258 Game Survey of the North Central States 



taxation which has so far caused a steady shrinkage in woodlot area through their 

 conversion into pastures. 



Indiana has enacted such a law. It extends to registered woodlots a flat 

 valuation of $1 per acre, against which the current local tax is applied in the 

 usual way. There is no yield tax. The owner pays for the survey, which usually 

 costs about $10, and must agree not to pasture. The minimum tract eligible for 

 registry is three acres. Although the law was enacted seven or eight years ago, 

 only 600. tracts, totalling 6,000 acres, were registered in 1929, but this registra- 

 tion must surely increase as the facilities of the new law become more widely 

 known. 



This law, and its future extension to woodlots generally, is of fundamental 

 importance to game, especially quail, for the obvious reason that each permanent 

 ungrazed woodlot means from one to five permanent covies which would other- 

 wise tend to disappear under the inroads of grazing and cutting. This wood- 

 lot tax law, if widely adopted, holds out more future assurance of perpetuating 

 quail than would a yearlong closure on quail shooting. 



