256 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



There is already a very good road system, to which an extension has 

 been staked out, running across the plantation made in 1910. 



Because of the recent acquirement of the two areas last mentioned no plan 

 for management has been formulated. They differ, however, in the possibili- 

 ties for their development and use for forestry purposes, as they were given 

 with certain restrictions, which will detract from their value as such. 



The gift of Mr. Hapgood comprises 106 acres and includes the summit 

 of Bromley Mountain in Peru; that of Mr. Battel! contains about 800 acres, 

 including Camel's Hump, one of the highest points in the state. These tracts 

 will serve primarily for protective and park purposes. 



TAXATION OF FOREST LANDS 



A Review of Recent Studies in New Hampshire and Wisconsin 



By Edwin A. Start 



^^?:^HE vital importance to forestry of the question of taxation of forest lands 

 L^\ is generally recognized and the subject is frequently attacked by for- 

 ^^^ esters, lumbermen, economists and legislators; but so far without any 

 tangible results. The crude remedy of exemption has been tried by some states 

 but never with success. Attempts to remedy the recognized evils have been 

 occasionally made but these have generally run upon the rock of unconstitu- 

 tionality. For instance, in Massachusetts it was found that any application 

 of sound principles to forest taxation would conflict with the provision of the 

 state constitution, a provision which appears in many other state constitutions, 

 which requires equal and proportionate taxation of all classes of property. 

 The Massachusetts Forestry Association, therefore, united with the Boston 

 Chamber of Commerce in an effort to secure a constitutional amendment pro- 

 viding for classification of property for purposes of taxation. So far this 

 movement has been headed off by the innate conservatism of the state. 



We are not in a position in this country to apply the elaborate methods of 

 forest taxation that are in operation in Europe, because our forest conditions 

 are so different and we have not a sufficient body of trained men of technical 

 knowledge to administer laws based upon such knowledge; but it is admitted 

 that we must do something and we are thus thrown at once upon the necessity 

 of a thorough study of our own conditions and the evolution of a system appli- 

 cable to them. Two comprehensive studies have been made by Forest Service 

 experts cooperating with state officers, and the results have been published. 

 The first of these was made by J. H. Foster in New Hampshire in 1908. The 

 second, the results of which have just been published, was made by Alfred J. 

 Chittenden and Harry Irion in Wisconsin in 1910. 



These states are geographically wide apart and different conditions are 

 found in them, but it is curious to note the parallels between them and how 

 closely the two taxation studies run with each other. In both states lumbering 

 and pulp and paper making are industries of great importance. Both states 

 divide naturally into two sections a southern agricultural district, where 

 forests chietly exist in the form of farm wood-lots, and an extensive northern 

 district where natural forest lands predominate. In both the northern type of 

 forest is the prevailing one, though the hard-wood belt reaches up across south- 



