162 FOREST VALUATIONS 



acre. The state then pays local taxes at 2 per cent of this valu- 

 ation, thus assuming the burden of annual taxation for the joint 

 benefit of the owner and community. These taxes are never 

 refunded by the owner. The owner pays a 10 per cent stumpage 

 tax when timber is cut. 



In all these laws only land voluntarily offered by the owner 

 and approved by the state forester, or in Massachusetts by 

 the local assessors, for classification, comes within the operation 

 of the law. This will result in a very gradual application of 

 the system. 



No valid objection can be urged to the adoption of similar 

 measures in any region, for they do not reduce the present taxes 

 and will result in greatly increased revenue in the future by 

 bringing into productive use forest lands which may otherwise 

 remain waste. 



The future taxation of lands bearing merchantable timber 

 is not so easily provided for. The immediate substitution of 

 an income tax which takes the same proportion of income as 

 the existing capital tax does of value, is entirely impractical, 

 owing to the condition of the capital (156). Not only would 

 the annual taxes from a given forest vary from the former 

 amounts paid annually, being either greater or less according 

 to rapidity of logging, but this variation would be general; and 

 regions where logging is being actively conducted would be in 

 receipt of largely increased temporary revenue, while districts 

 as yet untouched would be entirely without income from timber 

 values. Under the general property tax the local revenue is 

 secured only as long as the timber remains standing, after which 

 the land alone may be taxed. The loss of current revenue after 

 cutting is inevitable under any system. 



A plan proposed * for securing equality of revenue between 

 counties, for conditions prevalent in regions of heavy virgin 

 stands and large operations, contemplates the postponement 

 of the annual taxes on timber until the timber is cut, when they 

 will be paid in one sum but without compound interest. To 



* Report of Forestry Committee, 5th Conservation Congress, November, 

 1913, page 128. 



