NEW VALUATION OF UNBUILT ON LAND 1 45 



These have not a rental value, strictly speaking, as their revenue is 

 derived from the value of the wood cut. It is this revenue, less the cost 

 of maintenance, management, protection and plantation, that in the ^>Iin- 

 isterial Order is considered as the net yield. 



In fact the exploitation of a forest requires neither annual cultivation, 

 nor investment of capital ; the intervention of the landlord is limited to acts 

 of supervision and administration that may be paralleled with those per- 

 formed either by the householder who himself administers his real estate or 

 the capitaHst concerned with personal estate securities. This kind of ex- 

 ploitation, is not, therefore, like the working of other landed estate, a real 

 profession and, thus, there could be no question of deducting from the 

 revenue from the cuttings an>i,hing under the head of agriculttural profits. 



Indeed, the net revenue of forest holdings, as above defined, is only 

 collected periodically. Now, it was indispensable, in view of the annual 

 incidence of the land tax and the necessity of ensuring a regular annual 

 revenue to the departments and communes, to subject the forests to an 

 annual charge. It was consequently necessary to find the annual revenue 

 by means of the periodical yield from the cuttings. The Ministerial 

 Instructions therefore ordered that the value of the cuttings should be 

 divided by the age of the trees, the yield of copsewood and forest trees 

 being for the purpose considered separately. 



This method, indeed, is adapted to meet the case, for forests indisput- 

 ably yield an annual revenue consisting in the value of all their plants. This 

 revenvte, it is true, cannot be collected in kind from the 3^ear of production, 

 as the market value only begins after a certain time ; it is no less certain, 

 however, that this annual revenue exists and adds to the value of the land, 

 and thus is a definite gain to the land holder. This is so true that in case 

 of sale of wooded land, the price of sale is fixed with due regard to the 

 annual increase of the wood on the land and the seller thus receives the 

 yield of his wood mthout having to wait for the usual date of its cutting. 



It has been objected against this system of valuation that it obliges 

 the forest proprietors to pay a tax on revenue they have not j^et received. 

 There would be foundation for the objection if the wooded land were taxed 

 from date of plantation, but this is not the case. In fact, under the pre- 

 sent legislative system, forests newly sown or planted are exempt, entirely 

 or almost so, from the land tax for thirty j^ears (i), a period more than suf- 

 ficient to ensure the proprietor the receipt of the yield of the first cutting and 

 it is not to be doubted that this law will continue in force. Under these con- 

 ditions, the taxation of the forest wiU continue to be based, as it has always 

 been, not on revenue to be collected, but on that actually collected. 



(i) The exemptions granted on bahalf of reafforested land are now regulated ; i5t., by 

 article 226 of the forestry code, which exempts from the land tax, for a period of thirty years, 

 seed plots and forest plantations on the summits and slopes of mountains, on sand hills and 

 in moor land ; 2nd., by article 3 of the law of March 29th., 1897, which reduces the land tax 

 on land planted or sown for forests by '/,, for the first thirty years. 



