214 TIMBER-MARKS. 



the height of 12 feet from the ground, the owner may give notice to the officer having 

 the care and charge of said highway or street, that he claims the benefit of this act for 

 the growing of shade-trees; and, thereupon, the officer shall make a personal examin- 

 ation of the rows of trees, and if, on such examination, he shall find that the owner has 

 grown or planted the trees, and that they are growing thriftily, ho shall give the 

 owner of said land and trees a certificate showing that he accepts the said rows of 

 trees as shade-trees of said highway or street, and thereupon the said trees shall be 

 protected as public property ; but the title to the trees and any fruit they may produce, 

 shall remain the property of the owner of the land. 



Sec. 2. The person receiving the certificate aforesaid, shall be entitled to receive an 

 annual bounty for the growing of public shade-trees, at the rate of two cents for each 

 rod of shade-trees on a side of the road, or four cents for the length of the highway 

 where trees are planted on both sides thereof and grown as aforesaid, which said 

 amount of bounty shall be allowed to the person holding said certificate, upon the high- 

 way taxes assessed upon the same lauds. 



Sec. 3. If any person shall, by himself or servant, cut down, break, girdle, bruise, 

 mar the bark, or in any manner injure any public or private shade-tree, or shall hitch 

 any horse or animal to any public or private shade-tree growing on the side of the 

 highway or street, or shall allow any animal under his control to break, mar, or do 

 damage to aay shade-tree standing in the line of the highway or street, such person 

 shall be liable to pay the sum of live dollars for every shade-tree which is cut down, 

 broken, girdled, bruised, marred, or injured, or to which any hors'^or animal is hitched, 

 or which shall be broken, marred, or damaged by any animal under his control, which 

 sum shall be collected by the officer having charge of the highway or street on the side 

 of which the tree so damaged shall stand or be growing, in an action of trespass, and 

 which money when collected shall constitute part of the highway fund in the hands of 

 the officer and be used accordingly ; and the jierson doing or allowing the committing 

 of such damage shall be liable further to the owner of the land for all damage he may 

 sustain, the same as if the public had no interest in said shade-trees. Every officer 

 having charge of the highways or streets, who shall cut down, destroy, or damage any 

 tree planted or grown as aforesaid for a shade-ttee within 8 feet of the outer line of 

 the highway or street, or shall order or permit the same to be done by his workmen, 

 shall be personally liable, the same as any other person, under the provisions of this 

 section. This section shall not prohibit the owner of the land from cutting any dead 

 or decaying tree for his own use : Provided, He shall immediately plant another tree to 

 take the place of the shade-tree cut down. 



Sec. 4. This act shall take etfect and be in force from and after its passage and pub- 

 lication. 



TIMEER-MAEKS. 



Throughout Europe the marteau (marking-hammer) is used by the 

 state agents for marking trees to be reserved when sales are made of 

 a portion of the growth on a given tract of land. It is a light, long- 

 handled hatchet, with a cutting-blade on one side for smoothing off the 

 rough bark, and some design, usually the initials of the owner or other 

 symbol of ownership, in relief on the head. Its use is very ancient, 

 being found in the older ordinances for the management of woodlands, 

 and it is often used by the purchasers to mark the trees they have 

 bought for cutting. Formerly, in France, the custody and use of these 

 instruments, bearing the administration mark, were assigned to special 

 agents, regularly organized and olBcered by a chief. Now the state 

 marteaux are in France intrusted to agents of the forest service. They 

 are kept in boxes having two keys, and can only be used in the pres- 

 ence of two agents. This instrument has come to be used as the symbol 

 of the forester's profession, like the anchor with the sailor, or the pick 

 with the miner. 



Analogous to this is the marking-hammer everywhere in use among 

 American lumbermen, for designating their logs when floated in streams 

 and sorted in booms; and in all the States where this interest is promi- 

 nent, laws have been enacted for the registration of these marks in offices 

 of town or county record. These laws provide i:»enalties for counterfeit- 

 ing these marks, and make it criminal to appropriate timber tlms 

 marked. 



The Dominion Government in Canada has provided by law for the 



