A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1193 



amount on research, both independently and in cooperation with the 

 Forest Service, but at present it has discontinued such aid. A rough 

 estimate of expenditures for research in forestry by the Lake States 

 follows: 



Michigan: 



Department of conservation $10,000 



State university 5, 000 



State college 12,760 



- $27, 760 



Wisconsin : College of agriculture 3, 000 



Minnesota: State university 10,000 



North Dakota: Allotted funds to Lake States experiment station 2, 500 



Total 43,260 



Legislation. Forest tax laws that may be considered a form of 

 State aid to private owners have been passed by the three principal 

 Lake States. The Minnesota law is inoperative, however, owing to 

 county opposition. The Michigan law is being taken advantage of 

 to only a moderate extent, while in Wisconsin, owing to a more liberal 

 interpretation, the forest crop law is more popular. Land listed on 

 January 1, 1932, under these laws as reported by the forest taxation 

 inquiry is as follows: 



Acres 



In Michigan 72, 701 



In Wisconsin 278, 275 



Total 350, 976 



In 1932 a special committee in Wisconsin made a report to the 

 Governor on Forest Land Use in Wisconsin, from which the following 

 extracts are quoted : 



THE SEVERANCE TAX (FOREST CROP LAW) 



The Wisconsin forest crop law provides that forest-growing land be subject to 

 a limited tax levy of 10 cents per acre, to which the State contributes a like acreage 

 share and exempts the growing timber from current taxation but levies thereon 

 at the time of cutting a severance or yield tax fixed at 10 percent of the "stump- 

 age" value of the products cut and removed. The entry of land under this law 

 is optional with the owner and subject to acceptance by the State at the discretion 

 of the conservation commission. * * * 



Value to State. This study indicates a direct financial loss to the State from the 

 operation of the forest crop law, even when it is strictly administered. It is in 

 view of the situation disclosed by this report and the fact that in 1930 over 402,000 

 acres were entered under the law and that in 1931 applications were made for 

 430,000 acres of additional entry that the conservation commission revised its 

 more liberal policy as to acceptance of applications for entry. * * * It is for 

 the best interests of all concerned that land on which there is no present forest 

 cover or natural reporduction should not be accepted. * * * 



Value to local taxing district. The towns are the direct and principal beneficiary 

 of the forest crop law. They receive in lieu of the property tax that would be 

 levied on the acreage entered 10 cents per acre from the State and 10 cents from 

 the owner. * * * 



Value to private owners. The advantage of entry of lands by the private owner 

 under the forest crop law is dependent upon successful forestry practice. Under 

 a misconception of these advantages or merely in the hope of reducing the tax 

 burden many thousands of acres of land have been entered under the forest crop 

 law by private owners without any definite understanding of the management 

 needed to produce a forest crop. While the State's loss on such land is merely a 

 transfer from one public fund to another, with the compensating advantages 

 already referred to, the owner, to justify his enterprise, must develop a timber 

 crop whose ultimate harvesting will return to him more than his accumulated 

 outlay. Therefore the present policy of the conservation commission in QQII- 



