1114 



A NATIONAL PLAN" FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



return. It was difficult, however, to secure completely dependable 

 figures on tax-delinquent or tax-revested land. In many counties 

 records of tax-delinquent or tax-revested lands, particularly the 

 latter, were poor. At best, the data on tax-delinquent lands are con- 

 fusing because of repeated purchases at tax sales; and even within a 

 given State the counties do not appear to follow uniformly the pro- 

 cedure of State law, and numerous instances were encountered where 

 counties maintain no record of delinquent land as such. In certain 

 counties, the county officials stated that it would take from 1 to 

 2 months to make accurate statements of delinquent land by classes. 

 For these reasons, the delinquent land figures compiled in the study 

 necessarily are minimum, since it was quite improbable that any land 

 was improperly included but quite certain that much delinquent land 

 was not included. 



Table 4, columns 8, 9, 10, and 11 picture roughly the extent to 

 which the lands now reserved for national-forest purposes might, 

 through taxation, have contributed to the costs of local government 

 if they had not been withdrawn from private appropriation and 

 ownership by reservation or purchase. Emphasis must, however, be 

 laid upon the fact that the figures shown are of historical rather than 

 current or future value. They were compiled in 1927, were in- 

 tentionally made liberal even under 1927 conditions, and in the form 

 presented are substantially greater than the figures initially developed 

 by the reporting officers. 



TABLE 4. Study of actual taxability of private lands and potential taxability in 

 States containing national forests 1 



1 Periods covered by taxation data vary from a single year in some States to average of 2, 3, or 5 years in 

 others. 

 3 In only 10 out of 18 counties. 



