50 EXPLOITABILITY FOR THE PRIVATE OWNER. 



An infinitesimal, almost imperceptible fraction of society, the 

 private person is unable to regard the interests of the public at large 

 with the same importance as his own individual interests. If in the 

 various branches of human industry both classes of interests are 

 satisfied simultaneously and by the same line of action, the case is 

 entirely different in the production of timber. The public interest 

 requires wood at low prices, wood that is produced for nothing and 

 costs scarcely any thing to preserve standing ; the interest of the pri- 

 vate owner of forest property is on the contrary to have wood selling 

 high. It would not pay him to grow large trees unless the relative 

 prices of large timber were very high, a result that can only be at- 

 tained by keeping down production at as low a figure as possible. To 

 expect a sufficient supply of large timber from private forests is thus 

 a pure contradiction in terms. 



Endowed with industrial activity, and an aptitude for commerce, 

 and constantly spurred onwards by the stimulus of his own interests 

 the private individual is always by nature speculative. He goes to 

 those branches of production in which the returns on capital outlay 

 are high ; he considers carefully the safety of each investment and 

 the realization of large profits. Time is an element which is his to 

 dispose of to an extremely limited extent ; in revenge, the vigilance 

 and care required in carrying out money transactions are bis in a 

 special manner. Industrious to a degree, he can give unflagging at- 

 tention to any work he has in hand, even if that be the production 

 of wood, but in return he requires quick, direct and large returns. 

 Forest property pays him only if it yields him a fairly high percentage 

 of profits. We thus see that rate of profits, which regulates the 

 distribution of the wealth of the world, whatever the amount of this 

 may be, is for the private individual the very basis on which he 

 works his forests. 



Only one point is open to discussion on this subject, viz. as to 

 what extent it is justifiable for the various owners of private forests 

 to look for high profits ; whether, in other words, they should arow 

 only small wood or timber of moderate size. And here indeed the 

 advantage lies on the side of this latter class of produce, thanks to 

 the high prices it commands. But as regards large timber, the pro- 

 duction of which necessarily yields low profits, the private individual 

 is for ever precluded from growing it. In France, at least, this point 

 is never contested. 



