June, 1937] Land Utilization in New Hampshire 45 



relief, and $2,404.77 for State-aid construction. While the road main- 

 tenance and construction serve the forestry and summer interests, most 

 of the costs are on account of the year-round occupants. The assessed 

 value of all year-round occupied places outside the Groton village and 

 vicinity is only $32,880 and the tax revenue from such places totals only 

 $900.00. It is interesting to note that the total gross sales of agricul- 

 tural products was $3,798.50 for all these places. Sales of forest prod- 

 ucts from farms was $678. 



If this road building were a passing phase and when once completed 

 the occupants could devote their energies to other productive work the 

 situation could be justified. The difficulty is that road building has 

 become the main industr^y of the town, and future low road costs and 

 the consequent curtailment of work to occupants of locations will not 



The occupancy of this isolated shack was responsible for special 

 school transportation costs. 



solve the problem. A modest income of $200 to $300 per family is 

 more needed than road service efficiency. 



Roads are built mainly to service present occupants but if the com- 

 pletion of the roads results in no employment, the people may have to 

 abandon these "good" roads to the occasional timber operator. 



Since forestry is the chief potential resource in the town, the work 

 on roads may well be organized from the viewpoint of forest require- 

 ments and if there is little or no work in the back areas for the occa- 

 sional family, productive work should be made available, perhaps some- 

 where else. 



The power line representing about one-third of the tax base requires 

 little or no public servicing; and if this valuation were eliminated, the 

 tax rate would have been about $4.39, or nearly twice that of Dorchester. 



Occupation of isolated places tends to raise total costs of government 

 and even though the State may share in the extra costs by State-aid 

 grants the greater part of the burden is distributed over all property 

 and raises the tax rate. A high tax rate in turn tends to discourage 

 development of timber resources. Corporations and individuals are 

 forced usually to strip the timber from the land because the taxes prac- 

 tically confiscate any expected future return from growth. This strip- 



