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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



service on modern lines under an efficient forester. Wisconsin, which has 

 long stood in the front rank, is working on a series of forestry measures, 

 designed to further enlarge and strengthen the state forest service and to 

 increase the forest property of the state. In the south, Florida has a forest 

 law under consideration, and Louisiana, to which we give some space this 

 month, has adopted an interesting legislative policy, some phases of which 

 still have the gauntlet of the courts to run. In the east, the states that have 

 already shaped forest policies are protecting them at points where weakness 

 has been shown. New Hampshire, in particular, has formulated a very com- 

 plete forest law which seems to be a model for the conditions to which it 

 applies. 



It is not surprising that in all this new legislation, protection from fire 

 is emphasized. The fires of the last year and the active agitation of various 

 associations and individuals, united with the self-interest of the timberland 

 owners, have inevitably forced to the front this n>ost obvious phase of forestry 

 a phase which has all the pressing urgency of general property protection. 



It is equally interesting to note that another subject, confessedly of the 

 first importance, that of forest taxation, is conspicuous by its absence from 

 legislative action. It is a melancholy fact that in all the thousands of years 

 in which human society has been experimenting with various forms of taxation 

 for the support of government, no well-reasoned, scientific system has received 

 general sanction and been put into efi'ect. We have to acknowledge that 

 all our systems of taxation are unscientific makeshifts. The taxation of 

 our forests suffers especially under these conditions, because the forestry 

 question has been so imperfectly understood, and the means of securing a 

 public income from private forest lands that will be at once just to the public 

 and to the private owner, has not presented itself clearly to our lawmakers. 

 It is very difficult to secure a frank and intelligent discussion of this subject. 

 Everybody is willing to talk about it and everyone acknowledges the importance 

 of reaching some intelligent conclusion, but very few are willing to commit 

 themselves definitely to any policy. The whole subject of taxation seems to 

 have its terrors which increase with knowledge. 



