44 Germany. 
doctrine. From free republics they become mere corpo- 
trations under the supervision of appointed officials, and 
experience decadence in political as well as material 
directions. ‘Hence, no increase in city forest took place 
except through division of the Mark forest in which 
cities had been co-owners, and through secularized prop- 
erties of cloisters. 
The worst feature, from the standpoint of forest treat- 
ment, which resulted from these changes in property 
conditions and relationship, was the growth of the per- 
nicious servitudes or rights of user, which were either 
conferred to propitiate the powerless but dangerous 
peasantry or evolved out of the feudal relations. From 
the 16th to the 19th centuries these servitudes grew to 
such an extent that in almost every forest some one out- 
side of the owner had the right to use parts of it, either 
the pasture, or the litter or certain classes or sizes of 
wood. 
These rights have proved the greatest impediment 
to the progress of forestry until most recent times, and 
only within the last few decades have the majority of 
them been extinguished by legal process or compromise. 
2. Forest Conditions. 
Under the exercise of these various rights and the 
uncertainty of property conditions, the forest conditions 
naturally deteriorated continuously until the end of the 
18th century; the virgin woods were culled of their 
wealth and then grew up to brush, as is usual in the 
United States. 
Every forest ordinance began with complaints regard- 
ing the increasing forest devastation and predicted 
