206 STATE LAWS FOR PROMOTION OF TREE-PLANTING. 



this act, he entitled to have deducted from the valuation of his real or personal prop- 

 erty by the said assessor the amount hereinbefore provided, and it is hereby nuule tlie 

 duty of said assessor to make returns to the Board of Supervisors of his county of the 

 name of each person claiming exemption, the quantity of lands planted to timber or 

 fruit-trees, and the amount deducted from the valuation of his i)roperty. 



Sec. 4. If any person claiming exemption uuder the provisions of this act shall feel 

 himself aggrieved by the decision of the assessor in the rejection of his claim, then 

 the said owner or applicant may apply to the Board of Supervisors of his county, at 

 their meeting in June, to have the same corrected in the same manner as other errone- 

 ous assessments. 



Sec. 5. The Board of Supervisors of each county in this State is hereby empowered at 

 the June meeting, A. D. 1868, and at their January meeting in each j-ear thereafter, to 

 exempt from taxation, except for State purposes, the real or jjersonal property of. ach 

 tax-pajer who shall, within the county, within such year, plantaud suitably cultivate, 

 or having within such year or the two jireceding years planted, shall suitably cultivate 

 one or more acres of forest-trees for timber, to an amount not exceeding $500 for each 

 acre: Provided, That said board may fix the minimum number of trees which shall be 

 grown on each acre. 



Sec. 6. Such Board is also empowered at the same time to make a similar exemption 

 for every half mile of hedge, and for every mile of shade-trees along the public highway, 

 and for every acre of fruit-trees so planted and cultivated, and to establish the rules 

 and regulations in reference to the planting and cultivating of hedges, shade and fruit 

 trees, and the distance at which they shall be planted, which shall be complied with 

 by persons asking such exemption. 



Sec. 7. Any person claiming the benetit of such exemption may appear before the 

 Board of Supervisors at any regular meeting, and upon making proof by sworn evi- 

 dence, showing to the satisfaction of such Board that he has complied with the require- 

 ments which entitle him to such exemption, he shall receive from the clerk of the 

 board a certificate stating the amount of thfe-cexemi^tion, which shall be received by 

 the county treasurer in satisfaction of the taxes exempted. i 



Sec. 8. This act, being deemed of immediate importance, shall take effect and be in 

 force from and after its publication in the Iowa State Register and Iowa Homestead, 

 newspapers published at Des Moines, Iowa. 



The sixth section of the preceding law was amended February 21, 

 1872 (chap. 3, laws of the fourteenth general assembly), as follows : 



Sec 6. Such board is also empowered at the same time to make a similar exemptirn for 

 every half mile of hedge and for every mile of shade-trees along a public highway 

 and for every acre of fruit-trees planted and cultivated as an orchard, and to make 

 one-half of such exemption for every quarter of a mile of hedge, and every half mile of 

 shade-trees along the public highways so idanted and cultivated, and to establish rules 

 and regulations in T-eference to the planting and cultivation of hedges, shade and fruit 

 trees, and the distance at which they shall be planted, and which shall be complied 

 ■with by persoLS asking such exemption: Provided, Tbat under this act, and the act 

 to which this is amendatory, no person shall have to exceed one-half his real estate ex- 

 empted from taxation : Ami provided further, That the owners or proprietors of nur- 

 series for the growing of forest-trees shall not be entitled to any exemption for any 

 trees grown for sale alone.-* 



KANSAS. 



An act was passed by the legislature of Kansas, March 2, 1868, to 

 encourage the growth of forest-trees by offering a bounty of $2 for 

 every acre of prairie land that might be planted within ten years with 

 any kind of forest-trees excepting black locust and successfully grown 

 and cultivated for three years. A like bounty was offered for each half 

 mile of trees planted along any public highway not more than a rod 

 apart, and cultivated and protected three years. The bounty was to 

 continue twenty-five years (commencing three years after planting), if 

 the plantation was kept in growing condition during that time. Proper 



1 See amendment following. 



- The secretary of the State Agricultural Society, in remarking upon this act, says : 

 " The law is too cumbersome. It is loaded down with so many things to do before ex- 

 emption is made that it is practically a failure. * * * It is submitted that the 

 simplest form of legislation, and one promising the beet results, is to ofler a direct 

 bounty in cash to the cultivator of a given area of artificial timber. A few years 

 would so thoroughly satisfy every ore of the benetit of arboriculture that the bounty 

 •would bo no longer needed as a stimulus." — (^Report 1874, p. 2G.) 



