EXPLOITABILITT FOR THE PRIVATE OTTNER. 49 



ary rate of interest demanded from forest property is 3 per cent, 

 per annum. To obtain this rate of interest we need only be sure 

 that the value of the tree doubles itself every twenty years.^ 



SECTION II. 



EXPLOITABILITT FOR THE PRIVATE OWXER. 



Each class of proprietor has an Exploitability specially suited to 

 its own requirements. What is applicable to one class of'proprietor 

 may be generically different from what is suited to another ; or even 

 if the respective Exploitabilities are generically the same, they may 

 still differ with respect to the extent and the importance of the 

 various results to be obtained in each individual case. 



In the France of to-day there remain only three classes of pro- 

 prietors, differing essentially in their nature ; they are the State, 

 the Municipalities, and the Private Individual. 



The Private Individual possesses at most a transitory existence. 

 He is a stranger to the general good and is above all a speculator. 

 A being of today, who survives but the tenth part of the life of the 

 large forest trees, he cannot hope to gain any advantage himself from 

 those he may preserve. Under the most favorable circumtances, 

 such trees. If the object with which they are preserved is to be attain- 

 ed, must be left standing for at least twenty five years. How often 

 does it not happen that present need or the legal division of inheri- 

 tances, so fatal to the maintenance of forest property as such, or 

 lastly the desire of immediate enjoyment, offer an insurmountable 

 obstacle to the trees being spared for even so short a period ? And 

 if the further development of trees that have already reached a cer- 

 tain size is exposed to so many risks from private ownership, what 

 shall we say of the growth of an oak or a silver fir from its first ap- 

 pearance as a seedling to the time when it is ripe for the axe ? The 

 obvious conclusion is that the Private Individual and the family, 

 such as it is conefcitnted by the law of France, is altogether unsuited 

 for producing large timber." 



^1) A sum of money put out at compound interest at the rale of 3 per cent per 

 linuum doubles itself every 23J years. (Author.) 



(2) These remarks apply with still greater force to India, where the law of 

 equal division of inheritances has been in existence from time immemorial, and 

 the blind improvidence natural to a low state of civilisation renders the private 

 individual still more unfitted as a producer of large timber. (Trans.) 



