203] (JoL'crninent Forestry Abroad. 19" 



Such is in outline the organization of the Prussian 

 forest service. The principles upon which it rests 

 are thus stated by Dormer, now Oberlandforstmeister, 

 in a work which carries all the weight of an official 

 document. 1 He says: 



" The fundamental rules for the management of State forests are 

 these: First, to keep rigidly within the bounds of conservative 

 treatment; and secondly, to attain, consistently with such treatment, 

 the greatest output of most useful products in the shorest time." 



And again: 



"The State believes itself bound, in the administration of its 

 forests, to keep in view the common good of the people, and that 

 as well with respect to the lasting satisfaction of the demand for 

 timber and other forest produce, as to the numerous other purposes 

 which the forest serves. It holds fast the duty to treat the Govern- 

 ment wood lands as a trust held for the nation as a whole, to the 

 end that it may enjoy for the present the highest satisfaction of its 

 needs for foi-est produce and the protection which the forest gives, 

 and for all future time, at least an equal share of equal blessings." 



The same authority elsewhere formulates the gen- 

 eral status of the forest, as follows: 



" The forest is a trust handed down from former times, whose 

 value lies not only in its immediate production of wood, but also 

 essentially in the benefit to agriculture of its immediate influence 

 on climate, weather protection in various ways, the conservation of 

 the soil, etc. The forest has significance not only for the present 

 nor for its owner alone; it has significance as well for the future 

 and for the whole of the people." 



With respect to the second class of forest property,, 

 that belonging to towns, villages and other public 

 bodies, it is again impossible to speak for the whole 

 of Germany except upon the broadest lines. The 

 State everywhere exercises oversight and a degree of 

 control over the management of these forests, but the 

 sphere of its action varies within very wide limits. 

 Even within the individual states it does not remain 



l Dle Forstlii'he Verhaltnisse Preussens, 2d ed., Berlin, 1883. 



