PERIODICAL LITERATURE 123 



plateau now consisted of bare open downs covered with short grass and 

 bracken fern. 



"As a consequence the water supply had become scarce and the soil 

 no longer had the power to hold large supplies of moisture and so to 

 regulate the flow of water in the streams. During the rainy season the 

 latter were subject to very sudden and violent floods, which subsided as 

 quickly as they rose, and the water flowed either into the large Jule Lake 

 or down to the plains of Burma, leaving the beds of the streams almost 

 dry. The country was also cut up, as a result of these violent floods, by 

 very deep ravines, having vertical banks, similar to the canyons found 

 in the arid parts of North America. The soil on the plateau was a 

 marvelously rich one, and with a good water supply the value and ex- 

 tent of the crops would increase tenfold." 



The reporter concludes : "It may now be said to be established that, 

 apart from their intrinsic uses, forests have an influence generally bene- 

 ficial to a country." 



Forests and Rainfall. The Indian Forester, September, 1917, pp. 419-425. 



MENSURATION, FINANCE, AND MANAGEMENT 



An interesting plea for a reform in the pres- 

 Forest ent method of forest taxation in France is pre- 



Taxation sented by "R. F.," who is stated by the editors 



in to be one of the most distinguished Deputy Con- 



France servators in the country. He points out that 



the present method of taxation is mathematic- 

 ally incorrect, since it is based on the assumption that if a given forest 

 produces in n years a total revenue equal to R, it produces an annual 



R 



revenue equal to — . while as a matter of fact tlie annual revenue, in 

 ' n 



accordance with the usual compound interest formula, is actually 



equal to . The injustice of this method in the case of 



^ I .Op" — I 



unregulated stands is illustrated by three practical examples wiiich arc 



summarized in the following table. The owner in each case is assumed 



to make a single clear cutting at the end of ilie rotation and the rate ot 



interest is assumed to be 3 per cent : 



