660 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



The combination of an annual land tax and a yield 

 tax meets about the same objection. The principal value 

 of a mature forest is in the timber rather than the land. 

 Introduction of the annual land tax, therefore, fails to 

 meet the objections to the pure yield tax. At best it 

 mitigates them slightly. 



Taking everything into consideration, your Committee 



is of the opinion that the only practicable solution of 



f /^a t'^'s problem is to seek to 



Property Tax Offers ^^^^ ^^^ p^^p^^y tax as 



Best Solution for equitable and convenient as 

 Mature Forests ^^^^ ^e. In particular every 



effort should be made to insure a fair assessment of 

 forest property. This means not only an accurate valu- 

 ation. It requires also that the assessed value of forest 

 property shall not bear a higher ratio to its true value 

 than the prevailing ratio of assessed valuations to the 

 true value of all taxable property. Assessment at the 

 hands of a State officer or board would doubtless assure 

 uniformity and certainty in the assessments. There is 



always the danger, however, that such efficient assess- 

 ment by arriving at the true value of forest property 

 will unjustly burden such property as compared with 

 other property not so efficiently assessed. Equality in 

 taxation must be real equality, not merely formal. 



It is admitted that this solution is more favorable to 

 the forest of marketable timber than to that which is 

 for the present not marketable. But the committee has 

 thus far been unable to discover a practicable means of 

 reconcifing this discrepancy. As a matter of fact the 

 inequality would probably exist more in theory than in 

 practice. It is hardly to be supposed that the assessors 

 would take pains to raise the assessment of unmarketable 

 timber each year to take account of the approach of the 

 date of cutting, the possibility of this being what makes 

 the property tax unjust to such forests. If the assessors 

 seek honestly to value all mature forests on the same 

 basis as other taxable wealth it is probable that little 

 injustice will be done. If such treatment could be guar- 

 anteed, the owners of mature timber would probably have 

 little reason to complain. 



BUSINESS SEES TIMBER SHORTAGE 



'T'EN years ago, I took no stock in this talk of a timber 

 -* shortage," said W. DuB. Brookings, Manager of the 

 National Resources Production Department of the United 

 States Chamber of Commerce, in addressing a meet- 

 ing of the National Wholesale Lumber Dealers Asso- 

 ciation in Washington. "Today I can see the clouds gath- 

 ering on the horizon. We are using timber much faster 

 than it grows. Substitutes may lower the per capita con- 

 sumption, but the total consumption for the nation will 

 not decrease. And what is important to note is that low 

 per capita consumption results from high prices and in- 

 ability to get lumber, and not as is generally believed, 

 from preference for substitutes. Norway and Sweden, 

 lumber countries, use as much lumber per capita as the 

 United States. Italy and Spain would use as much also 

 if they could get it at a reasonable price. 



"The United States has had the cheapest lumber in the 

 world and the free use of our forests has been a factor 

 in our unparalleled economic growth ^but was it wise to 

 have permitted the great supplies near our eastern and 

 middle western industrial centers to become exhausted? 

 Picture those magnificent 12-foot fir trees of Oregon and 

 Washington being cut into one-by-four and two-by-four 

 and brought through the canal for use on the Atlantic 

 Coast, while almost at our doors, are the Southern States, 

 the greatest hothouse for growing timber in the world, 

 with millions of acres suitable only for growing timber, 

 lying idle. 



"Have these changes been of benefit to the lumber man- 

 ufacturers and distributors, taking an average over a 

 period of years and considering these industries as per- 

 manent factors in American business life? It has kept 

 the manufacturers on the move, and brought many prob- 

 lems to the wholesaler. The longer the freight haul 

 the higher the cost of freight; the higher the price the 

 greater the investment in doing business; the higher the 



price to the consumer the quicker he turns to substitutes. 

 The increase in freight charges on lumber over former 

 yeais for the city of Chicago alone is said to be $22,000,- 

 000, a basis for judging the total burden on the country 

 as a whole for not having timber supplies growing near- 

 er the great industrial centers. 



"Lumbermen may differ as to how to insure a steady 

 and ample supply of timber but they agree that the mil- 

 lions of acres of former timber lands unsuitable for agri- 

 culture, now lying idle in every state that has ever pro- 

 duced timber in large amounts, should in some way be 

 put to work." 



I'i^otngr.it ;; !i> i", S. Forest Service. 



THE ECONOMY OF WOOD PRESERVATION 



The broken post above was weakened by decay to the point of 

 failure after one year's service in the mine. It was sound 

 when installed, but was not treated with a preservative. The 

 post ne.xt to it, which was treated with a preservative and 

 placed at the same time, remains sound and uninfected by 

 decay. Two other untreated timbers in the foreground show 

 fungus attack. 



