PROTECTION AGAINST FOREST OFFENCES, ETC. 229 



sary for the well-being of everyone, hence there is often very 

 considerable temptation offered to the poorer classes to possess 

 themselves by illegitimate means of some of the benefits derivable 

 therefrom. And this temptation is often strengthened by the 

 fact that, amongst the poorer classes, the theft of timber or other 

 products of woodlands is not at all regarded in the same light as 

 the theft of ordinary articles which may happen to be in the posses- 

 sion of others. 1 Thus in the States within the German Empire it 

 is only in Saxony and Wurtemberg that the purloining of forest 

 produce may be ranked as theft, when the quantity stolen is of 

 some considerable value. 



In thickly-wooded tracts where the population is poor there is 

 of course most tendency towards removal of wood for fuel during 

 severe years, and to the removal of grass and other fodder stuffs 

 when the ordinary sources of supply are deficient. But owing to 

 the difficulty of according constant supervision to every part of 

 any extensive forest even during the day time, to say nothing of 

 the hours after dark, well-planned purloining of produce can 

 easily be carried on from time to time without much danger of 

 detection, especially when the movements of the foresters and 

 woodmen have been carefully studied, or if the protective establish- 

 ment is at all remiss in the performance of its duties. 



So far as the well-being of the woods themselves is concerned, 

 many of the effects of purloining of timber, &c., concern to a far 

 greater degree the pocket of the proprietor than the future 

 development of the crop or the productive capacity of the soil, 

 as, for example, the surreptitious removal of dry poles or the 

 cutting of grass or herbage on green lanes. But, on the other 

 hand, such acts as cutting out of sound dominating poles forming 

 a portion of the canopy, or removing dead foliage from the same 

 localities for use as litter, not only directly damage the crop, but 

 also tend indirectly to reduce the timber-producing capacity of 

 the soil. 



1 There is undoubtedly a difference in degree in these matters, for forests were 

 originally a free gift of natural growth ; and if the titles to all woodland estates were 

 examined, it might often be found that the ancestors of the present owners had merely 

 been more swaggering bullies than their neighbours, and had filched ownership from 

 others who had originally equal rights with them in the land. Trans. 



