Chap. 463.—An ACT to protect the owners of timber and logs from depreda-
tion.

Approved February 27, 1894.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That every
person, firm or corporation dealing in logs or timber in any form, to
be floated on the streams of this state, shall be called and known as
timber dealers, and as such may adopt a brand or trade-mark in the
manner and with the effect hereinafter provided.

2. That every such dealer desiring to adopt a brand or trade-mark
who has not heretofore adopted a brand or trade-mark, may do 80 by
the execution and acknowlegment, as deeds are required to be ac-
knowledged, of a writing substantially in form and effect as follows,
to-wit =

Notice is hereby given that I (or we, or the undersigned company,
as the case may be) have (or has) adopted the following brand or
trade-mark to be used in my (or our, or its) business as a timber
dealer (or dealers, as the case may be), to-wit: (Here insert the word,
letter or letters, or figures, or device or devices adopted. )

Given under my (or our or its) hand and seal this day of
, eighteen . [Seal.]

Said writing may be proven as deeds are proven in this state, and
shall be recorded in the office of the clerk of the county court of the
county in which the principal office or place of business of euch tim-
ber dealer may be, and of such other counties as said dealer or deal-
ers may do business in. Nothing in this act shall be construed to
prevent any person who has heretofore used any particular brand
from adopting the same as his trade-mark, and when he shall have
adopted the same as his trade-mark, as provided in this act, it shal]
apply to the trees and timber heretofore marked with such brand as
well as to such as may be hereafter so marked.

3. That every brand or trade-mark so adopted shall, from the date
of its being so recorded as aforesaid, be the exclusive brand or trade-
mark of the person or persons, or firm or corporation so adopting the
same, and any other firm, person or corporation knowingly using or
attempting to use the same without authority in writing from the
owner thereof shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and fined for each
offence in so using the same not less than twenty nor more than
two hundred dollars, and shall be liable to the owner of such brand
or trade-mark for all the damages sustained by such owner by reason
of the use of such brand or trade-mark.

4, That every timber dealer may have a branding-iron or hammer
with which to impress said brand or trade-mark on a log, tree or
other timber; and any person who shall use said branding-iron or
hammer, or have or use one of like form, and making the same brand
or trade-mark, or who shall intentionally and without authority in
writing remove, deface, obliterate or destroy said brand or trade-
mark, when once impressed or placed on a log, tree or other timber,
shall be guilty of a felony, and for each offence shall be confined in
the penitentiary not less than one nor more than three years.

5. That if any person shall knowingly or fraudulently impress or
place such brand or trade-mark on any log, tree or other timber not
his own, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and fined for each
offence not less than ten nor more than one hundred dollars, and
confined in the county jail not less than ten nor more than twenty
days.

6. That the placing or impressing such brand or trade-mark on a
log, tree or other marketable timber shall be deemed and held to be
a change of ownership and possession, and any person who shall cut
down a tree or shall knowingly have in his possession a log or other
timber that has been so branded without the written consent of its
owner and claiming it as his own, or who shall convert it to his own
use or offer to sell same, shall be guilty of a felony and punished by

confinement in the penitentiary for a period of not Jess than one nor
more than two years for each offence, unless the defendant in such
case show a bona fide adverse claim or color of title to the timber or
logs in question obtained before such branding.

7. That every person who shall take, catch, hold or have in his
possession any log or other marketable timber not branded as afore-
said, without the written consent of the owner thereof, shall within
ten days after catching, taking up or getting possession of the same
as aforesaid, report the same in writing to the county clerk of the
county in which such person resides, and thirty days after such re-
port is received the sheriff of said county shall sell the same pub-
licly at the court-house door on the first day of a county court in said
county, of which notice shall be given by said sheriff for at least ten
days by written or printed notices posted at the front door of said
court-house, or near thereto, and at one or more public places in said
county. Any person owning said log or timber may, however, re-
cover the same, satisfying the sheriff that he is entitled to it, or by
action of detinue as provided by law. Said sale shall be made for
cash, and the proceeds when collected, after paying the expenses of
sale, including a fee of twenty-five cents for each log or piece of tim-
ber so sold, shall be paid to the treasurer of the county for the bene-
fit of the public schools of the district in which the party reporting
the same shall at that time reside. Any person failing to report to
said clerk as aforesaid, or to turn over said log or other timber to
said sheriff, or any sheriff failing or refusing to advertise and sell
such log or timber as aforesaid, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor
and fined not less than ten nor more than one hundred dollars for
each offence.

8. That all acts or parts of acts inconsistent herewith are hereby
repealed.

9. This act shall be in force from its passage.