197 



The Taxation of Forest Lands in Indiana. 



H. W. Anderson. 



The commou argument against the i)resei"vation of woodlands by land- 

 owners in this and other states similarly situated is that the land in timber 

 is lying idle and that the taxes are "eating it up." Many farmers today 

 would have a forty or sixty-acre woodlot had they not felt that the taxes 

 on this land was wasted money. It is true that woodlands are often as- 

 sessed at much below their actual value because the income from them is 

 small, but unless there is marketable timber on the land there is no annual 

 return, as in the case of yearly crops such as wheat and corn. 



Many business or professional men in our cities would like to own a 

 piece of timber land where they could take their families for a few weeks 

 in the summer or where they coiild go to hunt or camp. These men can 

 afford to buy cheap land on which there is a growth of young timber 

 which on account of its slow growth wouhl not be of much actual value to 

 the present owner, but would be a valuable piece of land in the future. 

 Here again the problem of meeting the yearly taxes prevents the prospec- 

 tive buyer from purchasing the laud. The present owner of this land 

 will probably cut down the young growth, plow up the ground and try to 

 raise a few nubbins on it. 



Again there are lands in the southern part of the state which on ac- 

 count of their luitillable character might be purchased cheaply and be 

 utilized for growing timber on a commercial scale if the taxes were properly 

 adjusted. These lands for the most part are now supporting a scrub 

 growth of useless trees and underbrush. 



In oi'der to encourage the farmer and landowner to hold on to their 

 woodlots or small forest lands and to encourage timber growing on a com- 

 mercial scale there should lie devised a system of taxation for such lands 

 which would be fair to the other taxpayers of the state and yet not bur- 

 den the woodlot owners witli an unreasonable tax on land which is return- 

 ing nothing to them at the present time. Many states, recognizing the un- 



