FORESTRY AS AN INVESTMENT 



317 



Where the owner of land has mismanaged it and allowed erosion or 

 drifting sand to destroy its value, even then the State must buy the 

 land before reclaiming it, notwithstanding the resulting common good for 

 the community. If land is being damaged by overgrazing it can be 

 reserved from further use, but during a 10-year period the value of the 

 rental must be paid the owner, and if after that period forestation is 

 deemed necessary, exappropriation, with payment, is obligatory. 



The dunes, as well as the mountain reforestation areas which have 

 been restocked, are exempt from taxation for a period of 30 years. Other 

 plantations are exempt for 20 years only and this applies also to the 

 restocking of blanks which have existed for at least 10 years before the 

 passage of the law.^ Even during the war, where the power of Army 

 requisition had been extended to cover standing timber needed by the 

 Allies as well as by the French people, the rights of the individual were 

 fully protected. In fact an individual with political power could some- 

 times evade the requisition. The conclusion is that the property rights 

 of the individual are practically free from obnoxious State control, and 

 that in fact every encouragement is given the private owner to practice 

 forestry. 



Forestry as an Investment. — Many writers (even such an eminent 

 authority as Broilliard) have argued that money in savings banks paying 

 only 2| to 3 per cent interest ^ had better be invested in producing 

 forests. In forest valuation it is customary to use low interest rates for 

 calculations. Certainly one reason why this is done is because usually 

 if rates of 4 per cent or more are adopted for the basic interest rate the 

 forest investment shows a decided loss. Yet even here there are notable 

 exceptions as in the Landes where it was estimated that by sowing sand 

 wastes, soil formerly worth an average of 77 cents per acre is now selling 

 at $54 to $93 per acre. We know that it cost some 10.3 million dollars 



^ L'Impot sur le revenu des Forets, S. F., XI, 5, pp. 372-375. 



5 The interest rates paid by the French Government have varied from a maximum 

 of 8.6 per cent (in 1816) to a minimum of 3 per cent, the prevailing rate in 1901. Not- 

 able variations in these rates, due to wars and revolutions, are shown in the following 

 table (after Huff el) for 100 years: 



"and 7.45, *and 3.50, ^and 6.64, '^and 4.69, «and 4.00, ■'"Aug., ^Oct. 



