886 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



anyone of tax certificates, automatic purchase by the State or county 

 of the tax lien, foreclosure proceedings without sale of certificates, or 

 some combination of these methods. After sale, a period is usually 

 allowed during which the original owner may redeem his land, varying 

 in the different States from a few months to three years in New 

 Jersey, 20 years if right of redemption is not foreclosed. After fore- 

 closure and judgment there is usually no opportunity for redemption. 

 To exercise redemption, the fees or penalties vary from rather moder- 

 ate to quite large. Where the land is purchased at tax sale or through 

 foreclosure by a private party and not redeemed before the redemption 

 period has passed, a tax deed (or sheriff's or treasurer's deed) is issued, 

 giving the new owner a title to the property. Where land is not sold 

 to a private party or redeemed the title passes to the public. Of 34 of 

 the principal forest States for which data is at hand, it appears that 

 the title to the reverted land goes to the State in 15 States, to the 

 county in 13 States, and to the town in 5 States. Other political 

 units have equities in some States. 



What is done with this "new public domain" after it has come into 

 the possession of the State, county, or town? As previously stated, 

 it is the policy in most parts of the country to get the land back into 

 private ownership. Michigan attempted to do it by the tax home- 

 stead law of 1893, other States have sales, others lease the lands even 

 at rates less than the taxes would be. Where failure to find a buyer 

 can be taken as prima-facie evidence that the land is not suitable for 

 private ownership in its present condition and under the present 

 economic set-up and tax policy, insistance on trying to get it back into 

 private hands is most unfortunate. Instead, there should be some 

 provision for putting such land under permanent public management. 

 In a very few States such legislative provisions exist, with machinery 

 for managing the land as State or county forests or parks. Some of 

 these laws are here described briefly, by States, as examples of progres- 

 sive steps to overcome the evils of this breakdown of private forest 

 land ownership : 



Michigan. Tax-title lands go to the State and if suitable for State 

 forests may be so dedicated, the State paying something to the 

 counties in lieu of taxes. In this way Michigan has some 1,250,000 

 acres of State land, some of which is managed as State forests by the 

 Department of Conservation, and this area is being added to at the 

 rate of about 250,000 acres each year. 



Wisconsin. Here tax-reverted lands go to the county. Wisconsin 

 has encouraged the development of county forests by permitting 

 county lands to be listed under the forest-crop law and by providing 

 State aid to the extent of 20 cents per acre. About 460,000 acres 

 have been set aside during the past two years. Wisconsin also has 

 State forests, acquired in part through tax delinquency. 



Minnesota. The conservation department has set as its aim the 

 blocking out of about 4 million acres of State forests from tax delin- 

 quent lands in the next 10 years. Only a beginning has been made 

 so far. 



Oregon. By provision of the 1931 legislature, tax-reverted land 

 may be deeded by the county to the State to be managed as State 

 forests in perpetuity, and the State will pay the county the forest 

 fee and yield tax provided under the reforestation tax law. So far 

 no lands have been so deeded for State forests. In at least one 



