54 EXPLOITABILITT FOR THE MUNiaPALITT. 



In France the r6Ie of the State is clearly defined in the Edidt 

 promulgated for the carrying out of the Forest Code. Section 68 of 

 that Edict in fact lays down that *' Orgainsation Projects shall have 

 for their main object a Large Yield of Material and the rearing 

 of High Forest Trees." It is impossible to prescribe more clearly 

 and forcibly Economic Exploitability with its two component ele- 

 ments. 



Besides, what does it matter, so far as the present subject is con- 

 cerned, in what manner the receipts are obtained, as long as the 

 country is well supplied with wood and with every other source of 

 wealth ? The rate of interest on outlay yielded by high forests, the 

 amount of the revenue they furnish, the rent of the land which 

 bears them, all these are facts that cannot be avoided but are only 

 of second rate importance. They vary with existing requirements 

 and only reach too high a figure for the State when the wood supply 

 ceases to keep up with the demand. Here then it is, in the satis- 

 faction of the wants of the country, that we find the true gauge by 

 which to measure the revenue, rate of interest and rent yielded by 

 the high forests of the State. But in this matter our concern is 

 entirely with a distant future, which conceals from near-sighted per- 

 sons the importance of growing high forests. In preserving such 

 forests, we work for the benefit of a future generation, while by 

 destroying it we serve the interests of the present generation. Yet 

 successive generations of men are bound together by the lies of 

 a necessary solidarity, which gives them a continuous existence ; and 

 we cannot ruin posterity without impoverishing ourselves. How- 

 ever it be, the conservation of forests devolves on the State much 

 more as a duty than as a source of profit. 



SECTION IV. 



Exploitability suited for Municipalities. 



The Commune or Municipality possesses the same character of 

 imperishability as the State, perhaps so even in a higher degree. It 

 is incapable of mercantile industry and of sustained activity. Lastly 

 it forms an organic component of the State, of which it is an in- 

 tegral part both in respect of its land and its population. 



In past times the Communes consumed themselves the entire 

 produce of their forests. The number of those which do so still i* 

 dimishing every day, and, thanks to the progressive opening out of 



