298 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



maintaining roads, and the general expenses are as much as they 

 are able to finance. With an acreage of 8,000 acres, some of 

 which is wooded and a large percentage of it capable of being 

 reforested, it would seem that the State is derelict in its duty in 

 not setting the private land-owner a good example by practicing 

 upon its own land the principles of forestry management. What 

 is true of Grey lock is more or less true of other reservations and 

 lands owned by the State at various institutions. 



As a means of getting some real active forestry work started on 

 these lands the State Forester might be given a small yearly 

 appropriation for doing work of this sort in co-operation with the 

 various boards. Should this be done it is suggested that the 

 receipts from this work thereafter should be turned over to the 

 State through the State Treasurer. Were we to spend S5,000 a 

 year simply for manual labor in thinning existing growth or set- 

 ting out young trees, it will be seen that the expenditure would 

 go very far toward getting done just what is necessary. 



Forest Taxation. 

 It has long been known to the observant that the present unjust 

 method of taxing forest lands has constituted one of the most 

 formidable obstacles to the development of forestry in this State. 

 Under the present law all property, both real and personal, is 

 subject to taxation to provide the revenue necessary to defray 

 the running expenses of municipal. State and national govern- 

 ment. This law applies to forest lands the same as to other 

 kinds of property, and requires an annual assessment of taxes 

 based upon the true value of the land, together with the trees 

 growing thereon. The evil of this common practice has been 

 made painfully apparent by the action of the owners of such 

 property, who to escape this burdensome tax seek relief by cut- 

 ting and marketing the trees while very immature, and long 

 before they have attained their highest commercial value. The 

 question of taxation has also served to retard the progress of the 

 reforestation movement, the importance of w^hich to the economic 

 welfare of the State is of such magnitude as to fairly entitle it to 

 any reasonable concession, of whatever nature, which may have 

 a tendency to encourage and foster it. By the authority given 

 it by the amendment to the Constitution adopted by the voters 



