220 North American Forests and Forestry 



only in common with all other business interests of 

 the country through the total abolition of the inad- 

 equate and unfair tax on property and the introduc- 

 tion of a more equitable scheme. But a number of 

 plans have been proposed to remedy the evil where 

 timber-lands are particularly the sufferers. 



It is often suggested that owners of growing for- 

 ests should be exempted from taxes thereon until 

 the time of the final harvest. Usually the proposi- 

 tion includes the payment, at the time of the har- 

 vest, of a sum equal to what would ordinarily be 

 paid in annual instalments. In this form I cannot 

 see that the relief to the owner would be very great. 

 He would be excused from paying anything if the 

 crop should be destroyed before maturity. But 

 aside from that, none of the difficulties would be 

 removed. The unfair assessment and excessive 

 expenditures would still continue, and the large sum 

 to be paid at the harvest would probably doom the 

 enterprise to financial failure. On the other hand, 

 the local authorities would be seriously handicapped 

 from the large annual deficiency in their receipts 

 a difficulty which could hardly be made good by the 

 recovery df a very great lump sum in the distant 

 future. 



In Pennsylvania there is a law under which own- 

 ers of not to exceed fifty acres, stocked with at least 

 fifty trees of eight inches in diameter or over to the 

 acre, may obtain a rebate of eighty per cent, of the 

 tax annually imposed on such land. This law is 

 clearly not designed to apply to forests managed 



