146 • FRANCE - MISCELLANEOUS 



If, on the other hand, account be taken of the fact that the tax corre- 

 sponding with a cutting is paid in accordance with a graduated scale for 

 the whole period of the growth of the wood for the next cutting, we see 

 that really the Treasury rather allows the landowner time to pay his debt. 



In addition, the forest proprietors are to receive a further advantage 

 from the mode of taxation contemplated in the bill for fiscal reform al- 

 ready voted by the Chamber. In accordance with this biU, forest land would 

 only be taxed, like any other land, to the extent of *, 3 of its revenue. 

 As the forest owners have not to bear any of the charges (costs of main- 

 tenance of rural buildings and repayment of the debt on them, risks of not 

 leasing or not receiving rent), on account of which this reduction was justi- 

 fied in the case of other land holders, and as, on the other hand, the 

 special burdens they have to bear have been deducted from the gross yield 

 of their land, they will be in a privileged condition compared with the other 

 tax payers. 



Examination of the scales of valuation. — Although all the precaution- 

 ary measures above mentioned might have been applied for the establish- 

 ment of the scales of valuation, it was still necessary to ascertain the accur- 

 acy of the valuations therein registered. 



As the scales had to serve to calculate the rental value of all the real 

 estate in each commune without exception, whether leased or not, a first 

 mode of verification was contemplated, consisting in the comparison, in 

 the case of rented holdings, of the values thus obtained and the real rent 

 as shown in the contracts of lease. 



That such verification might be possible, the contracts of lease had first 

 to be examined to find the net yield, that is to say from the rate shown in the 

 deeds the net rental value of the unbuilt on land dealt vidth therein had to 

 be discovered. Now, this operation, although simple in appearance, none 

 the less gave rise to serious difficulties. 



The contracts which could be utilised for the purpose may be grouped 

 in two principal classes : contracts of leases, in which the payment is gener- 

 ally made in money and sometin es in a fixed quantity of the produce, and 

 metairie contracts, in which the profits are shared between the lessor and the 

 farmer, in varying proportion fixed in the contracts themselves. 



But these definitions only apply to either class of contracts in a 

 general sense ; in reality, the deeds show very different forms according 

 to the districts in which they are passed. 



Among leases presenting interesting peculiarities, let us mention : 



Contracts of tenancy at will, still in use in the C6te-du-Nord, Fini- 

 stere and Morbihan, in principle contracts of ease, though the landowner 

 also sells the farmer the buildings and areas existing on the farm for a 

 period contemplated in the deeds. The annual rent is generally low, but the 

 lessor keeps the right to give the farmer notice to quit or to evict him at the 

 expiration of the period agreed on, refunding him the value fixed by 

 experts of the buildings and areas, in other words of all constructions etc. 

 raised on the ground. 



