46 OUR NATIONAL FORESTS 



other official in the District handles any of the 

 Forest Service funds whatsoever. 



All remittances by users of the National Forests 

 are made to the U. S. District Depository. If a 

 rancher has bought some timber from a Forest 

 Ranger, he is given a letter of transmittal showing 

 the amount of the purchase which he must send to 

 the District Fiscal Agent with the amount neces- 

 sary to pay for the timber. The letter of transmit- 

 tal explains the purpose of the remittance. 



Tax Money Paid to the States. Another inter- 

 esting feature of the National Forest business is the 

 money paid each State out of the annual receipts 

 in lieu of taxes. It must be remembered that Na- 

 tional Forests do not pay taxes to the States in 

 which they are located. On the other hand, if the 

 National Forests were private property they would 

 bring into the county and state treasuries yearly 

 taxes. To compensate the State for the taxes lost 

 in this way each National Forest pays to each 

 county in proportion to the area of the National 

 Forest lands located in that county a sum of money 

 equal to 25 per cent, of the total gross receipts 

 each fiscal year. From the receipts of the fiscal 

 year 1917 this amounts to about $850,000. It is 



