664 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



timber standing thereon, and the annual 

 taxes should be collected therefrom, ex- 

 cept that in the case that a private 

 landowner shall request certain privi- 

 leges under the law, and shall agree to 

 certain conditions, hereinafter stated, 

 taxes payable on his land shall be de- 

 ferred until harvest provided his land 

 shall bear a standard quality and 

 density of immature trees. And all 

 trees mature or immature that are har- 

 vested from such standardized lands 

 should be liable for the total amount 

 of all the accrued back taxes and their 

 proceeds should go toward discharging 

 thi? liability together with a harvest tax 

 of 2 per cent on the stumpage value, 

 before they be removed from the 

 ground ; provided, however, 



4. That the district land revenues be 

 not seriously impaired during the first 

 general deferment period, before the 

 general harvest reimbursements begin, 

 and provided, 



5. That land, timbered and not tim- 

 bered, sufficiently valuable to tempt to 

 tax evasion or to speculation, be denied 

 deferment. 



6. Which contingencies (4th and 

 5th) can be amply provided against 

 by the following restrictions : 



7. Let the State deny deferment to 

 land situated within sixteen miles of a 

 city of the first class, within eight miles 

 of a city of the second class, within four 

 miles of a town of the third class, and 

 within two miles of a town of the 

 fourth class, but let the State at first 

 grant deferment to lands valued (irre- 

 spective of timber) at the average value 

 of farm land throughout the State ; and 

 every year thereafter admit to entry 

 land worth two dollars more (irrespec- 

 tive of timber) than the eligible land 

 of the previous year, until 



8. The eligibility be extended to land 

 of such high value as (a) to begin (in 

 the opinion of the Legislature and Gov- 

 ernor) to tempt to speculation or 

 evasion, or (b) until further defer- 

 ments would far exceed harvest reim- 

 bursements, or (c) until the wooded 

 area should exceed one-fourth of the 

 total area of the State. Moreover, 



9. No landowner should be entitled 

 to enter for deferment less than one 



acre or more than 1,000 acres in any 

 one year, and 



10. The number of trees required to 

 secure the land deferment should be 

 approximately not less than 700 newly 

 planted trees, or approximately 350 

 newly planted and 350 old trees, to 

 the acre. 



11. The State should require its 

 agents to inspect all plantations before 

 granting the deferment, and 



12. Owners should be required to 

 give to the local assessors thirty days' 

 notice in writing of any intention to cut 

 all or part of the crop. The assess- 

 ment should then be made upon the 

 stumpage value of the proposed cutting, 

 and the owner should pay the local col- 

 lector before cutting the timber all the 

 accrued land taxes together with the 

 harvest tax of 2 per cent. 



13. Failure to give such notice should 

 bear a penalty, and the proper official 

 should bring action to recover the 

 amount of said penalty. 



14. The State Tax Commission 

 should be required to calculate the aver- 

 age value of farm lands throughout the 

 State and report the same as a basis for 

 legislation. 



15. In case that any difficulty might 

 arise to render inexpedient the defer- 

 ring of taxes, a tax of $.002 on every 

 dollar of the whole land value of the 

 plantation should be laid against the 

 harvest, in addition to the harvest tax 

 of 2 per cent on the total stumpage 

 value of said harvest or harvests, such 

 value might at present in New York 

 (1912), be estimated at $20.00 an acre. 



The manner of fixing this rate of 

 .002 on every dollar of the farm value 

 is found as follows: Land worth $1.00 

 an acre pays, at the rate of $.0015, in 

 fifty years the sum of $.075, which is 

 .0015 per cent of the gross receipts 

 estimated as $500.00. But land doubles 

 in value in fifty years, hence the average 

 rate would be about $.002 on every dol- 

 lar's worth of the total assessed valu- 

 ation of the farm at time of maturity. 



Now, while the enactment of these 

 measures would undoubtedly encourage 

 private forestry, it is possible that actual 

 experience would show that few people 

 might avail themselves of them. A 



