COMMENTS ON THE SNELL BIEL 483 



of idle lands, a plan was worked out for financing the project which 

 seemed to meet local requirements. This plan proposed that the cost 

 of the land and the planting should be met by bond issues from year 

 to year and that the cost of maintenance should be covered by direct 

 appropriations from the State treasury. This seemed to be the most 

 practicable and equitable distribution among the generations to be 

 benefited, of the burden of restoring forests to our now idle lands. 



By this arrangement the present taxpayers were asked to pay but 

 little more, even though lands were bought and planted on a large scale, 

 than they would have to pay to protect this idle land. It costs just 

 as much to protect scrub growth from fire as commercial species, and 

 this scrub must be protected in order to safeguard other valuable 

 property. 



The plan at once eliminated the chief objection of legislators — the 

 cost. It divided the outlay between direct appropriations and bonds 

 approximately on the basis of two to three, the bonds with compound 

 interest amounting to about three-fifths of the total cost of producing 

 the crop, which would be redeemed at the time the timber was cut. 



Massachusetts has a law which provides that all bond issues of the 

 Commonwealth must be paid on the serial payment plan. For instance, 

 every bond issue is divided by the number of years it is to run, and the 

 quotient is the amount that must be paid each year during the period. 



Taking this law as a starting point our plan proposed that 25,000 

 acres be bought and reforested each year for a period of ten years. 

 Enough bonds were to be sold each year to meet the expense of 

 purchase and planting for that year. Each bond issue was to cover 

 a ten-year period, but any other period might have been selected or the 

 period might have varied with each issue. This short period was 

 selected as a basis of calculation because of the prevailing high rates 

 of interest. One-tenth of the first issue therefore would have matured 

 the following year. In order that the total cost of the land and the 

 planting, including compound interest, might be carried along to the 

 time of harvesting the crop, the plan provided that enough bonds should 

 be sold each year, first, to meet the cost of land and planting for that 

 year; seconding, to cover the maturities falling due on all previous 

 issues that year, and finally to pay the interest due on all outstanding 

 bonds. When the eleventh year was reached, the purchase and planting 

 having been accomplished, there would be no need for further money 



