No. 4.] REPORT OF STATE FORESTER. 



321 



Fitchburg Woman's Club, Fitchburg, 



Francis B. Greene, New Bedford, 



Hampshire Coiinty Pomona Grange, Easthampton 



Dwight B. Heard, Cherry Brook, 



W. R. Hannum, Easthampton, . 



C. D. Hosmer, Orange, 



J. H. Hutchings, Phillipston, 



C. A. Judd, South Hadley, 



State Board of Agriculture, travelling expenses, lecture at 



Lancaster, ..... 

 Laurence Minot, Wareham, 

 George P. Morse, West Wareham, 

 New England Box Company, Greenfield, 

 Old Colony Pomona Grange, Stoughton, 

 Board of Prison Commissioners, West Rutland, 

 F. A. Smith, Ipswich, .... 



Lewis A. Wright, Gardner, 



On deposit with the State Forester : — 

 Dwight B. Heard, Cherry Brook, 

 W. O. Whitcomb, Egremont, 



$2 53 

 1 45 



1 17 

 9 22 



30 



2 06 

 24 21 



12 



40 

 75 

 45 

 50 

 95 

 96 

 40 

 03 



15 78 

 50 00 



The Taxation of Woodlands. 



As stated in last year's report, there is a great deal of 

 dissatisfaction with the present method of assessing taxes on 

 forest lands. This dissatisfaction is shown by the laws that 

 the diiferent States are enacting along these lines. Pennsyl- 

 vania has a rebate system ; 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 taxation 

 of certain classes of woodlands. For the most part these 

 laws are not operative because they were not carefully 

 thought out. They serve to show the feeling of discontent 

 with the present system, but they do not furnish a satisfac- 

 tory solution of the problem. 



The system, now generally in vogue, of assessing forest 

 lands for the purpose 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 years, 

 but the wood lot is oftentimes taxed for years before any 

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



