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THE LUMBERMAN’S PLAN FOR FOREST RESERVES. 75 
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stances, for I would be the last one to say that the lumbermen 
should not pay as large a per centage of taxes as the poorest farmer 
or village householder, but in many cases this taxing is egregiously 
unjust. The assessor and the tax gatherer,the town board and several 
other influential individuals, act in a criminal collusion. The lum- 
berman’s timber lands are unmercifully taxed to build school houses 
out of proportion to the needs of the children; to build bridges out 
of proportion to the needs of the neighborhood; and to give jobs to 
the settlers, who delight to rob the “lumber baron” under guise of 
the law. 
To guard against these three enemies the lumbermen say: “Let us 
getour trees into bankable dollars as fast as possible. Itis better 
to bequeath our children government bonds than these precarious 
holdings where fire and the worm do corrupt and where thieves 
break through and steal.” 
After the lumberman has eaten his apple, will he give the core to 
the state? Well, hardly. In the majority of cases the lumbermen 
are now saying: “They ain’t agoin’ to be no core.” 
Five yearsago you could have passed around the hatand taken up 
a collection of almost any quantity of oddeforties and sections the 
lumbermen were letting go for taxes, They do not do thatso much 
now. The reasons for this are several. Many lumbermen are selling 
cut over lands for farms and making a little good money that way. 
They are coming to think that noland is so poor butthat some poor 
devil will buy it to make a farm of. Thenit is often the case that 
wood and tie rights are sold on these lands for much more than the 
cost of taxes. And beyond all that in the farther north, no lumber- 
man is sure that he will not wake up some morning and find a hill 
full of iron ore on his cut-over land. So the rule now is to keep the 
taxes up on cut-over lands; and pay back taxes on the lands you 
have let go by default several years ago. This means that the 
amount of land the proposed forest reserve may expect from the 
hands of the lumbermen is growing less just at the present time. 
What then is the conclusion of the whole matter? Itis that unless 
conditions materially change, lumbermen will not change their 
present policy regarding the preservation of pine timber. They do 
not much feara lumber famine, for even now they find it hard to 
compete with what seems unlimited lumber from the southern and 
Pacific states. The present conditions they think practically una- 
voidable, and the swift destruction of the pine forests inevitable. As 
to preservation by replanting, they know as little as the same num- 
ber of farmers. Therefore their policy is, as I said, that of laissez 
faire, and their plan nothing. 
ANTS ON THE LAWN.—Bisulphide of carbon placed in the ground 
at or near the ant-hills will destroy the insects. Take a dibble or 
sharp stick and thurst it into the ant-hill, making a hole six or 
eight inches in depth; into this pour about two tablespoonsful of 
the bisulphide, and then press the soil together at the surface to 
close the hole. The fumes of the liquid will penetrate the soil and 
kill the ants. This is the most effective of all the means that have 
ever been employed for this purpose.—Vicks Magazine for July. 
