FOREST AND FORESTRY DEFINED. 93 



ing of wood crops, and trespasses of all kinds were 

 punished with heavy penalties. 



The first beginnings, then, of a rational forest 

 management were of democratic origin, — a man- 

 agement by the people for the people, who held 

 the welfare of the community higher than the satis- 

 faction of the greed of the few. To be sure, this 

 state of things did not last. The Thirty-years 

 War, which extirpated many of the cities and vil- 

 lages, and brought other economic changes, reduced 

 their holdings of forest property, which fell into 

 the hands of princes and the nobility, and gradually 

 the communal forest was supplanted by the royal 

 or lordly forest, or through partition by the private 

 forest of the single farmer. Then came a period 

 of decline in forest management. Private greed 

 disregarded the many regulations and ordinances 

 against devastation. Fires ruined large areas in 

 the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and in 

 addition excessive exploitation reduced the forest 

 area in extent and brought it into poor condition. 

 That era, reaching partly into the beginning of 

 the nineteenth century, presents conditions some- 

 what similar to those with which we are now con- 

 fronted in this country. The Revolution of 1792 

 opened wide the doors to the destructive element, 

 and the teachings of Adam Smith still further 

 reduced the wholesome restrictive functions of 

 governments, and induced a movement to sell all 

 government property. The damage which France 



