Development of Forest Property. 13 
Forests formed a barrier and defense against out- 
siders, or a hiding place in case 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withdrawn from use in early times, and sometimes addi- 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 
Romans, 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 priestly shrewdness 
arose church property in farms and forests among the 
Indian Brahmans, the Ethiopians and Egyptians, as 
also among Greeks and Romans. 
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. 
2 
