CONCLUSIONS 



333 



deducting any share of annual expense which the marketing of this 

 excess reserve might have entailed. 



It is safe to say that thus far the real annual revenue has been close 

 to 7 per cent. But the forester must realize that there may be setbacks 

 due to windfall, disease, and unforeseen acts of Providence, so the board 

 of control set 6 per cent as their maximum interest goal. Anything 

 above this will at present be held as a reserve. 



Conclusions. — Writing in 1910, Broilliard, perhaps the most em- 

 inent French forester of our times, said: "Bad at business and poor 

 at manufacturing, the State is, nevertheless, the best forest owner, 

 able to assure good treatment to timber of all species . . . ," and he 

 argued for more State forest acquisition and especially the purchase 

 of forests in being rather than land that requires forestation. This is 

 certainly a good policy for the United States to follow, because a study 

 of the private forests of France leads us to the following conclusions, 

 which, at least, have a bearing on what the United States should do : 



(1) Private forests, purely as permanent investments, would be largely 



Thus the stand has increased 38 cubic meters per hectare or 15 per cent plus per acre. 

 The average growth per cent for this thrifty fir stand has been 6. In marking the 

 following rule has been adopted: "In each age class it seems necessary to cut at least 10 

 per cent of the stand and imprudent to cut more than 25 per cent. The amount to be 

 marked from the (a) small (6) average, and (c) large diameter classes is always de- 

 cided before the marking begins. Nothing has ever been published on this forest of X 

 because the owners prefer to keep the French tax assessors ignorant of the exact returns, 

 since they feel that taxation should not be increased simply because of their good man- 

 agement. For the forest student this is perhaps the most valuable demonstration 

 forest in France. 



