Game Administration 257 



from the State for the support of schools. This subsidy of course further ac- 

 centuates their unsound economic status. 



An even more unfavorable economic situation exists in the Forest Belt of the 

 Lake States, although here cutover lumber company holdings form a larger pro- 

 portion of the aggregate reversions than in Indiana and Missouri. In 17 counties 

 of northern Wisconsin, for instance, two and a half million acres were tax de- 

 linquent in 1928. These cutovers usually revert only after an unsuccessful at- 

 tempt has been made to develop them for agricultural purposes. 



Very recently a reverse process, arising from enhanced values of lands for 

 resort or tourist purposes, has been perceptible both in the Lake States and in 

 the Ozarks. This reverse process has not become sufficiently extensive, however, 

 to change the net trend, nor is it likely to become so. It affects mostly lake 

 shores, stream banks, and other strategic locations which do not add up to any 

 considerable proportion of the total area. 



The one obvious remedy for this unsound economic situation on marginal 

 lands is to encourage the practice of forestry and game management upon them, 

 and to desist from any further effort to compete in agricultural markets now 

 universally admitted to be over-supplied. Their rehabilitation through game 

 management is particularly important for two reasons: (1) Game, unlike 

 forests, is an almost immediate rather than a deferred crop; (2) the immediate 

 revenues from a game crop can help to preserve the solvency of their owners 

 pending the regrowth of a forest crop. 



The reversion of marginal lands is also important because of the oppor- 

 tunity which it affords for the inexpensive acquisition of public forests, public 

 shooting grounds, and public game refuges. The same opportunity is of course 

 open for the acquisition of private game preserves or private forests. 



Forest Taxation. Each of the three Lake States has recently enacted 

 special forest tax laws which are aimed to encourage the practice of forestry. 

 These laws seek to lighten the tax burden on timber during the immature stage, 

 and to substitute for it a yield tax levied when the mature timber is cut. Special 

 State aid is extended to the counties in lieu of the current tax revenue from im- 

 mature timber. 



The holdings registered under these tax laws do not as yet aggregate any 

 large area except perhaps in Wisconsin. They have an important bearing on the 

 future of game in the Forest Belt, but experience has shown that they have no 

 considerable effect on the farm woodlot, the preservation of which is, from the 

 game standpoint, the crucial question at this time. The procedure necessary to 

 take advantage of them is too complicated to appeal to the farmer, and his wood- 

 lot is often too small to qualify under their minimum acreage limitations. 



From a game standpoint, the outstanding need is for woodlot tax laws which 

 will recognize the public benefits accruing from the ungrazed woodlot, and which 

 will enable the farmer, by some very simple procedure, to escape the prohibitive 



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