52 BXPLOITABIIiITT FOE THE STATE. 



we have only to look at its forests, which are' better conserved, pos- 

 sess a higher capital value, return larger receipts and yield finer and 

 more useful products than those of all other classes of proprietors. 



As the representative of society, the State finds in this very 

 office its essential reasoti for possessing forests and the rule itself for 

 working them. In order to produce in sufficient quantity the large 

 timber which it requires, society has none but itself to depend upon. 

 We find by chance well wooded tracts in some wild, unpopulated 

 countries, but obviously no thought is given there to reproduction : 

 the forests are worked and disappear as soon as they are made acces- 

 sible, and if they offer valuable resources, these are at the best only 

 temporary, limited and uncertain. ^ Now if no one inside it or 

 outside it is capable of producing the large timber required by 

 society, this function naturally devolves on the State. And it is 

 to this single function that the r61e of the State shonld be limited, 

 for it would be useless for it to possess forests that it may compete 

 with other proprietors in producing timber of moderate or small 

 dimensions as well as firewood ; of such produce it would always 

 obtain as much as could ever be wanted, if it aimed exclusively at 

 growing large trees. In the last place, it is clear that although the 

 duty of producing large timber appertains in a peculiar manner to 

 the State, yet it need discharge it only so far as it is able ; but the 

 measure of its ability in this respect is certainly not reached until 

 the state forests, in a country insuffi3iently provided with timber, 

 are treated so as to yield the highest sum of utility. 



It has been objected that the interests of the Public Treasury 

 are not satisfied when the forests yield the highest sum of utility. 

 Yet it is in this very case, and in no other, that the National Ex- 

 chequer obtains the largest revenue from its forests, the highest price 

 for the produce of its cuttings, the sale of which, to speak truly, is 

 only the means employed by the State in order to distribute through- 

 out the country and the world, the various classes of wood and tim- 

 ber yielded. Another objection raised is that the interest on outlay 

 is very low, and that, however little the State may be adapted for 



(1) If society can, strictly speaking, rely at all times upon the private pro- 

 prietor for its supply of firewood, it can only depend on itself to provide timber 

 for generations yet to corae, and the duty of the Forest Department ought to 

 be to look after chiefly the production of timber. (Da Bokald, in Report of 

 Parlia-MENtary Oommittbb presented to the National Assembly 25th November 

 1872.) (Author.) 



