126 PRACTICAL FORESTRY IN 



only crop taxed more than once, and if taxed annually at its full 

 value the cost to the owner of holding the property would be bo 

 excessive as to require its hasty disposal. Assessors everywhere feel 

 instinctively the inherent injustice of taxing a growing crop at a 

 high annual rate, and violate the law and their oaths of office with 

 impunity. The result is there are as many systems of forest taxa- 

 tion in the State as there are assessors, and glaring inequalities 

 exist, not only between neighboring towns, but also in some instances 

 between different parts of the same town. 



The unequally high rate placed upon the timber of non-residents is 

 wholly iniquitous. 



New Hampshiee State Grange, Committee on Agriculture: 

 Many of the towns in our State invite the misuse of forests by over- 

 taxation. This should be guarded against. By reasonable thrift we 

 can produce a constant wood and timber supply beyond our own 

 need, and with it conserve the usefulness of our streams for water 

 supply, navigation and power, and at the same time increase the 

 value of our farms. 



E. M. Griffith, State Forester of Wisconsin : The present method 

 of taxing timberlands is hostile to the forestry interests of the State, 

 as a single timber crop is taxed heavily and repeatedly, and the 

 owners are forced by our present laws to cut their mature timber in 

 order to escape inequitable taxation, to sacrifice their young growth, 

 and to disregard conservative methods of forest management. 



Taxes are unfortunately a very valid reason in many sections of 

 the State for not practicing forestry. Many town assessors seem 

 to feel that they must tax the timberland owner, especially the non- 

 resident owner, as heavily as possible, and naturally in self-defense 

 the owner is forced to cut his timber and so reduce the taxes to a 

 reasonable amount. Then, when it is too late, the towns find that 

 they have "killed the goose that laid the golden egg." -However, 

 the loss of the taxes on the timber is but a drop in the bucket com- 

 pared to the irreparable damage to many communities from losing the 

 industries which depended uupon the forests for their raw material. 

 To appreciate this one only needs to visit towns in which the saw- 

 mills have shut down on account of lack of timber. 



Of late years the end of the timber has been largely hastened on 

 account of the excessive taxes placed upon it. The whole system of 

 forest taxation in this country is wrong, for it puts a premium on 

 forest destruction. 



Ralph C. Hawley, Instructor in Forestry, Yale University: A 

 system of taxation which discriminates against timber, one of the 

 chief natural resources of the commonwealth, is to be condemned. 



Kentucky State Department of Agriculture Report: When 



