THE STATE REYJKXY. 



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Messrs. Loud and Mulford suggested other 

 valuable works that might be added to the for- 

 estry collection at the Ryei'son library, and 

 Mr Garfield explained that the quotations on 

 the walls of the room were taken from a crisp 

 .and delightful French book, entitled, 

 Forest Waters the Farm." 



Prof. Waldo's Speech. 



Then came an inspiring, vigorous address by 

 Prof. Waldo, of the Kalamazoo State Normal 

 school, dealing with the sowing of forestry 

 seed in the schools of the state and with the 

 legislative phases of the subject. He said in 

 part: 



"Some things along forestry lines can be 

 done in the normal schools. There are four 

 normals in the state, with a large student body 

 of earnest young men and women. So far as 

 the Kalamazoo school is concerned, we shall 

 lie glad to welcome your speakers there at 

 any time. Give us ample notice of your com- 

 ing and we will promise you a good audience 

 of students as well as townspeople. I should 

 recommend to you stereopticon lectures. Why 

 would it not pay the association to put a good 

 man on the road and keep him there. I think 

 that the county commissioners of schools 

 would be splendid agents for the dissemination 

 of forestry knowledge. This class of school 

 men are in close touch with the people 

 throughout the state, and could probably do 

 more than any other class in your interests, 

 aside from the legislators. High school su- 

 perintendents everywhere would also give you 

 warm welcome and would furnish you large 

 and inteiested audiences. , 



"But it seems to me that what you need 

 most at present is influence in the legislative 

 halls at Lansing. You need to deal with the 

 legislators at short range. To win real success 

 some one must do hard work at Lansing, and 

 verily camp on the trail of the lawmakers 

 that's the only way to do." 



At this juncture A. J. Volland, principal of 

 the Central High school, expressed his inter- 

 est in the forestry movement. He spoke oi 

 the seven talks given at the school by Mr. 

 Garfield during the fall and felt sure that they 

 had been helpful and an uplift to the students. 

 An invitation was extended to the members 

 of the convention to visit the Central High 

 school building the following morning and lis- 

 ten to five address on forestry, to be given to 

 an audience of 1,100 young men and women. 



President Bissell followed with a careful out- 

 line of the principles of forest taxation, which 

 was listened to with close attention. The pa- 

 per was as follows: 



MR. BISSELL'S PAPER. 



ASSOCIATION'S PRESIDENT PRESENTS 

 HIS REFLECTIONS ON THE SUBJECT. 



"I present for your consideration some dis- 

 cussion of the principles of forest _ taxation 

 as they are now in our state practice, and as 

 they ought to be. Any of you who has thought 

 much upon the general subject of forest taxa- 

 tion must recognize that it is one of vast im- 



portance to the forestry movement; and that 

 the reforms in taxation, as well as in protec- 

 tion and state land policies, which are n 

 sary. and should be worked out and enacted 

 into law in this state, are ladical departures 

 from the present sysiems. These questions 

 are fundamental, and to produce the results 

 required the reforms must be thorough, not 

 temporizing makeshifts. It is extremely diffi- 

 cult, accordingly, tt more than sketch what 

 the system ought to be, prefacing that with a 

 very cursory glance at what it is, and what 

 has been accomplished by it, within any time 

 that it is reasonable- one person should occupy, 

 on this occasion. To secure the desired brev- 

 ity, I think it best to confine myself to the 

 written page. 



What, Then, Is the Present System? 



'The taxation of the land, including the 

 growth of timber, in a lump sum per acre, 

 without any attempt to measure fairly and 

 equitably what it has contributed and what 

 it should 'contribute as its just share of the 

 burden. The assessor in each township makes 

 his own estimate of the value of the timber, 

 more often basing the assessment on the needs 

 of the community than the cash value of the 

 property. And this system -does not distribute 

 a just proportionate share of the tax burden 

 over the period required for the mature growth 

 of the timber; but taxes it, to the limit, every 

 year as long as it stands. If the forest was a 

 physical or legal nuisance, the abatement of 

 which was required by every impulse of good 

 government, no more effective measures to 

 that end could be devised by the ingenuity of 

 men than our present system of taxation. 



What Has That System Accom- 

 plished? 



"It has removed, or is removing, the forests 

 with the utmost dispatch. It has, in the main, 

 stopped the lumbering industry. It has de- 

 stroyed the home supply for home use in our 

 industries. It has, so far, prevented the use 

 of the cut-over lands, not suitable for farm- 

 ing. It has brought the recurring floods in the 

 Grand River valley, the Saginaw valley and its 

 connected water sheds. It has imperiled the 

 utility and permanence of water powers. It 

 has, by its effect on woodlots, steadily reduced 

 the fertility of the agricultural part of the 

 state. It has bred waste and thriftlessncss in 

 the handling of delinquent taxes and tax lands 

 by the state: It has caused the abandonment 

 of hundreds of thousands of acres of cut-over 

 lands by former owners. 



