288 Forestry Quarterly 



of the Saxon forest department, only director of the forest school 

 at Tharandt. 



While we are on the subject of definitions, we may refer to 

 some others which appear to us deficient. 



Roth is sparing with definitions, taking for granted that capital, 

 interest, etc., are well understood terms, while Chapman goes to 

 unusual lengths in clearing the way by definitions of elemental 

 economic concepts. 



We are inclined to quarrel with the definition of capital by 

 Chapman as "wealth available for future use," that "all wealth is 

 capital," and that classification into wealth intended for consump- 

 tion and that used for the production of other wealth "leads to 

 confusion." On the contrary, much clearness in financial con- 

 ceptions is secured by recognizing capital as differing from prod- 

 uct, and going still further into classification of current, fixed 

 and specialized capital, which helps in the discussion of interest 

 rates, making us realize why different classes of capital produce 

 interest at different rates. 



In subsequent passages, indeed, the difference is tacitly under- 

 stood, and under costs in forest production not only capital 

 account and current expense account, but, with much less need, 

 crop expenses are separately grouped. 



In neither book appears a clear distinction between subjective 

 and objective cost values, that is between the actual investment 

 value, which represents the actual (subjective) expenditure of 

 whatever nature actually paid out in the acquirement of a prop- 

 erty, or the cost (subjective) which was actually involved in 

 creating it, as contrasted with the possibly very different expendi- 

 ture (objective) which would be necessary to reproduce it. This 

 lack of distinction as we will see later, leads to peculiar attitudes. 



It would also be better usage to reserve cost value for value 

 represented by cost of production, and distinguish it from invest- 

 ment value (see Roth, pp. 29 and 89). 



In both books, the discussion on interest rates, which is perhaps 

 the most troublesome subject in the whole field of forest finance, 

 receives but scanty and unsatisfying attention. For instance, 

 although Roth's section on Interest contains over four pages, it 

 confines the discussion to actual usages in various lands and 

 various business, but fails to analyze the reasons which produce 



