56 EXPLOITABILITY FOK THE MUNICIPALITY. 



ample, has been in receipt of a fixed income for the last forty years, 

 but he now obtains only two thirds of the articles which he was for- 

 merly able to procure for the same sum of money. In the case of a 

 forest, on the contrary, the money value of the large trees is continu- 

 ally rising, since they are day by day becoming scarcer while the 

 demand for them is increasing in proportion. Certain Communes 

 possessing high forests have seen the revenues derived from them 

 double itself within the last 30 years. Thus the effective rate of in- 

 terest they have obtained on the capital sunk in their forests is not 

 two but four per cent.^ 



Indeed forest property is for Communes an unrivalled source of 

 income when the right conditions of Exploitability are realised. For 

 what Communes, if we exclude revenue derived from municipal taxa- 

 tion, are the richest, if not those which possess real forests, like the 

 greater number of the Communes of the North-Eastern portion of 

 France ? He who runs may read this fact in the Vosges and on 

 the plateau of the Jura ; the condition of the roads, of the fountains, 

 of the schools and of the churches discloses it at every step. The 

 Communes of the plain country could be just as well off, if their for- 

 ests, instead of consisting of simple copse or containing but few 

 large trees, were so constituted as to yield the most useful produce ; 

 but as a rule these forests are far removed from so desirable a state, 

 for Communes are needy bodies. Indeed this last characterestic is 

 at the present day so general among the Communes, that it appears to 

 be one of their necessary attributes. And so it happens that although 

 it is their interest to obtain the most useful produce in the largest 

 quantity possible, still their neediness only allows theiu to labour 

 towards this' end without ever attaining to it. 



The guardianship exercised by the State in taking up the 

 management of communal forests, has no other object than the pro- 

 tection and the interests of the Commune itself. There is nothing iu 

 our laws which affords ground for any other supposition. Section 

 68 of the Forest Edict is textually excluded from the Sections which 

 apply to communal woods. But its own proper interests are alone 

 sufficient to impose upon the Commune the duty of preserving its 



(]) In the coLuiuuBiil, forest of the town of Kemiremont, consistiu" of silver fir. 

 the annual yield of whiob, lo,600 cubic feet iu all, is sold standing, the revenue 

 in 1833 was £ 800 and in 1869 £ 2000, Since the latter year the receipts have 

 dtill furthei- iucreaacd. (Author.) 



