No. 4.] KEPORT OF STATE FORESTER. 337 



On deposit with the State Forester : — 



Francis B. Greene, Dartmouth, .... 

 Carrie D. Ilosmer, Orange, ..... 

 Hampsliire Pomona (irange, No. 8, . . . 



Total, .$15 00 



The Taxation of Woodlands. 



There is a great deal of dissatisfaction witli the present 

 method of assessing taxes on forest lands. This dissatis- 

 faction is shown by the laws that the different States are 

 enacting along these lines. Pennsylvania has a rebate sys- 

 tem ; if a private owner will fulfill certain conditions, he 

 receives a portion of his taxes back after they have been 

 paid. Connecticut, Massachusetts and other States also 

 have special laws in regard to the ta.xation of certain classes 

 of woodlands. For the most part these laws are not oper- 

 ative because they Avere not carefully thought out. They 

 serve to show the feeling of discontent with the i)resent sys- 

 tem, but they do not furnish a satisfactory solution of the 

 problem. 



The system, now generally in vogue, of assessing forest 

 lands for the purposes of taxation, provides for the taxation 

 not only of the land but of the growing crop as well. A 

 farmer's wheat crop is not taxed while it is growing. An 

 orchard or a vineyard yields returns in a very few 3'ears, 

 but the wood lot is oftentimes taxed for years before any 

 returns come in. Suppose, for example, a piece of land is 

 planted to white pine, which is to be cut fifty years from now. 

 As soon as that pine has reached a size at which it adds any 

 value to the land, the property is assessed accordingly until 

 it is cut, when it is again put back to the value of the land 

 without the crop. In other words, the present system pro- 

 vides for the taxation of a raw material not only once, but 

 many times. When this raw material is so universally used 

 in our manufactures, such heavy taxation is of doubtful ex- 

 pediency, granting it to be fair, which it is not. It hinders 

 the increase of wealth by taxino- it at its source. 



So there is dissatisfaction for two reasons : first, the crop 

 as well as the land is taxed, which is not the case with ordi- 



