MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



rate, 9 per cent.' Well, one would very natur- 

 ally quit right there." 



Mr. Mershon: That is cut over lands? 



Mr. Loud: No, sir. Now, this land is right 

 in there (exhibiting map). Here is an immense 

 area of land on which the values are placed as 

 nothing at the present time. The common 

 assessment of such lands in that territory is 

 25 cents an acre. Lands of this kind should 

 be assessed. Compare the lumberman of the 

 present day who wants to reforest land with 

 the farmer. The farmer's land is assessed, we 

 will say, at $1 an acre. He may own and crop 

 1,000 acres of land, but unless the assessor 

 finds wheat, corn or some other crop in his 

 barns on the second day of April each year 

 the farmer pays no taxes on his crops. If the 

 lumberman has any lumber on his docks it 

 should be put on the assessment roll, but other 

 than this the state should treat the farmer and 

 the lumberman alike. Assess the lumberman a 

 fair land value on the timber land that he 

 owns. It is not the lumberman who reforests 

 today who is going to get the crop, and he 

 should not pay taxes on future values. It is 

 no more unreasonable that you should take 

 fifty years to grow a crop and not be assessed 

 for it than to raise fifty crops and not be as- 

 sessed. The sugar beet crop is an example. 

 The present tax law says that anything actu- 

 ally owned on a certain day is not exempt 

 from taxation. I think nobody pays a tax on 

 partly manufactured products in the factory, 

 and a growing forest is in the same category. 

 Take the assessments on a farmer's wood-lot. 

 I suppose he cuts off some of his trees for 

 fuel, but I cannot see why he should be taxed 

 for that year after year, when his neighbors 

 burn coal. If he sells his corn or other crop 

 and goes and buys coal, it is not on the tax- 

 roll. Why should he be taxed for burning fuel 

 off his wood-lot? 



I am perfectly satisfied with paying the 

 school tax in the township I referred to. While 

 there were only four children in that $900 

 school house, and we paid nearly all of the j 

 tax, that is all right. This is the present situ- 

 ation: The man who goes into that country 

 and lumbers pays for the school house and 

 practically all other public improvements. I 

 am not opposing that proposition. The propo- 

 sition I do want to make is this: That in a 

 large forest area like this we will say we are 

 going to have forests and roads down there 20 

 or 30 years hence there is no reason why this 

 highway tax shall not be spent in that terri- 

 tory, but I want that money spent for fire pro- 

 tection of the lands. 



Teach Forestry to Children. 



Here is a great big school tax. Suppose I 

 want some boys to go out and do something 

 with trees. There is not a mother's son of 

 them that knows anything about trees. I don't 

 believe there is a boy in the state hardly that 

 knows a tree that is ready to cut. He might 

 cut a tree that is growing and let one stand 

 that is as large as it will ever be. I want the 

 schools to teach forestry, so that when a de- 

 mand is made for young men for this kind of 

 work we will have the. men. I am not object- 

 ing to the amount of taxes, but I want protec- 

 tion if you ask me for that amount of tax. If 

 I have a great big plantation of trees and any- 

 one goes in and cuts them, what remedy have 

 I? It may be said that I may sue or arrest 

 him. I don't want that; I don't want the man 

 to be in there; I want him stopped before he 

 does it. 



If there is any one beautiful thing in the 

 whole forestry proposition, it is that the whole 

 people may enjoy it. 



PROF. GREEN EXPRESSES HIMSELF. 



The President: Mr. Arthur Hill has notified 

 me that he is called out of the city and cannot 

 take his part in the discussion. To take his 

 place I would call on Prof. Green of the Uni- 

 versity of Minnesota, of Minneapolis. 



Prof. Green: Mr. President, Ladies and 



Gentlemen: As far as this matter of taxation 

 is concerned, I hardly think I am in a position 

 to shed much light, and it being after 12 

 o'clock, I will not attempt to discuss it. It is 

 a very difficult matter it is a very important 

 matter. I enjoyei exceedingly "the very de- 

 lightful discourse we had from Dr. Fernow, 

 and enjoyed the way he went at it. And yet I 

 feel as though the doctor didn't go at it in 

 quite his usual way, with the idea of solving 

 it for us. I think he can do a little more for 

 us. I believe, as the last gentleman who spoke 

 does, that forestry strikes at the welfare of the 

 state in such a way that it is worthy of your 

 favorable consideration. Just how this should 

 be administered in order to secure the benefits 

 I am not prepared to say. 



These three states, Minnesota, Wisconsin 

 and Michigan, are organized on very much the 

 same lines, their constitutions are very much 

 the same, and they have very much the same 

 problems to deal with in regard to forestry, 

 and it would be very helpful to the whole for- 

 estry situation if we could agree upon some 

 form of legislation which is' practical and sens- 

 ible. I know our people want to do something 

 of that kind, but there is a feeling that we are 

 not ready. As Prof. McBarry says, he doesn't 

 see that we are ready. He is not quite ready 

 for the bargain counter sa'es in taxation. 



I believe we are going to do something to 

 improve forestry in regard to taxation. Here 

 is this matter of fire protection. What we 

 need more than anything else in this great 

 country is forest fire protection. Go to the 

 young men, the children in the public schools 

 and teach them there is a value in the sapling 

 tree, that it has a value based on what it is 

 worth at maturity. The children will set fires. 

 My boy does it. They like to see the fire run. 

 We. want to go to the young people and im- 

 press upon their minds the value in young 

 growing trees. I thank you. (Applause.) 



