1906 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



183 



man for a benefit which he has not 

 yet received. If a timber owner 

 holds land twenty years and then 

 sells at an advanced price, he then 

 receives his increment and income, 

 for both of which he should pay. 

 So also he should when he realizes on 

 his investment by cutting the trees. 

 But, taxing standing timber is not only 

 false in principle, but is pernicious in 

 its results, because it is confiscating 

 (practically) the lands, to avoid which 

 the owner cuts the trees, and so in- 

 flicts an injury (as things now are) 

 on the State. There are known meth- 

 ods of doing this. 



"It is objected that if growing tim- 

 ber is exempted from taxation, it would 

 work a wrong to the poorest counties, 

 because it would leave them without 

 requisite funds for opening and repair- 

 ing roads. This, of course, would be 

 is it any more than 

 and failing to repair 

 may prove 



bad enough, but 

 taking the taxes 

 the roads? The 



too much. 



argument 



"Let us look just a little down into 

 the future : This good-road question 

 is a rising one. It will not down. It 

 has come to stay, and we may frankly 

 meet the issue. The State requires 

 ready means of communication from 

 place to place. Without them we should 

 be largely at the mercy of the rail- 

 roads. In proportion as these are good 

 we are less dependent of the railroads. 



"Now, is it not possible that we 

 should be taking a step on which the 

 wisdom of the future would pronounce 

 favorably if we were to do this? 



"Remove the tax from standing tim- 

 ber until it is sold or cut. And what- 

 ever revenue a township loses, by thus 

 exempting the timber, let the State re- 

 store, to be expended under competent 

 supervision in maintaining a proper 

 road system in that township. 



"It will be observed that this grants 

 the largest aid just where need of de- 

 velopment is greatest, and that the 

 State helps itself as much, or more, 

 than it helps the townships." 



MANAGEMENT AND NATURAL 

 REPRODUCTION OF CHIR PINE 

 NEAR DEHRA DUN 



BY 

 T. S. WOOLSEY, Jr. 



Forest Assistant, United States Forest Service. 



TO the American forest student the 

 hill forests of the Eastern Hima- 

 layas are perhaps the most interesting 

 and instructive in India. The species 

 at elevations over 4,000 feet are in 

 many ways similar to the pine and 

 spruce forests of the United States. 

 The chir pine is similar to our South- 

 ern pines, especially in the ease of 

 natural reproduction when protected 

 from fire. The blue pine is practi- 

 cally our white pine. The spruce and 

 fir forests differ chiefly in the difficulty 

 of their reproduction and the absence 

 of the hardwoods in mixture. 



The bill forests visited by the writer 

 lie between Chakrata and Simla. Those 

 bordering Chakrata and the Tons Riv- 

 er (headwaters of the Ganges) are 

 administered from Dehra Dun under 

 the Jaunsar Division. Tins forest di- 

 vision is one of the most important in 

 India, and most deserves a visit on ac- 

 count of its intensive silvicultural 

 treatment and the interesting methods 

 of lumbering. Their wet timber slides 

 are especially ingenious in that the ties 

 themselves serve as the sides of slide 

 until the "drive" is completed when 

 they in turn are sent to market. The 



