52 STATE BOARD OF FORESTRY 



State Forester and the State Tax Commissioner in co-operation. The 

 proceeds of the yield tax and the penalty tax go into the State 

 treasury, either to remain there or if thought best to be distributed 

 back to the towns and counties where the timber lands are located. 

 This distribution might be made according to any one of four or 

 five possible plans. (See Proceedings of the Sixth Conference of 

 the National Tax Association, pp. 385-389). Your committee 

 recommends, as probably best suited to the conditions of most States, 

 that the distribution be based upon the areas of forest lands separately 

 classified for taxation in the several local jurisdictions respectively. 

 In all cases the owner should be required to furnish a sworn state- 

 ment annually of the amount and value of forest products cut during 

 the year. It might also be well to require advance notice of all 

 cutting. Large owners, lumbermen, loggers, sawmill owners, and 

 so forth, should be required to keep regular books giving a record of 

 their cuttings. Their books and accounts should be open to State 

 officers and more elaborate reports could be required of them. In 

 the case of small farm woodlots it would probably not be worth while 

 to require special books or elaborate reports. The sworn statement 

 of the owner would ordinarily be sufficient. In all cases there should 

 be some examination of logging operations, either by State or local 

 officers, to check up the accuracy of reports and to prevent fraud. 

 In the case of all large cuttings the owner or operator should be re- 

 quired to furnish a bond sufficient to cover the amount of the tax 

 that will become due. The tax should also be a lien upon the land, 

 but not upon the timber cut. 



THE RELATION" OF FORESTS AM) WATER. 

 ^FORESTS AND CLIMATE. 



The forest lowers the temperature of the air inside and above it. 

 The vertical influence of forests upon temperature extends in some 

 cases to a height of 5,000 feet. 



Extract from Report of the Committee on Forest Taxation of the Fifth Na- 

 tional Conservation Congress. 



