908 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



through cooperation and research, in bringing information to the 

 knowledge of operators and users of wood products. It is a problem 

 of investigation and industrial education, in which the public should 

 take the leadership. , 



ASSISTANCE AND COOPERATION BY THE PUBLIC 



In a national policy of forestry the public itself should assume cer- 

 tain responsibilities and certain burdens. It should cooperate with 

 and assist private owners in carrying out their part of the undertaking. 

 The measures of cooperation fall under the following heads : 



1. Fire Protection. — As already indicated, the public should directly 

 share the burden of fire protection, especially in a preventive system 

 and in the cost of suppression. 



2. Assistance in Forestry. — The public should assist owners in work- 

 ing out plans for cutting that will promote natural reproduction, in 

 planting, and in other measures of forestry. The State should ofifer 

 planting stock at cost and cooperate with the owners in establishing 

 plantations. 



3. Taxation. — The States should adopt a form of taxation calculated 

 to encourage good forest practice. The present methods of taxation, 

 with their lack of uniformity in application, often tend to promote pre- 

 mature and wasteful cutting and to discourage forest renewal. To 

 promote action by the States, the Federal government should help the 

 States to investigate the current methods of taxation, and their effect in 

 causing premature and wasteful cutting and in increasing the diffi- 

 culties of holding cut-over lands for tree growth, and should assist in 

 drafting model tax laws applicable to various forest conditions. 



4. Forest Loans. — Existing legislation concerning farm loans should 

 be extended to include loans for the purchase and improvement of 

 forest lands, to encourage the holding of lands previously acquired, 

 where the purpose of the owner is to hold and protect cut-over lands 

 or those having growing timber, to reforest lands by seeding or plant- 

 ing, or to use other measures in promoting forest production. To 

 obtain the benefit of such loans, which should be for a maximum 

 period of 50 years, the land owner should enter into a specific obliga- 

 tion to retain the land in growing timber and protect and care for it 

 during the life of the loan. 



5. A Survey of Forest Resources. — Funds should be provided 

 whereby the Federal government in cooperation with State and private 



