210 North American Forests and Forestry 



It must be clear from the outset that the neces- 

 sity of paying annually a certain percentage of the 

 value of a piece of forest land during the long 

 period when the young trees slowly grow towards 

 maturity must be a heavy burden upon the own- 

 ers. Still, if this annual payment were kept within 

 reasonable limits, it might be borne. It would be 

 simply one of the items of expenditure which are 

 required during this interval, just like those for 

 interest, labor, supervision, and other things. If 

 there is a fair expectation that the final harvest 

 will net an amount of money sufficient to reim- 

 burse the proprietor for all these expenses with 

 compound interest, the owner of timber-lands has 

 no particular grievance. But, unfortunately, the 

 amount so payable every year is usually far too 

 high to permit a hope that it could ever be made 

 up by the final return, even if the danger from fire 

 did not make the raising of a new forest to ma- 

 turity precarious. The reason why the annual pay- 

 ment is so high must be sought on the one hand 

 in faulty assessment, on the other in extravagant 

 expenditures. 



The author ought to state in this place that in 

 the discussion of the taxing problem he has in view 

 primarily the laws and practice prevailing in the 

 State of Wisconsin, with which he is most familiar. 

 But the differences existing in the various other 

 States are small and do not radically affect the un- 

 derstanding of the question how taxes affect the 

 conduct of forestry in the United States. 



