124 



JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



It is evident from this that in stands having a periodic yield the as- 

 sumed annual revenue, which is used as a basis for taxation, exceeds 

 the actual annual revenue by from 34 to 507 per cent, depending on the 

 length of the rotation and the amount of the final return. 



In the case of regulated stands managed so as to secure a sustained 

 annual yield this discrepancy would not exist and the actual and as- 

 sumed revenue would really be equal. Thus, if the hectare of coppice 

 is thought of as being divided into 20 equal parts, with an even grada- 

 tion of age classes running from i to 20 years, the annual cut would 



600 



obviously yield a revenue of , or 30 francs. 



The author points 



out, however, that this annual return is due entirely to the fact that the 

 owner has had the foresight to practice forest management and to se- 

 cure such a gradation of age classes as to make an annual cut practica- 

 ble. In other words, he argues, the productive forest capital consists of 

 two distinct parts — the soil and the growing timber — each of which con- 

 tributes its share to the annual revenue. The part produced by the soil 

 is considered as being the annual equivalent of the final yield when a 

 single clear cutting is made at the end of the rotation, and the re- 

 mainder is considered as being produced by the growing stock. In the 

 case of the coppice stand already mentioned, for instance, the annual 

 revenue produced by the soil would be 22.33 francs and that produced 

 by the growing stock 7.67 francs, while in the case of the broadleaf high 

 forest the revenue produced by the soil would be only 9.88 francs and 

 that produced by the growing stock 50.12 francs. 



The burden imposed by the present method of taxation obviously 

 becomes increasingly heavy as the rotation increases in length, par- 

 ticularly in the case of unregulated stands. As a direct result of this 

 the area of high forest under private ownership has decreased steadily, 

 except in certain regions where conifers are grown on a short rotation 

 for mine props, until today the State is almost the sole producer of 



