310 BOARD OF AGRICl'LTlllE. [Pub. Doc. 



The passing of the foregoing legislation by the present General 

 Court is believed to be of great importance by the State Forester. 

 In order to give the State Forester's opinion more in detail, the 

 following letter is published, which was alluded to in Governor 

 Foss's message : — 



Governor Eugene N. Foss. 



Dear Sir: — In reply to your request for a statement of my opinions 

 concerning forest taxation in this State, I submit the following: — 



Of the Massachusetts 5,400,000 acres, as far as I am able to ascertain 

 practically three-fifths, or at least 3,000,000 acres, are better adapted to 

 forestry than any other purpose. We have a naturally rolhng country, 

 and from its geological formation much of our lands are either hilly, rocky, 

 mountainous, sandy or moist, so that they are unadapted for general 

 agriculture. These same lands, however, were originally covered with 

 splendid stands of primeval forests, and under modern methods of man- 

 agement we have every reason to believe can be made a great funda- 

 mental asset to the State's future. 



We have in Massachusetts a natural forest country. From a study of 

 the white pine as found growing naturally in the State, we have statistics 

 in the State Forester's office that show very conclusively that were wc able 

 to keep our lands adapted to forests, growing this species alone, the 

 average annual increment of gro\\i:h would range from 751 feet board 

 measure under slow-growing conditions to 1,130 feet under fast-growing 

 conditions for each acre. The above data were for yearly averages of 

 fifty- j^ear growth stands. 



When we realize that at present white pine averages from S6 to SI 2 

 per thousand for stumpage, one can appreciate what values are possible 

 in even a small State like Massachusetts if properly regulated. What is 

 true of the white pine is more or less true of other forest species. The 

 above data are taken from natural conditions. 



It is well known by foresters that under modern methods of forestry 

 management, like that pursued by the Germans, greater yields can be 

 depended upon. From our present knowledge of forest production, and 

 its bearing upon Massachusetts, we believe it a conservative statement to 

 say that were we able to control forest fires, insect and disease depreda- 

 tions, and to practice modern forestry management, we could expect 

 the average yearly income to the State at present prices to range from 

 $10,000,000 to S25,000,000. We are reasonably sure, as well, that future 

 prices of forest products will be much higher than at present. 



The conditions of our present forest taxation are extremely elastic. In 

 many towns the tendency is to place a heavy valuation on timber lands, 

 while here and there we find that little change has been made for a number 

 of years, although the true valuation has greatly increased. Instances 

 are shown where forests have been taxed at a nominal sum until pur- 