"The problems of forestry confronting the 

 different states of this Union are causing ev- 

 erywhere anxious inquiry, into this subject of 

 taxation. Many of the states have already 

 taken action, and none of them, so far as I can 

 learn, except Massachusetts, has yet even sug- 

 gested a scheme at all adequate to remedy the 

 evils which must be eradicated. _ So we, in 

 Michigan, are not alone in recognizing that to 

 present and urge an intelligent and comprehen- 

 sive forestry system for the state and its citi- 

 zens, it is necessary to deal promptly and vig- 

 orously with the policy of taxation. It will 

 not do to provide for protection from fire 

 without securing a reasonable solution of the 

 methods of taxation. This is quite apparent 

 throughout the country, mainly in those states 

 where there are today tens of thousands of 

 acres of cut-over and waste lands, suitable only 

 for the growth of forests. 



Notable Contributions. 



"During the past year there have been two 

 notable contributions to this subject: First, 

 Bulletin No. 3, from the State Forester's Office 

 of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; sec- 

 ond, A United States Forest Service Bulletin, 

 containing the very excellent paper prepared 

 by Mr. Alfred Gaskill, of the United States 

 Forest Service staff. 



"As this subject has been more or less un- 

 der consideration since 1818, in Massachusetts, 

 when it first essayed to legislate in promotion 



of forestry, every writer of note on forestry, 

 or some aspects of its principles and practice, 

 has given more or less attention to taxation. 



"The two discussions, which I have referred 

 to. being the latest: and most complete, so ad- 

 mirably present the general considerations and 

 arguments for reform in forest taxation and 

 the necessary limitations thereof, I am justi- 

 fied in basing my discussion and argument 

 upon them, 



The Massachusetts Plan. 



"The Massachusetts Bulletin is the report of 

 a state commission appointed in April, J'.iO">, by 

 the governor, authorized by the general court, 

 or legislature, of the state. That committee 

 was appointed 'to examine and consider the 

 laws of the commonwealth, of other states and 

 countries relative to the taxation of forest 

 lands.' It consisted of seven men, including 

 the tax commissioner, one of the harbor and 

 land commissioners and the state forester; 

 the other four being selected by the governor. 

 The committee examined the laws of other 

 countries, as well as of the states, and gave 

 a very comprehensive review of the systems 

 of taxation so examined. 



"Part I., of the report, deals with the laws 

 of foreign countries; part II., with the laws 

 of other states, and part III., with the local 

 legislation of Massachusetts. 



"It gives, in great detail the general prin- 

 ciples adopted and the variations of them 

 practiced in different jurisdictions. The for- 

 eign countries cited are England, Germany, 

 the Swiss Cantons, Austria, Russia, Japan and 

 Australia. The examination of legislation in 

 this country included the states of Colorado, 

 Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, 

 Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New 

 Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Ver- 

 mont and Wyoming. The varying policies 

 adopted in the different states are: 1 boun- 

 ties, 2 rebates, 3 exemption for a period of 

 years, 4 exemption for a certain proportion of 

 the holding. Neither of these policies has thus 

 far proved of any value to accomplish the re- 

 sult.s, which are absolutely necessary, to en- 

 courage the practice of forestry by private 

 parties. 



Situation in Massachusetts. 



"The commission says of the earliest Massa- 

 chusetts law, that providing a premium for 

 raising oaks and other forest trees: 'We be- 

 lieve that this law is inadequate to solve the 

 problem of economic propagation within the 

 commonwealth; for, granting that it has se- 

 cured the planting of considerable areas, which 

 it has not done, these forests will, under the 

 present system of taxation, be subject to an 

 animal and increasing assessment, which tends 

 towards early and wasteful cutting.' Of the 

 Massachusetts law of 1878, a ten-year exemp- 

 tion on newly planted land, the report says 

 'This law has been a failure, as practically no 

 planting has been done under it.' It then re- 

 fers to the latest experiment, the law of 1904, 

 providing for the distribution at cost of seed- 

 lings from the State Forestry Nursery, and 

 says: 'This provision is in effect a bounty * 

 but, as pointed out in connection with the 

 plantation law, it does not give relief toward 

 the later growing stages of a forest crop, 

 therefore it is not a solution of the taxation 

 problem.' 



"The situation in Massachusetts is this: 

 There are 2,000,000 acres of wood-land in the 

 state producing annually $3,400,000 worth of 

 merchantable material. There are at least :;,- 

 000,000 acres in the state available for forest 

 purposes, excluding all land that ought to be 

 under cultivation for farm crops. This area 

 under proper forest cultivation and manage- 

 ment would produce several times as much 

 wood and timber as it does at present. The 

 tendency of the present tax law ^is toward 

 early cutting and neglect of cultivation. A re- 

 form, therefore, that would lead to a more 

 conservative method of cutting and proper 

 cultivation, is of great importance; not only 

 to land owners, but to all of the industries that 



