ASPECTS OF THE PRESENT FORESTRY AGITATION. 143 



— for the lungs of the citizens in an adjacent county it may be — 

 and the water collected and stored turns the factory wheels or 

 enters reservoirs a hundred miles away. But the owner, receiving 

 at most only his share of these blessings, must pay the whole tax. 

 I object then to that woodland tax, on the very ground of its 

 inequality. But the principle is wrong in another way. Thus the 

 idea of taxation is, I think, based not on property as such, but on 

 the benefits derived from it. An authority says, " all tax must 

 ultimately come from rent, profit, or wages." But the owner of 

 the unused timber land is receiving neither rent, profit, nor wages. 

 How then can he be justly taxed ? Lastly, 1 object to a tax on 

 timber land because it not only puts a premium on removal of the 

 trees, but, in some instances, as for example that given by 

 Senator Sawyer, actually necessitates clearing away the timber 

 and leads to subsequent abandonment of the ground. I cannot 

 give an exact estimate, but think I am safe in the assertion that 

 in Pennsylvania there are about two thousand square miles of 

 land absolutely worthless for all agricultural purposes, and where 

 our most important streams head. For all that vast area there is 

 but one natural destiny, the production of timber and the conser- 

 vation of water. Now the State should either own it all, or 

 remove the taxes from it. I do not think that Pennsylvania 

 stands alone. From a paragraph written as early as 1846, by 

 Mr. George B. Emerson, when treating of the Rock Chestnut 

 oak, I think, Massachusetts has also some similar areas. I 

 quote the passage: ''But the chief recommendation of the rock 

 chestnut oak, is the situation in which it grows. It grows 

 naturally and flourishes on the steep sides of rocky hills where 

 few other trees can thrive, and where the other kinds of oak can 

 hardly get a foothold. There are, probabl}-, thousands of acres 

 of hill}', rocky land, in almost every county in Massachusetts, 

 where various kinds of evergreens have grown, unmixed with 

 deciduous trees, until they have exhausted all the nutriment 

 suited to their support, and where now, consequently, nothing 

 thrives, which ground would furnish abundant support for this 

 kind of oak." This was written forty-four years ago. You can 

 say better than I whether the condition of affairs has improved in 

 the meanwhile, and what is the proper legislation, if any be 

 needed, for such areas. Only allow me to suggest that you do not, 

 in any way, encourage the owner to despoil the commonwealth. 



