292 Forestry Quarterly 



correspondent makes the following pertinent remarks in which 

 we agree : 



"The ignoring of the influence of the financial rotation has led 

 to all kinds of wild confiscation paragraphs which prove nothing 

 as to the fairness or unfairness of the annual property tax for 

 forests as compared with other forms of property. It is easy 

 to show that any property (not only forests) will be confiscated 

 if it for any reason no longer furnishes a satisfactory income to 

 meet taxes, i. e., has passed the 'financial rotation' . . . The 

 Loblolly pine in Chapman's example (p. 147) shows 40 years as 

 the financial rotation, when it earns less than 5 per cent, so that 

 the 2 per cent tax on sale value becomes confiscatory (absorbs 

 more than 2/5 of net income). This tax confiscation becomes 

 more pronounced as one gets farther beyond the financial rotation. 

 This is no discrimination against forest investment, as a tax 

 on any capital earning little or no income always becomes con- 

 fiscatory and drives the owner to some effort to make it earn 

 properly. . 



"Roth states his problem even more unfairly (p. 113) . 



"Forestry either does pay the current business rate of interest 

 or it does not. If it does, it can pay the same annual tax as 

 other property without any confiscation whatever. I favor the 

 final tax on grounds of expediency not of justice. If forestry 

 does not pay an acceptable interest rate to the private owner, but 

 we still desire forests, then it is a matter for Government 

 activity," 



There are quite a number of other minor points on which 

 discussion might be profitable, but it would extend this review 

 too far. Both books are worth close study; both of them if used 

 as textbooks, leave, however, ample scope to the teacher to enlarge 

 and to explain; indeed, if the two were merged in one and the 

 good points in either taken and the deficiencies corrected we would 

 have an ideal volume. 



Roth's volume brings incidentally a large amount of useful 

 information regarding forest production, both in Europe and 

 America. In the appendix there are several interesting helps to 

 be found, namely, money yield tables for the German species, 

 which are highly suggestive, and volume yield tables in curves to 

 which in a novel way height and diameter curves are added so 



