10 



THE STATE RF.YIKW. 



other land similar in quality and situation is 

 valued- totally dissevered from its production; 

 with a fixed average rate of taxation for local 

 purposes, and with a substantial modification 

 of that rate for state purposes. This rule to be 

 applied t<> true fores! lands, \vlnch must be ex 

 plieitly defined. 



"Second The farm wood-lot. 

 "For the farm wood-lot the rule should be: 

 A fair and equitable assessment of the land, 

 i e as bare or wild land, just as other land 

 similar in quality and situation is valued, with- 

 out reference to its crop: having a separate 

 assessment for the' wood-lot, from the rest p 

 the farm: the rate of taxation to be a Ian- 

 fixed average; and under explicitly define. 

 limitations as to use or treatment of the land. 

 "In both cases there should be a right of ap- 

 peal from the town board to the state tax coni- 

 mission, or some other general state authority 

 with the right of revision. 

 "Third State lands. 



"Ml lands set aside by the state as forest re- 

 serves should be assessed on the same equita- 

 ble basis as provided for forest lands, with a 

 fixed average rate of taxation for local pur- 

 poses and all state lands withdrawn from 

 homestead entry and sale should contribute to 

 the maintenance of county and town at a fair, 

 fixed assessment value and a fair, fixed rate. 



"Under the policy here advocated, if it is 

 broad enough to accomplish the gradual re- 

 foresting of what are, now waste and aban- 

 doned lands, there will be a restoration of such 

 lands to the tax-paying lists, most of which 

 are not n-w paying taxes for any purpose, 1( 

 cal or state. 



"It is only on such a basis that the people 

 of the state can bear their fair share of the 

 cost of a comprehensive forest policy, which, 

 we all agree, is the most urgent of the eco- 

 nomic problems now confronting this state, 

 and demanding the thought and intelligent ac- 

 tion of the state's best citizenship." 



Discussion of Mr. Bissell's Paper. 



Mr. Garfiekl "We hear people say so many 

 limes that they would make investments in 

 forest culture for sentimental reasons, if for 

 no other, if this taxation question could be 

 properly adjusted." 



Mr Loud "A lumberman having 50,000 

 acres of timber land, worth, say, $1 an acre, 

 would be quite willing to crop 1,000 acres at a 

 time and plant it again, under reasonable taxa- 

 tion laws, but he will not endure being taxed 

 49 times before he can crop his holdings, 

 est tree-, being a growing crop, are not prop- 

 erly assessable until harvested." 



E. A. XVildey, of Paw Paw. former state land 

 commissioner"! believe there is honest in- 

 tent on the part of the legislators to do what 

 is right The Almighty has for centuries been 

 preparing the forests for the lumbermen. Now 

 the trees are gone a'nd conditions have 

 changed." 



J J. Hubbell of Manistee, followed and. 

 speaking out of long experience in connection 

 with timber 'and the taxation problem, his 

 words were very helpful and meaty, lie said: 

 "1 am sorry that I did not arrive in time to 

 hear all of President Bisscll's paper, but his 

 conchisions seemed very well taken. It is 

 more difficult to adjust properly the tax a 

 ment on timber ready for the axe th, 

 young tn ' instance, up in the Grand 



Traverse re-ion Hannah, Lay & Co. bought a 

 large tract of pine some years ago. paying $1.25 

 an acre, then sold it to John Torrent at a Ing 

 profit. Mr. Tor -it kept the timber tract a 

 few years then - . .1.1 it to Mr. Filer, of Mams- 

 tee "lor about $300,000, and Filer in time dis- 

 pos'ed of it for about S'.ma.lKM). Now we are up 

 to the man who cut it off. He didn't get the 

 timber for $l.-!."> an acre, but he made money 

 in the deal. inst a- the previous owner-, bad 

 done. These successive owners all paid taxes 

 oh the timber tract and never complained about 

 it a bit. 



"Here i- an illustration of the way it works: 

 A lumberman has a valuable tract of timber. 

 The assessor comes round and puts it on the 



tax roll, estimating, we will say, a tree worth 

 SHI standing. After paying taxes awhile the 

 owner figures that by cutting it off, or by put- 

 $10 expense per tree with it. and selling 

 the tree cut into lumber for S"">. he can make 

 a good profit. So he doe-, tin- and invests his 

 money in si ml hern timber, or out on the ^ Paci- 

 fic coast. Lumbermen owning standing timber 

 - a rule, complaining the least about their 

 . The problem is not now to save the 

 old trees, for they are doomed and must go, 

 hut what to do to reproduce them. There is 

 no justice in asking the lumbermen to put the 

 trees back, as some people are doing. But 

 something must be done in the way of chang- 

 ing the taxation laws, and I can sec no better 

 plan than the one suggested by Mr. Bissell." 



Congressman Win. Alden Smith I feel 

 sure that there is virtue in reforesting the 

 waste lands of the state, and that this is a gen- 

 eral work of public concern. You have a duty 

 before you in the way of educating the people 

 and bringing about reform. The children 

 should be brought up to reverence the tree. 

 When President McKinley lay on his dying 

 bed in the Milburn home in Buffalo, he asked 

 the attendants to part the curtains at the win- 

 dow a little so that he might look out on the 

 trees." 



Prof. Roth "I think that Mr. Hubbell has 

 well pointed out the difficulties that stand in 

 the way of just taxation of forest lands. But 

 (lie proposition is this we have s.non.oiKt acres 

 of land in the northern part of the state that 

 MI confiscate out of existence, or we can 

 help the owners to do something with them. 

