442 DISPOSAL OV WOOD 



The legality of all claims for wood, as a right, must first be 

 proved by reference to the map or record-book of the forest 

 rights ; and this enquiry is often a serious business when the 

 right-holders' wood has to be distributed in small lots among a 

 number of persons. In such cases, in many districts, fixed days 

 are assigned for the right-holders to attend the forest manager 

 and make a declaration of their demands. This declaration 

 must be examined, rectified, and if needful referred for confirma- 

 tion to the superior officials. Every delivery of wood to right- 

 holders must be made on presentation of a written order from 

 the forest manager, and a receipt for the wood must be given by 

 the right-holder. 



If the right is to firewood, the quantity and quality of the wood 

 being stated, the forest owner is least seriously afi"ected by the 

 right ; and in the next degree, when the right is to the kind of 

 timber prevalent in the forest. If, however, the right is to all 

 wood of a certain class, for instance, all branches and round 

 billets, all the brushwood or stump-wood of a felling-area — if 

 also the quantity depends on the manner in which the wood is 

 converted and sorted — the distribution and supervision of the 

 right-holders' wood becomes more arduous, and often involves 

 complaints of short measure from the right-holders. Great care 

 must then be taken during the conversion and sorting of the 

 produce ; wherever also the dimensions of the right-holders' wood 

 are precisely given in the statement of rights, this must be care- 

 fully attended to during the conversion. The most hurtful 

 rights are those which are not fixed in quantity, but only by the 

 requirements of the right-holders. If such rights to firewood 

 should burden a forest, and no legal definition can be obtained 

 of their extent, an annual computation must be made of the 

 volume required by each right-holder, or for each class of house- 

 hold. This burdens the manager with a tedious undertaking, 

 beset with all kinds of difficulties. 



Deliveries of building timber to right-holders are of a similar 

 nature. Such a right can only be limited to the actual require- 

 ments of the right-holder, according to the number and dimen- 

 sions of the buildings in question. It is the duty of the forest 

 officials carefully to ascertain the actual requirements of material 

 for repairs or new buildings, whenever a demand for building 



