A FORESTRY ENABLING LAW 



By M. S. Howard 



Chief of Statistics, New York State Income Tax Bureau 



The purpose of such a law is, by enabhng farmers or others, who 

 have waste time and waste land or either on their hands to get 

 full value therefrom and at the same time, thereby to permit the 

 United States to get started the large supply of timber it will urgently 

 need in another fifty years. Of course a State might undertake this 

 as well as the Federal Government. 



The method here proposed by which this might be secured is as fol- 

 lows : For the Government to give a bond or preferably cash to any- 

 one who would plant, in conformity with strict forestry regulations, 

 an acre of land and who would give the Government a mortgage on 

 that land during the period of the forestry crop. Let us assume that 

 the labor expense of setting out an acre of land is $4, then when a 

 landowner had set out or hired set out an acre of land, he would give 

 the Government a mortgage on that land and receive a Government 

 bond for $-i (or receive $4 in cash) payable at the end of 50 years 

 with interest at, say, 4 per cent compounded annually. 



If the Government's attitude is too penurious to give cash for the 

 receipt of a mortgage on the reforested land, then there should be 

 available the way of financing the reforestation of large areas without 

 the Government having to raise a cent, by giving bonds as proposed 

 above. 



Of course the best alternative would be for the Government to pay 

 cash, the second alternative is for the Government to give bonds that 

 bear interest payable annually or semi-annually. Only in the case 

 of the Government being too unwilling to adopt either of those alterna- 

 tives is it suggested that the Government give bonds payable as to 

 both principal and interest at the date of maturity of the bonds. If 

 the bonds thus issued ran for a period longer than the period necessary 

 for the growing of the crop then the Government would have the cash 

 proceeds, from its mortgages on the forest plantations, already in hand 

 when it had to pay the maturing bonds. Let us assume the forest crop 

 500 



