222 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY 



pay. In most states timberland is assessed on the basis 

 of its value, timber and land together. Woodland assessed 

 on this basis is overtaxed as compared with land assessed 

 on the basis of what it produces each year. The value 

 of plowland for farm purposes is established by what it will 

 earn. If the owner can make $10 an acre a year over all 

 expenses by growing say wheat, corn, cotton or alfalfa on 

 it, his land will have a value of perhaps $150 an acre. If it 

 took two years to grow a crop, the land would be worth 

 only half as much. Its owner in that case would kick vigor- 

 ously if he could not get his assessment lowered. He would 

 kick still more vigorously if he had to pay a tax also on the 

 value of the standing crop, after having to pay too much on 

 the land. "The Lord loveth a cheerful kicker." 



With woodland the case is still worse. Each year the 

 owner may have to pay a tax on the merchantable crops 

 of many past years. It is as though the owner of plowland 

 had to pay a tax on the value of his field crops twice a week 

 throughout the growing season. When a full-grown tree 

 is cut down or burned up in a forest fire, it may have been 

 taxed 40 or 50 times over. Each year the land on which it 

 grew has been valued not on the basis of its earning power, 

 but on the basis of what it would bring if sold, timber and all. 

 A tax levied on the income-earning value of the land would 

 be much more equitable. 



Certain states have applied this principle by legislation 

 under which land to be used for growing timber can be 

 classified so that the timber can be taxed separately from the 

 land. The land there is taxed annually on its value, without 

 timber. The tax on the timber is not paid until the crop is 

 harvested. It is therefore a tax on the yield. In New 

 York this yield tax is 5 per cent of the value of the crop 



