METHODS OF DISPOSAL. 629 



competition ; at any rate, leaf, needle and moss-litter should be 

 sold by royalty and not by public auction. 



If litter is sold to the highest bidder, it at once assumes the 

 character of ordinary forest produce ; farmers base their cultiva- 

 tion on these sales and expect them to recur annually, and thus 

 a steady demand for litter arises. 



The value of litter depends on agricultural requirements only, 

 but in fixing the royalty for it, foresters will also consider the 

 damage caused to forests. Large land-owners and wasteful 

 farmers do not need forest litter, and only necessitous peasants 

 should obtain it ; but when sold to the highest bidder, the latter 

 class may not be able to compete for it with the farmer. Several 

 methods have been adopted to enable the poorer peasants to 

 compete with the better class of farmers in these sales ; the best 

 known of these has been practised in communal forests in 

 Hesse since 1839 : the litter is collected under the forest 

 manager's control and sold to the highest bidder and the money 

 thus obtained divided amongst the inhabitants of the communes. 



There is, however, little or no objection to auctioning litter of 

 forest weeds or branches, the removal of which rarely injures 

 a forest. The agricultural value of these kinds of litter, there- 

 fore, is mainly in question and they may be sold annually to the 

 highest bidder. 



In fixing royalties for litter, two points must be con- 

 sidered, the unit of measurement to be adopted and the rate of 

 royalty. 



(a) Unit of measurement. — Forest litter may be measured by 

 area, or volume ; in the former case, as a rule, one or more 

 compartments in a forest are opened to all permit-holders who 

 remove the litter collectively. They then either divide the litter 

 amongst themselves, or each permit-holder is allowed to remove 

 a specified number of cart-loads or head-loads. Separate areas 

 are then usually allotted to the different modes of conveyance 

 (carts, wheelbarrows, head-loads, &c.). 



When the litter is disposed of by volume, heaps of specified 

 dimensions are usually prepared by the permit-holders. The 

 size of each heap usually corresponds to the local waggon-load, 

 (for two horses or bullocks) termed in German (Fader), being 

 equal to five stacked cubic meters. 



