Forest Administration. 113 



ests, and it became the practice to place the direction 

 of the latter in the hands of some more or less competent 

 man — a state forester — usually under the fiscal branch 

 or treasury department of the general administration. 

 A fully organized forest administration, in the modern 

 sense, however, could hardly be said to exist until after 

 the wars of liberation (1815) which had undoubtedly 

 retarded the peaceful development of this as well as of 

 other reforms. 



In organizing the large Prussian forest department, 

 for instance, a division into provincial administrations 

 was first established, and these were differentiated into 

 directive, inspection and executive services. The exe- 

 cution of working plans was conducted by managers of 

 districts (100,000 to 125,000 acres) in charge of Ober- 

 forster or Eevierforster, who vdth the assistance of 

 several under for esters (Forster) were in charge of the 

 practical work. At first only indifferently educated, 

 they were allowed little latitude, but with improvement 

 in their education they became by degrees more and more 

 independent agents. The direction of this district man- 

 agement, several districts in combination, was in the 

 hands of an Oberforstmeister, with the assistance of a 

 number of Porstmeister, who acted mainly as inspectors. 



This tri-partite system of directing, inspecting and 

 executive officers, after various changes in titles and 

 functions finally became practically established in all the 

 larger German states; in some rather lately, as for in- 

 stance, in Bavaria, not until 1885, and in Wurtemberg 

 in 1887. 



With this more stable organization, the character and 

 the status of the personnel changed greatly: the prior 



