Forestry and Taxation 211 



The assessment of timber-lands, like all other 

 property, is usually left to an officer or board selected 

 from among the residents of the town or other civil 

 subdivision in which the property is situated. In 

 the cities these officials are sometimes real experts 

 in matters of taxation, but far oftener, and always 

 in the rural districts where forests are found, they 

 have no special knowledge of the subject and are 

 guided merely by such practical information as they 

 possess in common with all other farmers and busi- 

 ness men of the neighborhood. Like most of our 

 laws and their execution, assessments are based on 

 the assumption that all lands are held by their 

 owners either as city lots or as farms, present or 

 prospective. When the assessor finds a tract of 

 land stocked with growing timber, he proceeds to 

 assess its value as he would that of a piece of farm 

 land. He ascertains the price at which a piece of 

 similar land would likely be bought by an intend- 

 ing agricultural settler. Let us say that the usual 

 price paid in the neighborhood for an acre of wild 

 land fitted for agriculture is five dollars ; probably 

 the assessor, intending to be fair, and recognizing 

 that the land in question is inferior in soil and re- 

 mote as to location, reduces the price to three dol- 

 lars. The assessment is usually made at about 

 two thirds of the real value, so that the tract goes 

 down in the assessment roll at two dollars. Let us 

 say that the tax levied, for all purposes, amounts 

 to five per cent, of the assessed valuation. This 

 may seem exorbitant, but is rather low as levies are 



