TAXES ON FORESTS. 189 



found elsewhere in Europe, and there is still in those sections a 

 great waste of forest products, and large losses occur there annu- 

 ally from forest fires. But in the most accessible parts of Rus- 

 sia, and in Sweden, Norway, and in the larger portion of Ger- 

 many and France, there is a profitable market for all we term 

 waste forest products, such as the smaller top logs, the branches, 

 twigs, leaves, stumps, underbrush, and even the roots of trees. 

 In this country such material encumbers the ground, and greatly 

 increases the danger of forest fires, which is by far the greatest 

 source of injury to growing timber. 



Taxes on Timber I,ands. The taxes on timber lands are 

 generally excessive in this country, and entirely out of propor- 

 tion to the value of the land, and it is largely on this account 

 that owners of timber lands do not care to hold them. This, as 

 a matter of state policy, is unwise, for the reason that it prevents 

 the development of economic forestry. In most European coun- 

 tries where forestry is well developed it is customary to levy a 

 small tax on the land and to tax the products only when they are 

 harvested. Such a tax system is almost unknown in this coun- 

 try, but it is much more just for forest property than our ordi- 

 nary taxing methods. It would seem that forest property ought 

 to be regarded in a special class for the purposes of taxation, for 

 the reason that as a matter of state policy it should be encour- 

 uged, and the ordinary methods of taxation retard its best de-' 

 velopment. 



Income Game Preserves. Most of the European forests 

 are used as game preserves, as well as for forestry purposes. It 

 is well known, however, that the presence of large game in the 

 forest is generally a great disadvantage, and that much injury 

 may come from its presence there, and the rental of about twen- 

 ty-five cents per acre, which is the price generally paid for the 

 use of forest preserves, is not sufficient to cover the loss. 



The German forestry service generally think it desirable to 

 have game in the forests for other considerations than that of its 

 rental value, and chiefly from the fact that it adds interest to the 

 forest, and in this way attracts the attention of parties who other- 

 wise would not be so much interested in it. There is a great deal 

 of sentiment attached to the presence of this game among 

 the foresters themselves, and it is said that were it iv>t for this 

 sentiment Germany could never keep as fine a body of men in 



