

 19th century. The lower grades in the service were ex- 

 ceedingly ignorant, and their social position, conse- 

 quently, very low. Their main business was, indeed, 

 simple, and consisted in the booking of the cut, issuing 

 permits for the removal and the sale of wood, and look- 

 ing after police functions in the woods. Yet by 1781 

 we find a regular planting plan submitted in the Prus- 

 sian administration, and m 1787 a felling plan. 



The administration of justice against offenders in the 

 forests was until the end of the 18th century in charge of 

 the head foresters and only then was transferred to law 

 officers. Theft of wood, as in olden days, was considered 

 as a lesser offense than other thefts, except when the 



6 



