Forest Administration. 115 



of a special bureau, with the assistance of the district 

 manager. Upon the basis of the general working plan 

 prepared by these commissions an annual plan is elab- 

 orated by the district managers with consultation and 

 approval of the provincial and central administration. 

 These plans contain a detailed statement of all the work 

 to be done through the year, the cost of each item and 

 the receipts expected from each source. This annual 

 working plan requires approval by the provincial ad- 

 ministration, which is constituted as a deliberative coun- 

 cil, consisting of a number of Forstmeister with an 

 Oberf orstmeister as presiding officer. The titles of these 

 officers, to be sure, and the details of procedure vary 

 somewhat in different states, but the system as a whole 

 is more or less alike. 



The district manager or Oberforster, now often called 

 Forstmeister, has grown in importance and freedom of 

 position, although his district has grown smaller (mostly 

 not over 25,000 acres), and, being one of the best edu- 

 cated men in the country district, he usually holds the 

 highest social position, although his emoluments are still 

 small. He holds many offices of an honorary character, 

 as for instance that of justice of the peace, and the posi- 

 tion of states' attorney or public prosecutor in all cases 

 of infraction of the forest laws. These forest laws are 

 stiU largely local, that is. State laws, although the crim- 

 inal law of the empire has somewhat unified practice. 



Curiously enough wood on the stump is still not con- 

 sidered property in the same sense as other things, so 

 far as theft is concerned ; the stealing of growing timber 

 is not even called theft, the word used in the laws being 

 Frevel (tort), and like other infractions against forest 



