318 PRIVATE FORESTRY IN FRANCE 



to reforest 1.6 million acres, or about $6.41 per acre. As a national 

 investment this has certainly paid. It has created enormous wealth in a 

 region formerly poverty stricken and unhealthy. But from the stand- 

 point of the individual to-day the investment is not so attractive, because, 

 if the sale value is compared with the revenue it is seen that land worth 

 (with its growing stock) perhaps $54 per acre nets year in and year out 

 about $2.22, or about 4.1 per cent. According to Huffel 6 the average 

 returns from private forests were, in 1892, 1.16 cubic meters (about two- 

 thirds to three-fourths of this is fuel) worth 67 cents per acre per year 

 (2.90 cubic meters and 16.80 francs per hectare). If we place a soil and 

 growing stock value of only $30.88 per acre (400 francs per hectare) 

 the net return is about 4 per cent. The return is probably less than this. 

 According to French data the lower the soil values the better the forest 

 investment but the higher the risk from fire, fungus, insects, and acts 

 of Divine Providence. This seems logical because the risk in the manage- 

 ment of maritime pine on Landes sand is unquestionably greater than in 

 the thrifty coppice of the Cote d'Or on rich well watered soil. 



According to Huffel's definition the soil or "fonds" includes everything 

 that remains in a forest after it is completely clear cut : the unmerchant- 

 able part of the stumps, roots, seed, humus, dead leaves, boundaries, 

 roads, management divisions, drainage ditches, fire lines, forest houses, 

 and all other betterments. Any study of soil values shows the advantage 

 of reforesting cheap, so-called waste land; proof is abundant in French 

 forest history the Landes Sands (where values increased from 77 cents 

 to as many dollars per acre) , the uncultivated land in Champagne (which 

 sold at $1.50 to $4.50 until planted to Austrian pine, when soil values 

 increased to $10 or more, because it could produce $60 per acre from 

 timber crops on a short rotation) ; similar advantages occurred to foresting 

 cheap waste soils in the Central Plateau, Sologne, and elsewhere. But 

 the State had to prove the way. Values are created; for before the for- 

 estation the value of the soil is the local sale value, while after the pioneer 

 has created the forest the value is based on what the soil can produce. It 

 has been made revenue-producing, and the pioneer reaps the profit. 



A good illustration may be taken from the sale of stock. Let us as- 

 sume that a wire company sells its stock at par, or $100 a share, and pays 

 8 per cent (in accordance with 1920 rates). The concern prospers, earns 

 and pays 12 per cent. Capital values have been created by its earning 

 capacity and the stock sells at $150 a share instead of $100. The same 

 increase in values occurs when barren soil is made to produce salable 

 forests. 



Economic Forestiere, Vol. I, p. 407. G. Huffel, 1904. Some writers claim 

 a return of 6 to 7 per cent on timber investments in the Landes. See also Chapter 

 VIII. 



