UNITED STATES 



rOREST SERVIC 



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The Month in Government Forest Work. 



What Fores- Many people in this 

 tjy Has Done country think that for- 

 ^ estry had never been 



tried until the Government began to 

 practice it upon the National Forests. 

 Yet forestry is practiced by every civ- 

 ilized country in the world except 

 China and Turkey. It gets results 

 which can be got in no other way, and 

 which are necessary to the general 

 welfare. 



What forestry has done abroad is 

 the strongest proof of what it can ac- 

 complish here. The remarkable suc- 

 cess of forest management in the civil- 

 ized countries of Europe and Asia is 

 the most forcible argument which can 

 be brought in support of wise forest 

 use in the United States. 



The United States, then, in attack- 

 ing the problem of how best to use 

 its great forest resources, is not in the 

 position of a pioneer in the field. It 

 has the experience of all other coun- 

 tries to go upon. There is no need for 

 years of experiment with untried 

 theories. The forest principles which 

 hundreds of years of actual practice 

 have proved right are at its command. 

 The only question is, How should 

 these be modified or extended to best 

 meet American conditions? In the 

 management of the National Forests 

 the Government is not working in the 

 dark. Nor is it slavishly copying Eur- 

 opean countries. It is putting into 

 practice, in America, and for Ameri- 

 cans, principles tried and found cor- 

 rect, which will insure to all the people 

 alike the fullest and best use of all 

 forest resources. 



A circular entitled "What Forestry 

 Has Done," just published by the For- 

 est Service, and obtainable upon appli- 

 cation to the Forester, Washington, D. 

 C., reviews the forest work of the lead- 

 ing foreign countries. 



Study of 



Forest 



Taxation 



An exhaustive study of 

 the forest taxation prob- 

 lem has been begun by 

 the New Hampshire State Forestry 

 Commission, in cooperation with the 

 United States Forest Service. The 

 study will take in all questions of for- 

 est land taxation and protection of 

 New Hampshire forests from fire. 

 This study is sure to be followed up 

 with great interest by other States 

 which are finding the tax difficulty a 

 serious check to forest preservation. 

 Taxation of timber land is one of the 

 most difficult problems now before the 

 forestry people of the country. On its 

 right settlement depends largely the 

 rapidity with which private owners 

 adopt forestry principles. 



At the same time that efiforts are 

 made to reduce or remove taxation 

 from standing forests, or defer it un- 

 til the harvesting of the timber crop, 

 there are people who urge increased 

 taxes on such property on the ground 

 that it does not now pay its just share 

 of the general tax burden. In Maine 

 the tax commission appointed by the 

 last Legislature is about to hold public 

 hearings and it is said that the com- 

 mission will be asked to recommend 

 taxing wild land on the same basis as 

 municipal property. 



In the New York Legislature, on 



