H.—sb

58

In the event of a fine being imposed, the person is to be warned to pay it to the sub-district officer before a certain date, and that officer is to be informed that it is due. Should the proprietor believe that he has been unjustly fined he can appeal to the district officer, and from his decision again to the Minister of the Interior. The Oberforster has no power to impose a fine himself, but must report any case in which he thinks the imposition of one necessary to the Forstmeister. The proprietors elect the overseers, but the Forstmeister and sub-district officer have to confirm their choice, and they should be careful to see that the following conditions have been paid attention to:— a. On hiring the overseer a quarterly notiee to quit should be reserved ; b. The overseer's wages must be liberal, in order that he may give up his whole time to his duty; c. He is to receive no minor forest products of any nature whatever in lieu of wages ; d. The overseer must be sworn in. It is the duty of the Oberforster and his forsters to see that the overseers do their duty with zeal and impartiality, and that they report all irregularities, misdemeanours, and infringements of the forest laws either by the proprietors or by others. The Oberforster has the power to dismiss any overseer. The proprietors cannot dismiss an overseer without the sanction of the Oberforster. Should differences occur on this point between the Oberforster and the proprietors, the Forstmeister and sub-district officer have to decide. With regard to theft on the part of the proprietors, as well as of strangers, the Oberforster takes the same course as he would had it occurred in a Government forest. After the operations have been carried out for the year, the Oberforster has to draw up an abstract showing in what manner they have been executed. He has also to keep a memorandum for each. village forest under his charge, consisting of three parts : — -^ 1. Account of the felling ; 2. Minor products of the forest; 3. Cultivation, &c. All the reports, viz.: — a. Copy of plan of operations, together with protocol; b. Abstract as to how the plan has been carried out; and c. The memorandum of felling, &c, are to be laid before the Forstmeister for revision before the month of May of the following year, who returns them to the Oberforster to be placed in his register. It is undeniable that these forests have already greatly benefited by this law, although it has been such a short time in force, and in spite of the fact that the proprietors, who believed they saw in the law an infringement of their rights, at first put every obstacle they could in the way of the admin- ■ istrators. They soon, however, saw the benefit which they themselves derived from the introduction of a proper and scientific system, and now do all in their power to assist the forest officer, and no longer 4 object to lay out money, which was the great obstacle at first, now that they have convinced themselves that they are the gainers by it. Surveys, when they are necessary, are done at the cost of the proprietors; should they object, they must appeal to the district officer, whose decision is in this case final. COPY OF PROCEEDINGS. (Referred to at page 57.) FOBEST DISTBICT, NIENBTJEO. FOBEST OF NIENBTIEG. Forest of the Village Steimbek. Transacted in the " Jug Inn," at Steimbek," the Ist of Present .- February, 1870. Representative of the Forest Department: The proposed plan of operations in the forest was read and I, the Oberforster Kohler. explained to-day. No alterations in the plan were desired by the representaRepresentatives of the Villagers: t i ves 0 f t _ e proprietors of the forest. The peasants Runge, Haselbrinck, and Vogeler. Read, approved of, and signed. ei'mm:. a Witness—Kohleb, Oberforster. Haseebbinck. VOGELEB.

VI. EXTRACT FROM A REPORT ON THE NATURAL OAK FORESTS OF SUSSEX, By T. W. Webber, late of the Forest Department, India. Natural Oak Forest. —The portions of Hants, Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, known as the " Weald," lying between the chalk hills of the South Downs and the northern chalk formations, was apparently at one time a dense oak forest. The soil, which is a stiff yellow clay, called Weald clay, in places alternating with Hastings sand, stretching from Ashford, in Kent, almost to the New Forest, in Hants, seems to be the natural habitat of the English oak, Quercus robur var. pedunculata. Seedling oaks spring up readily, and it seems probable that, if cultivation ceased, forest would gradually take ' possession of the soil. So rapidly and luxuriantly does the oak grow, that it keeps a firm hold of all banks and hedge-rows where the plough cannot disturb it, and where the farmer is not allowed to cut it, and any waste strips too rough for tillage have only to be enclosed to spring up into oak-wood. The landlord sometimes receives as much annually from the timber cut in the hedgerows as he gets from the rent of the land.