190H 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



179 



tain to do in the future, unless posi- 

 tively forbidden. 



Our legislature has endeavoreded to 

 circumvent him to a certain extent by 

 providing for a rebate of taxes, not to 

 exceed forty-five cents per acre, on 

 land which may have three hundred 

 or more growing young trees upon it, 

 but he promptly puts that rebate out 

 of action by increasing the valuation 

 on that or the remainder of the own- 

 er's holdings, and in this it may be 

 reasonably expected that the county 

 commissioners will uphold him. It 

 must in some way be so fixed that it 

 will be impossible to impose a tax on 

 growing trees, or the owner thereof, 

 until such trees have a value as a mer- 

 chantable commodity if cut. Without 

 that restraint no one need expect that 

 land owners will plant or care for trees 

 when they must wait half a century 

 for returns on their investment and, in 

 addition, endure increasing taxation 

 besides. 



But can this be done ? Can we sep- 

 arate the products of the land from 

 the land itself for the purposes of tax- 

 ation ? It is an established principle 

 in taxation that land taxes may be 

 measured by area, or they may be 

 measured by rents which, in a sense, 

 is a product or by value ; and no mat- 

 ter which system prevails we primarily 

 fix the value, in most cases, by what 

 the land may produce. But suppose 

 the rental or product of the land shall 

 not be available in any possible way 

 for half a century or more ; can any 

 one give a good reason why such ren- 

 tal or product should be subject to an 

 annual and increasing tax? 



That a tax should be levied and paid 

 when the rental or product is received 

 or becomes of merchantable value is 

 not questioned nor proposed ; but what 

 is suggested is, that such an extension 

 of time should be given as will permit 

 the holder of the land to be in a posi- 

 tion to realize on his, thus far, non- 

 paying investment, and then tax for 

 full worth as on other property. In 

 other words, tax the land annually as 

 land, according to the Constitution, 

 but at no higher rate than if no trees 



were growing upon it, and when such 

 trees arrive at a marketable age, and 

 saleable, if cut for any purpose, then 

 tax the trees, which are simply the 

 product, as well as the land. 



Do we separate the land from its 

 products in the matter of taxation in 

 our State? Most asuredly. The act 

 of the legislature referred to (see act 

 approved April 20, 1905), practically 

 does that by partially relieving the 

 land of taxation. Timber growing on 

 land may be assessed to one party 

 while the land is assessed to another. 

 The case is the same with coal -both 

 products of the land. Whether timber 

 of suitable age, or coal lying in the 

 ground, should be taxed before re- 

 moval for sale is a question not, at this 

 stage of the argument, under consid- 

 eration, but the United States Govern- 

 ment, by act of Congress, permits 

 dutiable goods to be stored in bonded 

 warehouses without payment of duty 

 until removed for sale, and the law is 

 the same in certain cases where an ex- 

 cise duty Internal Revenue is not 

 collected until the goods are taken 

 from the bonded warehouses. But in 

 regard to the timber trees referred to, 

 the difference claimed between them 

 and young growing ones is, that one 

 is ripe and now merchantable, if cut, 

 while the other is not, nor can be for a 

 long time, and the contention is that 

 taxes should not be levied until the 

 growing trees shall have, at the time 

 taxation begins, a then present value. 



In this State we do not tax colts or 

 young cattle until they are four years 

 old an age in which they are es- 

 teemed to have a merchantable value. 

 A farmer may thus make a business of 

 growing young cattle and young 

 horses and disposing of them without 

 being subject to taxation at all. Thus 

 is the product of the land separated 

 from the land itself in taxation. 



The value of young trees is purely 

 prospective. It may never materialize. 

 Fire, disease, or insects may destroy 

 it. It has no marketable value until 

 large enough for use, and it cannot be 

 conceived that our Constitution con- 

 templates taxing non-existent or pros- 



