254 FORESTRY IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



Pasture is not allowed " except to the forestkeepers, and then 6nly in 

 places where no injury can be done to forest culture. Since the abolition of 

 the right of common usage pasture is also generally disallowed in the woods 

 of private domains. Except in hardwoods pasture has never been of much 

 import, there being a great scarcity of grass in coniferous groves. 



Citizens who own buildings, to which a vested interest in the common 

 property attaches, receive yearly a certain amount of fuel, as well as the tim- 

 ber necessary for the repair or rebuilding of their homes, and the owners of 

 buildings of a later origin, to which no such vested interest attaches, usually 

 receive more or less fuel at a moderate price. The poor are furnished a cer- 

 tain quantity of fuel from the common forests without pay. 



ORGANIZATION AND FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT FOREST BUREAUS. 



The administrative or political officers of the government are charged 

 with the supervision of the affairs and general interests of forest culture. 



The ministry, or department of agriculture, is the highest authority in 

 matters relating to forests. It has the supreme control of the enforcement of 

 forest laws, of the schools of forestry, of the management of government 

 forests in the whole empire, and is a board of appeal in administrative cases. 



In Bohemia the highest authority in forest matters under the ministry of 

 agriculture is the statthalter, or governor, whereas the bezirkshauptmann, or 

 district captain, is the authority of the first instance. 



The district captain is charged with the enforcement of laws generally, 

 and in matters of forestry his particular functions are as follows : 



1. To uphold the existing rules and regulations, and to carry out the de- 

 crees of the higher authorities. 



2. To decide in all cases which are not reserved for the action of the 

 higher authorities and of the courts. 



3. To supervise all sluices, wooden grates, booms, &c. 



4. To carry out all police regulations bearing upon forests. 



5. To take the initiative in all measures necessary in cases of forest fires 

 and of other calamities; to help the sufferers to prosecute offenders, &c. 



6. To adjudicate all differences between forest managers and their subor- 

 dinates or hired men, if they are brought to their knowledge during the time 

 in which the relation of master and servant exists, or at least thirty days after 

 its termination. Later on such disputes must go before the district courts. 



To aid the political authorities in matters of forestry special forest bureaus 

 have in recent years been created. 



I. 1\\t forstinspector (^vas^tcim of forests), subordinate to the governor. 

 He is charged with the general inspection of forests and carrying out of the 

 law in the whole kingdom. He is bound to give advice and render assist- 

 ance to the governor and the subordinate political authorities in matters of 

 forest culture. He makes tours of inspection, of which the local authorities 

 and the owners of forests are notified in advance, and he reports to the gov- 

 ernor the results of his observations. 