Prof. Roth: This matter of taxation is of 

 importance to us all. We have heard the lum- 

 berman's side, but there is a very important 

 side that has not been heard from. We have 

 with us this morning Honorable Edward 

 Wildey, of Paw Paw. I believe he can better 

 represent that side than anyone here. 



MR. WILDEY'S IDEA. 



Hon. Edward Wildey: Mr. President and 

 gentlemen, I was very much interested in the 

 paper presented by Mr. Ward. I have heard 

 of him for a great many years, but never had 

 the pleasure of meeting him. I was very much 

 interested in his paper, but it raised a question 

 in my mind as to taxation. Aren't they asking 

 too much? Judging from what he has written 

 there, the forestry proposition is not success- 

 ful financially. Mr. Ward, if I am not mis- 

 taken, is engaged in raising a large orchard, 

 apple orchard. - 



Mr. Ward: This is not the Mr. Ward of the 

 apple orchard. 



Mr. Wildey: The name is the same. 



Mr. Ward: Simply the name. 



Mr. Wildey: The question would be the 

 same. Mr. Ward would have a right to go be- 

 fore the horticultural convention and ask them 

 to devise a plan whereby his orchard would be 

 kept from taxation until it bore. It would take 

 15 or 20 years anyway that this orchard should 

 be exempt from taxation. I have faith to be- 

 lieve that this forestry question can stand on 

 its own bottom; that there is plenty of money 

 in it if properly cared for, to pay a legitimate 

 tax. There should be safeguards thrown 

 around it. The taxes from it should be set 

 apart for a different purpose than taxes upon 

 farms. As Mr. Loud has termed it, they should 

 be turned back for the protection of the for- 

 ests. I believe that if you will go before the 

 people with that idea that you will gain more 

 strength than you have at the present. Re- 

 garding the farmer's wood-lot, it can be proved 

 to him that as a permanent investment it is the 

 best one he can make. At present there are a 

 great many taking the wood from their land, 

 just because of ignorance. A campaign of 



education along that line would do more to 

 uplift this forestry question and do more god 

 than any other course you might take. 



So far as the taxation of wood-lots is con- 

 cerned, when I was commissioner of the land 

 office I prepared a bill about the same as the 

 Indiana laws, but it went to the back of the 

 drawer of the committee, and was never pre- 

 sented. 



I believe the people should be taught that 

 from the financial standpoint there is money 

 in forestry. I hope this afternoon, when Prof. 

 Roth gives his talk, that he can present to you 

 some figures on this question of taxation that 

 will be an eye-opener. It was to me. I thank 

 you. 



Mr. Beal : We have a constitutional con- 

 vention in session at Lansing. There was ap- 

 pointed a committee to consider the matter of 

 forestry. I should like to hear from Mr. C. B. 

 Cook, a member of that committee. 



THE WOOD-LOT PROFITABLE. 



C. B. Cook, of Shiawassee County, an Ardent 

 Advocate of Woodlots. 



Mr. Cook: Mr. Chairman, I am here, I 

 might say, in a dual capacity, but it is more 

 than that. As Mr. Beal stated, by the mem- 

 bers of the constitutional convention it was 

 thought expedient to have a committee from 

 that body attend this meeting, and we have 

 been given leave of absence to do so. I am 

 also a member of the recently formed commit- 

 tee appointed by the governor to look into the 

 forestry question in Michigan and make some 

 recommendations to the legislature, and we ar- / 

 ranged to have a meeting of that committee 

 here. I am also interested as a farmer in the 

 forestry question, and also as a citizen. 



I will say that I am the owner of a farm of 

 160 acres located near Owosso, and the part of 

 that farm in which I take the most satisfac- 

 tion is thirty acres of wood-lot. I will say, as 

 did Mr. Loud, "that I have no kick on the 

 taxes," because on my wood-lot there are a 

 thousand hard maple trees which I tap annu- 

 ally and which affords me one of the nicest 

 incomes that my farm produces. We also se- 

 cure all of the fuel we use on the farm. In 

 addition to my own firewood there are two 

 other families who reside on the farm and pro- 

 cure their fuel from the wood-lot. These 

 families do such of the active work on the 

 farm as I am unable to do myself. 



Every year or every two or three years we 

 cut out some timber, take some of the mature 

 timber out of the wood-lot. My grandfather 

 first came into possession of this land, and we 

 have the script, it came through Martin Van- 

 Buren. These woods had 1 been pastured until 

 about fourteen years ago, when I became the 

 active superintendent of the wood-lot, and I 

 had heard it said, and it seemed to me reason- 

 able, that pasturing did not do the wood-lot 

 any good, so then I quit pasturing it, and there 

 has not been a hoof in there of any kind since. 

 While it doesn't look as slick, still we have 

 the little trees coming in where the big trees 

 are going out. I can readily see as well as 

 anyone can that it is going to be a matter of 

 a perpetual source of income. 



Every few years, every time that a sawmill 

 one of those portable mills has been within 

 reasonable distance we have taken out from 

 one to four or five thousand feet of lumber for 

 the various purposes of the farm. About a 

 year ago we determined to build a house next 

 summer. I got a bill of the material of the 

 house that we planned, about 34,000 feet of 

 lumber, and every stick of timber that is going 

 into that house, every piece of finish, quartered 

 sawed oak, and everything, we will get out of 

 those woods. I believe it was a great benefit 

 to the wood-lot as we harvested only such 

 timber as had reached its zenith. We had no 

 idea that it had until we commenced cutting 

 and found it was not in as good condition as 

 the outside would indicate, especially so with 

 the white and red oak. 



As the gentleman from Minnesota suggests, 



