36 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



January- 



forested land, 90 per cent of the lum- 

 bermen and lumber companies would 

 reforest their land and would be glad 

 to do so. 



But who can blame the lumbermen 

 and lumber companies of to-day for 

 not reforesting- their cut over land ? 

 The lumberman is first and last a busi- 

 ness man, who looks towards a legiti- 

 mate return for capital invested. It 

 does not take him long to figure out 



a small increase of land tax is causing 

 such a quick deforestation as to influ- 

 ence the market price of all lumber. 

 This, as can be plainly seen, will con- 

 tinue until all timber is cut. Then the 

 price of timber will naturally jump up 

 to prohibitive prices. 



The land if not fit for agriculture 

 will return to the State for taxes and 

 the State will have to nearly double 

 the taxes on land remaining, having 



Virgin forest of -white and Ncr-way pine adjoining the Michigan State Forest 



Reserve 



that under the present system of taxa- 

 tion of land, he could never hold the 

 reforested land vmtil the crops were 

 half ripe. He can clearly see that the 

 taxes would eat up his land capital and 

 all invested in them. 



At the present I know of several 

 States like the State of Maine in which 



killed the goose that laid the golden 



Take the State of Michigan to-day. 

 Where have the millions of dollars 

 gone that have been made from lum- 

 ber from the once beautiful white and 

 red pine forest? Have they remained 

 in the State? I dare say not one-half 



