Development of Forest Property. 13 



Forests formed a barrier and defense against out- 

 siders, or a hiding place in ease of need, hence we find 

 frontier forests, or as the Germans called them "Grenz- 

 marken," set aside or designated for such purposes and 

 withdrawn from use in early times, and sometimes addi- 

 tionally fortified by ditches and other artificial barriers. 

 Even before the "Grenzmarken" of the Germans the 

 forest was used to designate the limit of peoples as well 

 as to serve as a bulwark against attacks from invaders by 

 Greeks, Romans and still earlier among Asiatic tribes. 



Again, the Pantheistic ideas of the ancients led to 

 consecrating not only trees but groves to certain gods: 

 holy groves were frequent among the Greeks and 

 Eomans, and also among other pagans; the Jews, how- 

 ever, were enjoined to eradicate these emblems of 

 paganism in the promised land with axe and fire, and 

 they did so more or less, removal and re-establishment 

 of holy groves varying according to the religious senti- 

 ment of their rulers. Altogether, in Palestine the for- 

 ests were left to the free and unrestricted use of the 

 Israelites. 



Out of religious conceptions and priestiy shrewdness 

 arose church property in farms and forests among the 

 Indian Brahmans, the Ethiopians and Egyptians, as 

 also among Greeks and Eomans. 



It appears that the oriental kings were exclusive 

 owners of all unappropriated or public forests. This 

 was certainly the case with the princes of India and of 

 Persia and such ownership can be proved definitely in 

 many other parts, as with the forests of Lebanon, of 

 Cyprus and various forest areas in Asia Minor. 



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