284 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



whatever it happens to be. Some provisions ought to be made in 

 this state to compel the assessors to do their full duty, and in that 

 way the land would not be taxed at the same rate whether timbered 

 or cut-over land. Now, in the state of Minnesota there are over a 

 million acres of stumpage. The principal value of these lands is in 

 the stumpage. When the timber is cut off the land, the land is of no 

 particular value — and the state of Minnesota should see that the 

 assessor does his duty. So much for that; that is all I want to say 

 on that subject. 



Now, the thought had occurred to me, we have a large amount of 

 pine lands, cut-over lands, and their value when cut-over is reduced 

 from whatever value these lands have when the timber is on them 

 to about seventy-five cents or a dollar and a quarter per acre, unless 

 there is some hardwood timber on the land. Now, these gentlemen 

 dislike to pay these taxes, because the assessment of $10 per acre 

 keeps right on, regardless of the fact that the timber is cut off, and 

 to use a common expression, that is little better than taking a man's 

 money and giving him no returns. Now, these gentlemen have be- 

 come so disgusted, that manj^ of them have rather abandoned the 

 land after the timber has been cut off, have abandoned the lands 

 from the fact that the prices were so high the lands were not worth 

 paying such high taxes on. Sometime the taxes would run as high 

 as$L 



Now, if these things could be adjusted in some way, the holders 

 of these lands would, most of them, be glad to donate them for some 

 such purpose — if it could be put in some way so that in the future, 

 in the long distant future, they or their heirs might receive some 

 benefit. Now, Captain Cross's idea was, with a certain class, that a 

 man inight give lands to the state, and after a time a certain portion 

 of it would go to some educational institution and a certain portion 

 of it to the state, a certain portion of it to towns, etc. That is a very 

 good idea. Now, so far as the lands owned by the lumbermen and 

 where the timber has been cut off are concerned, I have no doubt 

 that if a law were passed something after the principles embodied 

 in this plan of Captain Cross, that a large, a very large amount of 

 the cut-over lands in the state of Minnesota would be placed under 

 the provisions of this law; but you want that inade into a law, so 

 that when a man comes and says, "I have got a thousand acres of 

 land I want to place in the hands of the state and which I want to 

 donate for the benefit of this institution, Hamline or MacAllister or 

 any of those colleges, he will derive some benefit from it in his own 

 way. I have no doubt that a large amount of those lands would be 

 donated for this object. I just want to illustrate. When Dartmouth 

 College was established in 1767, somewhere thereabouts, a hundred 

 years ago, the state of New Hampshire had a large amount of land 

 that was located among the mountains which was of very little 

 value, and they donated it to this institution — it was a denomina- 

 tional institution, but it has answered well for a university for the 

 state of New Hampshire — and when the state gave it these lands, 

 the state did not call them good for much; they were considered of 

 no practical value. There were also individuals who had a large 

 quantity of lands, and they were friendly to the establishment of 



