WITH THE BILTMORE BOYS 



655 



Within the past two years two of 

 our States have taken the first step, 

 somewhat faulty and timid to be sure, 

 toward a sound method of forest tax- 

 ation. Michigan passed a law in 1911 

 and New York three laws in 1912. 

 Without going into details, these laws 

 provide for a separation of land and 

 trees for purposes of taxation, the land 



either exempt entirely or assessed at a 

 low value, and the trees taxed only 

 when cut, and then at a certain per- 

 centage of the value of timber cut. 

 The operation of these laws will be 

 awaited with great interest by all those 

 who are interested in forest tax re- 

 form.* 



*For a more complete analysis of State legislation, with abstracts of all the laws in 

 eflFect in October, 1908. cf. "The Taxation of Timberlands," by Fred Rogers Fairchild, 

 Report of the National Conservation Commission, Vol. II, pp. 581-6;!2. The abstracts of 

 State statutes are on pp. 588-589. All of the laws there described are in force at the pres- 

 ent time. The following legislation has been enacted since then : Connecticut, Laws of 

 1911, ch. 205 (a more liberal exemption law). Maine, Laws of 1909, ch. 136 (amending 

 Laws of 1907, ch. 169, by reducing the number of trees required per acre) ; Laws of 1909, 

 ch. 193 and 230 (providing for a special tax on wild forest lands, the proceeds to be used 

 for fire protection). Massachusetts, Laws of 1909, ch. 187 (special exemption relating to 



land stocked with white pine seedlings). Michigan, Laws of 1911, ch. (referred to in 



text). New York, Laws of 1912, ch. 249, 363, and 444 (referred to in text). North Dakota, 

 Laws of 1909, ch. 50 (slightly amending the previous statute). 



WITH THE BILTMORE BOYS 



J^=^HE Biltmore Forest School— 51 

 ^ J students strong — is encamped at 

 Marshfield, Oregon, fall camps 

 of the School, during September. Here 

 they are in the midst of the finest stands 

 of giant Red firs, White Cedars and 

 Sitka Spruce. The logging operations 

 of our hosts — the C. A. Smith Timber 

 Co. — are in keeping with the size of 

 the trees ; gigantic, ingenious, impres- 

 sive. Marshfield is so situated that the 

 students can reach the various logging 

 camps of the company readily by a 

 short boat ride over the many sloughs 

 emptying into Coos Bay. A huge fibre 

 plant is in course of construction ; it is 

 intended to utlizie the waste of a saw- 

 mill producing actually over 550,000' 

 b.m. per diem. The logging operations 

 will be converted into operations by 

 electricity. A huge electric power plant 

 is being erected. In spite of the 

 enormity of its holdings, the directors 

 of the company figure on a second 

 growth and are careful in leaving a 



sufficient number of seed trees on the 

 areas logged-over. The second growth 

 follows in the vague of the first growth 

 with an amazing vigor; the rate of ac- 

 cretion exceeds 800' b.m. per annum. 



The Biltmore Forest School has 

 traversed, en route from its summer 

 camps near Cadillac, Michigan, to its 

 fall camps on the Pacific Coast, the 

 forests of the Inland Empire, spending 

 a number of days in the Coeur d' Alene 

 Region, and has also visited the typical 

 operations near Seattle and near Ta- 

 coma. The gentlemen of the U. S. 

 Forest Service and the leading lumber- 

 men have been untiring in their efforts 

 to make the excursions of the Bilt- 

 more Forest School instructive. It is 

 natural that the School is in clover 

 particularly wheresover its own grad- 

 uates are the guides in the forests 

 visited. The School sails for its Ger- 

 man winter quarters in the early days 

 of October. 



