buildings remain on enrolled units. Only cows have been lost for immedi- 

 ate purposes of taxation.-' Some land enrolled in the Program might be 

 defined as cropland for the next few years. However, over 54 percent of 

 the total enrollment is scheduled to be planted to trees and must eventual- 

 ly be classed as woodland. When forest land and cropland are valued at 

 different rates, a change in the town tax base is inevitable. 



The loss in property valuation will be felt most in the four towns that 

 had more than 15 percent of their total valuation allocated to agricultural 

 properties. Colebrook and Columbia have as much as 18 and 25 percent 

 of their assessed valuations in agriculture when enumerated in 1957 (Ap- 

 pendix Table 11). The fact that these two towns enrolled the highest actual 

 acreages and the highest percentages of their own cropland in the Pro- 

 gram, would indicate that they would be most likely to have tax problems 

 cvSsociated with the Program. 



The majority of the towns in the County should have only minor tax- 

 base problems arising from enrollment of cropland in the Program. This 

 is based on the fact that so many towns have very low proportions of their 

 tax bases in agricultural properties. 



Long-term Land Use 



At the time of Program enrollment, the intention of the owners of 54 

 percent of the cropland was to plant the land to trees (Appendix Table 12). 

 Most of this land would have reverted to brush in the next decade or two 

 and eventually to forest land had there been no Program. If reforestation 

 is allowed to occur by natural processes, foresters estimate that it would 

 take as long as 20 years for the more valuable species to become estab- 

 lished even as seedlings. While the actual time for reforestation on a 

 natural seeding basis will vary by size of field and surrounding tree cover, 

 it is obvious that the time period needed for desirable stands is much longer 

 with natural seeding than with planting. Reforestation under the Program 

 was faster and with species of greater potential value. This aspect is a 

 long-run social gain to compensate society in part for its investment in 

 land retirement and tree-planting incentive payments. Essentially, societv 

 exchanged from $65 to $155 per acre investment and some production of 

 hay for about 10 to 20 years growth of more desirable forest species. ^"^ 

 Where milk is a surplus commodity, the hay from these acres could be 

 assigned no monetary value to society. 



Long-run Social Costs 



The effect of the Program on long-run social costs can be partly en- 

 visioned from a study of Figure 4, which shows the location of agricultural 

 units in the towns of Colebrook and Columbia. Many of the Soil Bank 

 units are located at the ends of roads and on the poorer roads. With the 

 agricultural resources on these units being abandoned, there is a possi- 

 bility of reducing the cost of maintaining town roads and school bus 

 transportation. It may not involve an actual reduction in mileage but only 



^ Farm machinery is not a taxable property in New Hampshire. 



I*' Ahhough some stands may be used for Christmas trees, what is cut on this planted 

 acreage is not cut on existing forest land. 



37 



