^05] Government Forestry Abroad. 'II 



The relations of the State to the third class of for- 

 ests, those belonging to private proprietors, are of a 

 much less intimate nature. The basis of these rela- 

 tions is. however, the same. To quote again from 

 Donner, '-The duty of the State to sustain and further 

 the well being of its citizens regarded as an imperish- 

 able whole, implies for the Government the right and 

 the duty to subject the management of all forests to 

 its inspection and control." This intervention is to 

 be carried, however, '-only so far as may be neces- 

 sary to obviate the dangers which an unrestrained 

 utilization of the forest by its owners threatens to 

 excite, and the rights of property are to be respected 

 to the utmost consistently with such a result." Prus- 

 sia, of all the German countries, has respected these 

 rights most highly, and the Government exerts prac- 

 tically no restraining influence except where the evi- 

 dent results of deforestation would be seriously dan- 

 gerous. Here it may and does guard most jealously 

 the wood lands, whose presence is a necessary safe- 

 guard against certain of the more destructive phe- 

 nomena of nature, and which have been called in 

 general protection forests. Of their many sided 

 influence so much has been said and written of late 

 in America both truly and falsely that no farther 

 reference to the subject seems needful. 



The State leaves open a way of escape for the pri- 

 vate proprietor who finds himself unwilling to suffer 

 such restriction of his rights for the public good, and 

 shows itself willing to buy up areas not only of pro- 

 tection forest but also of less vitally important wood 

 lands. On the other hand, it is ready, with a broad- 

 ness of view which the zeal of forest authorities 

 sometimes unfortunately excludes, to give up to pri- 



