470 



CONSERVATION 



ber; and, in many cases which I could 

 cite, on a vahtation exceechng the cost 

 or the present actual value. To avoid 

 disastrous business results, his only al- 

 ternative is to cut the timber off clean, 

 and as fast as he can ; otherwise, the 

 increasing taxes, added to the expense 

 of caring- for the property, the destruc- 

 tion of timber by fire, storms and insect 

 depredations, place an absolute prohi- 

 bition on any system of reforestation or 

 conservative lumbering". 



To fair-minded men there is a reason, 

 as well as an obvious necessity, for the 

 immediate adoption of measures that 

 will conserve the timber resources of 

 the Nation and render them permanent 

 for the general good ; but the timber- 

 land owner who can reap but one crop 

 in a lifetime should not be called upon 

 to bear a disproportionate share of the 

 resulting burden. 



In an instance with which I am famil- 

 iar the timbermen in a county, actually 

 owning five per cent of the area of the 

 county, are assessed on forty-nine and 

 one-half per cent, of all the lands on the 

 assessment rolls, and they pay seventy 

 per cent, of the tax revenue from the 

 item of "lands" and thirty-eight per 

 cent, of the entire county revenue from 

 all sources. 



There is a National Forest in that 

 county comprising about twenty-five per 

 cent, of the area of the county. The 

 timbermen's tax amounted to over 150 

 times as much per acre as the county 

 received from the National Forest. The 

 Forest Service could not hope to con- 

 tinue its present invaluable work if it 

 were obliged to carry such an item of 

 fixed charges. 



For the counties and state it would 

 be a far wiser business policy to collect 

 a low, permanent tax rather than a 

 heavy one for a few years only. 



The reserve of mineral in a mine 

 bears no burden of taxation ; no other 

 growing crop than timber pays any tax 

 until harvested. 



The remedy for the destruction of 

 forests by individuals is in the proper 

 adjustment of taxes. Timber land 

 should be taxed on the value of the land 

 only ; the growing trees should be on 

 the basis of any other crop, and tax- 

 able as personal property when they 

 are cut ; or. in other words, when the 

 crop is harvested. Under such a sys- 

 tem the timber owner would be obliged 

 and could afford to adopt a scientific 

 and conservative management of the 

 forest, and would be a willing demon- 

 ^■trator of forest preservation and its 

 far-reaching, desirable results. 



An Example of Wasteful and^Deslructivc Lumbering in the Sierra Nevada 



