386 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARRORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



material, so that nothing is used as firewood that can possibly be 

 utilised as timber. 



Forest property should also not be burdened with taxes 

 inflicted on the pretext that forest-owners are rich, for such an 

 idea is inaccurate. There are in France forests taxed up to 

 25 per cent, and 20 per cent, of the gross revenue, and yet, not- 

 withstanding this heavy contribution towards public expenses, 

 these properties receive no kind of public protection, and the 

 owners are obliged to pay private guards. This undue taxation 

 of forest property seems to be the custom in other countries also, 

 for Gifford Pinchot attributes to this cause the rapid destruction 

 of certain forests in the United States. "These taxes are very 

 heavy, for in many cases they annually amount to 5 per cent, 

 or 6 per cent, of the sale value of the forest, so that owners are 

 unable to both pay the taxes and keep the forests. Consequently 

 they are driven to cut or sell their forests as soon as may be, 

 without care for the future. When the wood has been removed, 

 the owners refuse to pay any more taxes, and the ruined lands 

 are resumed by the State. 1 Many thousand square miles of 

 forest have been. devastated by unbridled fellings, because the 

 heavy taxes obliged the owners to make a clear sweep of their 

 woods instead of managing them so as to maintain a perpetual 

 income." (" Primer of Forestry," by Gifford Pinchot.) 



There is not a country in Western or Southern Europe which 

 has not thousands, or perhaps millions of hectares of waste land, 

 or land whose agricultural possibilities have come to an end. All 

 these lands should be afforested. 



The State ought to be very liberal indeed to forest-owners, by 

 exempting them from taxation, by free distribution of seeds and 

 seedlings, and by offering them gratuitously the advice of its 

 technical officers. 



It should not hesitate to acquire parts of such lands. 2 Pur- 

 chases of hilly tracts where torrents exist are certainly very 



1 Compare the cases of Oudh. and elsewhere, where Government granted 

 large areas of excellent forest to individuals on condition of their bringing it 

 under cultivation. These astute gentry at once cleared the land bare of 

 forest, put the proceeds into their pockets, and sat smiling contentment, 

 till it pleased Government to pass orders that, as the experiment had failed, 

 the land might be resumed. — Translator. 



2 Compare the action of the Bombay Government in disforesting by 

 indirect means vast areas just where forest is most needed by the people, — 

 Translator. 



