880 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



will be advertised for taxes; but most of this will be redeemed before 

 sale. So far there has been no reversion of delinquent land to the 

 counties, but the fact that tax-sale certificates have in the past nearly 

 always been redeemed is no proof that they will continue to be. 



In New England nowhere is the tax-delinquency problem acute, 

 and there has been practically no reversion of land. A type of forest 

 and a method of cutting which have left the land with some prospects 

 of future forest productivity, favorable taxes, accessible markets for 

 forest products, and a disposition on the part of both the owners 

 and public agencies to keep the lands in private hands, have all 

 contributed to this situation. 



It is roughly estimated that in Pennsylvania a little more than a 

 million acres of forest land is delinquent out of a total of 1 1 million 

 acres of commercial forest privately owned; possibly a half million 

 acres will be unredeemed and be added to the "new public domain." 

 In some instances the county has taken title to as much as 5 percent 

 of the area outside farms. One reason why there is not more forest 

 land abandonment is the fact that about 60 percent of the State's 

 private forests are held for subsurface rights and some are also valued 

 for hunting preserves as well as for forest production. A further 

 reason is the fact that the cutting practices, particularly in the sprout- 

 hardwoods forests, have not altogether destroyed forest productivity ; 

 some potential forest value is left which encourages the owner to 

 retain title. 



In New Jersey the township may sell for accrued taxes or give to 

 the State Department of Conservation tax-title lands, and 10 

 thousand acres were so sold in 1930 and 1931 for State forests. In 

 the "pine barrens" of southern New Jersey it was found in 1917 that 

 40 percent of the land area of some townships was not on the tax 

 roll truly a "no man's land." 



In Maryland, Delaware, Georgia, the Virginias, and the Caro- 

 linas, no reversion of land appears to have occurred up to the present 

 time ; but the volume of delinquency is increasing and some reversion 

 seems imminent. 



In California timberland tax delinquency is not large up to the 

 present time, but has increased during the depression. In the pro- 

 ductive redwood region on both timberland and cut-over land there 

 is very little delinquency. There is more in the pine region, where 

 for five selected counties about a fifth of the private forest land is 

 delinquent. This is mostly made up of small areas in the Sierra 

 foothills, formerly forested, but now with but a mere remnant of 

 forest growth upon them; it is now repeatedly burned in the hope of 

 improving stock grazing, for which it is principally used. With 

 millions of acres of low-value land in private ownership, and aban- 

 donment in its incipient stages, there is the threat of a breakdown 

 of private ownership on a large scale in California. 



THE CAUSES OF FOREST LAND ABANDONMENT 



In considering the causes for tax delinquency and tax reversion of 

 forest land a distinction must again be made between short-term and 

 long-term delinquency. Short-term delinquency may or may not 

 lead to longer delinquency and ultimately to forfeiture of the land. 

 Short-term delinquency may be due to procrastination of the tax- 



