MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



13 



TIMBER LAND TAX LAW. 



It Was Advocated by Hon. Horatio S. Earle 

 in a Speech at Richland. 



Hon. Horatio S. Earle, highway commis 

 ! sioner of Michigan, in a speech at Richlanc 

 on "A Better and Busier Michigan," after 

 sketching the growth of the good roads move- 

 ment and emphasizing the benefits of the 

 present law, turned his attention to the for- 

 estry movement. He said: 



"Dispose of Michigan's farrow cow. Michi- 

 gan's farrow cow is the state delinquent tax 

 land business. The way it is conducted at 

 the present time is of benefit to no county 

 and an expense to every county. Every acre 

 now held by the state should be deeded back 

 to the county in which it is located, with 

 the exception of what ought to be set aparl 

 for a state forest reserve. Let the county 

 treasurer sell this land and give a deed to 

 the purchaser which will make the title just 

 as good as a deed from the state now does 

 Then it will not be necessary to pay out enor- 

 mous sums each year for newspaper adver- 

 tising of tax sales which are read by no one 

 but the proofreader. A list of the lands for 

 sale in a county will be posted up on the 

 wall of the county treasurer's office, and when 

 a prospective purchaser goes in all he will 

 .have to do is to step up to the list, and if 

 there is not a red line drawn through the 

 description he is looking for, that piece has 

 not been sold, and he can buy it then and 

 there by simply paying down the money, -in- 

 stead of as at present, when he sends his 

 money to the state, getting a notice back that 

 'the land you ask for was sold yesterday to 

 a tax title shark.' 



"Of course, doing this will relieve one hun- 

 dred state employes, clerks at $1,000 a year 

 each; but they are needed out on some of 

 this land to cultivate it and raise chickens 

 and families. It will save the state at least 

 $200,000 a year, which includes the clerk hire, 

 advertising and a lot of other useless expense, 

 and all to sell some land which could be 

 sold by the county at not one dollar extra 

 expense. No farmer would keep a lot of far- 

 row cows that cost forty dollars a year to 

 keep just for the sake of giving a lot of jobs 

 to would-be milkers. 



"Enact a timber land tax law making it 

 possible to register all timber land at a nomi- 

 nal sum per acre, say, for illustration, ten 

 cents an acre, this to be the amount on which 

 the owner shall pay taxes; but upon registra- 

 tion the state, county and township shall own 

 a five per cent interest in the value of the 

 stumpage, and if this timber is cut at any 

 time within ten years the state sealer shall 

 scale the timber, and the five per cent shall 

 be paid to the state, county and township. 

 After ten years the government's interest shall 

 increase in the stumpage at the rate of one- 

 half of one per cent a year, until at the fifty- 

 year period the government's interest in the 

 stumpage shall amount to 25 per cent. This 

 interest shall be a lien upon the timber. You 

 understand these figures are merely illustrative 

 in order to give you an idea of the plan in 

 mind. With such a law in force it wouldn't 

 be thirty days until there wouldn't be an acre 

 of dry land not sold in the state, for it would 

 make one of the best and safest ways of hand- 

 ing down a valuable property to our children 

 and grandchildren. 



"I believe if this were done that in twenty- 

 five years the state's share of the money de- 

 rived from the sale of the timber cut each 

 year from the land registered under the tim- 

 ber land tax law would, together with the 

 tax on railroads and other state taxpaying 

 corporations, relieve us of any direct state 

 taxes and so make Michigan a better and 

 busier state. 



"Then let us 'high-hoe-hum,' not with the 

 yawning, sleepy 'hi-ho-hum,' but with that 

 'high' that stands for high standards, high 

 aims and high purposes; the 'hoe' that culti- 



Forest Scene Southern Applachians. 

 (Courtesy Forestry and Irrigation.) 



vates every row and every other good thing, 

 and if we do we will cause the farmer, the 

 miner, the manufacturer and the merchant to 

 hum' until we shall have that better and 

 jusier Michigan that will satisfy us and make 

 all the country round about anxious to be- 

 come residents of that best state in the galaxy 

 of states our own beloved Michigan." 



FOLLOWS GRAND RAPIDS LEAD. 



Following the lead of prominent Grand 

 Rapids men who are interested in forestry 

 and who donated 10,000 elm trees to be planted 

 )y school children on Arbor Day, the Board 

 of Trade of Saginaw has announced that pub- 

 ic-spirited of that city have donated about the 

 same number of elms for planting in Saginaw. 

 The board of public works will have charge of 

 the planting of the trees at Saginaw and the 

 listribution will be done in a systematic man- 

 icr. 



Arbor Day will be all that its name implies 

 n Grand Rapids and Saginaw this year. Gov. 

 Warner has designated May 1 as Arbor Doy. 

 The governor says: "No monument that 

 "nan can build is as imposing as a stately tree, 

 and he who plants it has a claim upon poster- 

 ty greater than that of the artist or the sculp- 

 :or. He who plants a tree and watches its 

 growth and development must love the land 



that nourishes it, the country that protects it 

 and the government that is over all. 



"Public conscience has awakened to the fact 

 that the time is present when energetic, intel- 

 ligent and practical efforts should be made to 

 restore, in some measure, at least, the gener- 

 ous gifts which nature bestowed upon our 

 state but which have been swept away to pro- 

 vide for the constantly increasing demands of 

 a constantly increasing population. The pro- 

 tection of the forest resources still existing 

 is a matter of urgent local and national impor- 

 tance." 



Charles W. Garfield of Grand Rapids, presi- 

 dent of the Michigan Forestry Commission, 

 has learned that C. D. McCloud of Muskegon 

 is preparing to set out 1,000 Norway spruce 

 for Christmas trees, a project which Mr. Gar- 

 field has had under consideration. Mr. Gar- 

 field says that there will be a large number of 

 trees supplied from the forest reserves to 

 people who desire to plant according to the 

 arrangements made by the forestry commis- 

 sion for this purpose. 



An effort is said to be in progress to organ- 

 ize a company in the interest of Ronald Ross 

 to take over the property of Ross Bros., at 

 Beaverton, recently bid in by Jacob Schwartz, 

 and continue the business. There is a good 

 band saw mill, shingle mill, etc. 



