Forestry and Taxation 213 



must know that if he pays once he will surely be 

 fleeced again the next year. The result of all these 

 abuses is that a very large proportion of forest 

 lands all over the country are abandoned by their 

 owners after the merchantable timber has been re- 

 moved. The taxes are no longer paid ; at the tax 

 sales no bidders are found, and after due time the 

 title vests in the county or State, according to the 

 statutes in force in the different jurisdictions. 

 These abandoned woodlands might form the nu- 

 cleus of a fine system of state forests, if the govern- 

 ments were ready to undertake their care. In fact, 

 a few States are beginning to avail themselves of 

 the opportunity. But at the same time, it cannot 

 be denied that the whole procedure is nothing but 

 confiscation under the guise of taxation. In most 

 cases the counties or other governmental agencies 

 which obtain the tax titles are anxious to sell the 

 lands again, and now it becomes apparent how 

 utterly unjust the assessment was, for lands that 

 were taxed on the basis of one or two dollars as- 

 sessed valuation an acre are often sold to specula- 

 tors at the rate of ten or twelve dollars a " forty." 



This may be a convenient place to indicate roughly 

 how the value of woodlands is computed in Europe, 

 although it must be understood that this method is 

 not applicable to our country under present condi- 

 tions, and is not suggested as a substitute for pre- 

 vailing standards of assessment. In this country 

 a person buying timber-lands considers the value 

 of the merchantable timber only. The young 



