230 GOVERNMENT REGULATION AND WORKING PLANS 



No strictly financial rotations -^ have been established on public 

 forests in France. The nearest approach to a high forest financial 

 rotation is with maritime pine and Scotch pine, but even here the usual 

 pubHc forest rotations are 10 to 30 years more than would probably be 

 indicated by soil rent calculations. Even coppice rotations are usually 

 10 to 20 years longer than soil rent rotation, but are sometimes calcu- 

 lated on the best gross money returns. 



Technical rotations in the United States are of more than mere histori- 

 cal interest. Here a technical rotation, especially under conditions 

 existing in the West, might be the final rotation chosen. Take the case 

 of a watershed which is most suitable for producing railroad ties, because 

 railroad ties alone could be floated down a drivable stream as on the 

 Carson National Forest, Arizona. Here a technical rotation based on the 

 length of time it took to grow ties of given dimensions is clearly indicated. 

 The exact length, in this instance, would depend on the most suitable 

 period for growing the quality of tie which yielded the largest net return 

 on the investment, not taking into consideration compound interest 

 charges (according to C. F. Korstian) unless the data for financial calcu- 

 lations were available. 



In French Government selection forests technical rotations are usually 

 chosen which will produce the kind of material most in demand by the 

 public, so as to support local industries of value to the economic life of 

 the locality. This kind of rotation, under the economic conditions 

 existing in the Vosges, Jura, or Alps has been severely criticized by 

 German foresters because of the financial losses usually involved. The 

 German viewpoint as expressed by Endres -^ is: 



"Were we to apply the technical rotations to even aged high forests, producing 

 mainly large timber, great financial losses would take place. However, the policy of 

 bringing about a mixture of species in order to meet market requirements or demands 

 is apparently correct . . . it is in keeping with sound forestry because it also 

 maintains soil fertihty. . . . The technical rotation may also be used by the State 

 for social and political reasons . . . but the technical rotation can only be recog- 

 nized when production costs . . . are of no consequence to the owner." 



Undoubtedly there are some economic rotations on French State 

 coppice forests where the objective is to get the maximum quantity of 

 wood. The silvicultural rotation idea, based on the limitation of the 

 species to reproduce or to resist decay, is always present but is never 

 the chief factor — which is always physical — namely, the product 

 most necessary for local or general French industry.^" Rotations may 



2^ No references have been found in French working plans based on maximum soil 

 rent or maximum forest rent. For statistical data on rotations see page 54. 



29 Endres, pp. 243-244. 



^ The rotation in France is ordinarily based on the length of time it takes a tree to 

 grow to exploitable size; or, in other words, it is purely a technical rotation. For 



