18 ELEMENTS OF SYLVICULTUEE. 



reach, the age of maturity, or else to grow uniform 

 crops, in order to fell them as soon as the mass 

 of component trees attains this age, is evidently to 

 work in the highest interests of the supply of the 

 public at large ; in other words, in the interests of 

 the State which is the personification of the general 

 community. But for this purpose, it is necessary to 

 let the trees attain a great age, i.e., to apply long 

 rotations. Hence arises, as a rule, the necessity of 

 growing high forest, for this is the only means by 

 which the growth of vigorous and abundant stool- 

 shoots can be effectually prevented ; at the end of a 

 long rotation no shoots from the stool would be 

 produced. 



Now high forest worked on a long rotation entails 

 as a consequence the accumulation of a considerable 

 amount of capital, the increase of which is out of all 

 proportion to the increase of revenue which may be 

 derived from it. In the case we are considering 

 (that of forests) the ratio between the income and 

 the capital employed to yield it, i.e., the rate of 

 investment, goes on steadily diminishing as soon as 

 the forest has attained a certain age, and that not 

 very far advanced. It is for this reason that the 

 State and proprietors who are so to say imperishable, 

 such as Communes and public institutions, are the 

 only bodies that are able to produce the most useful 

 timber. 



As for the State, it is in the first place its 

 imperative duty to grow the most usefrl timber 

 because, as the representative of society at large, it 

 is obliged to produce that which the public cannot 