 If, instead of confiscating the lumberman's 

 property once in 10 years, we are able to as- 

 snre him quite a profit out of bis holding 

 handling the timber crop in a rational way, we 

 can rest assured that quite a large proportion 

 of the forests remaining will be saved, instead 

 of being cut off slick and clean. To neglect 

 the 8,000.000 acres of lands means the end o) 

 the woods in Michigan, and then the little 

 pines that are being set out will be mighty 

 small potatoes." 



Mr Loud "The valley of the Jordan was 

 once the garden of Cleopatra and Palestine- 

 was a luxuriant country until the Turk put a 

 tax on the tree. Now it's a God-forsaken coun- 

 try, dried out, treeless, desolate and dead." 



The Final Session. 



EVERYBODY SAYS GOOD WORD FOR THE 

 FORESTRY MOVEMENT. 



Messrs. Bissell, Roth, llubbell. Mulford and 

 Garlicld delivered short addi esses on forestry 

 matters at the Central High school, the talks 

 being given to live different audiences of wide- 

 awake, enthusiastic students. 



The final session of the convention opened 

 at 9:30 o'clock and President Bissell called on 

 Hon. Huntley Russell, state senator from 

 Grand Rapids, for a talk. 



The senator wished to be excused, savin;; 

 that he could add nothing to what had already 

 been said, and that he was in attendance ti 

 points. 



"I think that T voice the sentiment <>t this 

 convention," said Prof. Roth, "when I say that 

 we are delighted to have Senator Russell with 

 ii- so faithfully." 



"I >ne of our gravest dangers in this forestry 

 work," said the Rev. I-'. 1'. Arthur, "is lire, and 

 1 think that the supervisors, -in whose hands 

 I he authority in these matters largely rests, 

 ought to receive encouragement and support. 

 This fire menace would be practically taken 

 care of if the supervisors understood their bus- 

 iness. , 



"Then we must not forget the boys and girls, 

 who are our recruits in this work. The country 

 school houses which are dotted thickly over 

 the siate seem to offer a great field. Person- 

 ally 1 am very much interested in the SUCCeSS 

 of the movement, and am pleased at the prog- 

 ress ,,f the state and the United States already 

 made." 



Mr. Campbell's Loyalty. 



Representati\ e-elect Colin P. Campbc! 

 Grand Rapids, followed with a ringiir 

 that idled the members of the convention with 

 hope regarding the needed legislation at I 

 ing. 



"1 am with the forestry association frori 

 ginning to end," he declared, "and will support 

 any reasonable measure that you may intro- 

 duce. I have given considerable attention to 

 the problems of reforestation and lire pi 

 tion, and have always felt that the planting 

 and culture of trees is a subject thai tin 

 pic ought to have at heart. \Yc 1 

 areas of land in the state that are not lit, 

 physically or chemically, for agriculture. Mich- 

 iga'n Should take the lead in forestry in 

 and the time to begin is now. It seems to me 

 that the enipha-is should be placed on protec- 

 tion from fires and that any legislative measure 

 introduced ought to be along that line." 



In reply to a question by Prof. Roth, Mr. 

 Campbell stated that he believed the state 

 should take these protective measures in hand, 

 rather than individual-. 



Prof. Roth "I think that we may well 

 gratulate Grand Rapids for sending such a man 

 a- Mr. Campbell to the legislature." 



Continuing, 1'rof. Moth called attention to i 

 the fact that if a man rai-e- Id acres 



the stumpage for his investment, and if 

 that is enough, all right, while on the other 

 hand the state has altogctlu.- a did 



in its timber. He said thai Dr. Fernow 

 had pointed out the correct : le indirect 



benefit accruing to the state from cuttin 

 a crop of timber, which is worth as nun 



: :nber itseii, in furnishing labor in that . 

 neighborhood, protecting it from the necessity 

 of importing timber, etc. 



Senator Ru-scll - "1 am. and always have 

 been favorable to the reforestation plan. I 

 was appointed on the fore-tiy committee 

 years ago in the senate, and while we have 

 had many discussions, nothing in the way ot 

 action has taken tangible form as yet." 



Prof. Roth gave a further word of encour- 

 agement in the announcement that lie had re- 

 ceived a telephone message trom Arthur 

 Holmes, of Detroit, secretary of the Michigan 

 Retail Lumber Dealers' We .cialion. who had 

 expressed sincere regrets that he had been un- 

 able to attend the forestry meeting. He staled 

 that the retailers' association was thoroughly 

 in sympathy with the movement, and asked 

 that the Grand Rapids convention select a rep- 

 resentative to attend the annual meeting of 

 the retail lumbermen, to be held in De'.roit in 

 February. 



Raise Trees for Grandchildren. 



John Wilde, a farmer of Coopersville, said 

 he" believed that people could afford to raise 

 trees for their great grandchildren, and 1: 

 plored the inclination of the people to look at 



liar SO much. 



Prof. Roth applauded the sentiment. 

 great things in the world." he said, "have not 

 been done' for money but through high ideals 



... oi-ld moves by its ideals. The chasi 

 money is like boys' play." 



Mr. Garl'ield announced the receipt of a let- 

 ter from !. M. Smith, of Marcellus, regretting 

 his inabiliu to be present and expressing the 

 i hat he might get a full report of the 



eld stated that th. 



Commission would issue a brochure with com- 

 plete proceedings, \\hich would be given the 

 widest distribution possible. 



Brief allusion was also made by Mr. Garheld 

 to the great work of Col.. Lowden in si 

 out white pine plantations on the Pullma 

 tales at Oregon, 111. Col. Lowden has recently 

 been elected to congress, and he writes Mr. 

 Garlicld that he realixes it is a step down 

 forestry to congress, but he hopes to return to 

 his old love later. 



Reprcsentative.-elect Campbell "I don t be- 

 lieve the time is at hand now for the farm. 

 plant wood lots, but it is coming." 



President Risscll "The association i^ doing 

 all it can to promote wood-lot forestry." 



