FORESTRY IN MASSACHUSETTS 



wards nor the district police to whom they report through 

 the selectmen. The fault is in the system, rather than in its 

 personnel. 



Fire is the greatest enemy of the forest. It not only in- 

 jures and destroys merchantable timber, but it often destroys 

 for a number of years the conditions which are conducive to 

 growth, so that the damage done is more than the injury to 

 or the destruction of the merchantable part of a stand of trees. 



We raise a hue and cry about the " devastation " wrought 

 by the lumberman ; we say that he is cutting all he can get 

 out of his woods, without regard to future crops. But in 

 many cases the lumberman has an excellent reason for cut- 

 ting as severely as he does, and that reason is, that he would 

 rather have his aioney in a bank than to have it in the woods 

 exposed to fire. If we want the lumberman to act differ- 

 ently, we must meet him half-way ; we must protect his crop 

 to the extent of making it possible for him to insure it at 

 reasonable rates, that do not exceed the rate of growth of 

 the crop. 



The present conditions must be improved if forestry in 

 this State is to make rapid and substantial progress. 



(5) A Fair Method of Taxation 



There is a great deal of dissatisfaction with the present 

 method of assessing taxes on forest lands. This dissatisfac- 

 tion is shown by the laws that the different States are enact- 

 ing along these lines. Pennsylvania 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. Con- 

 necticut, Massachusetts and other States also have special 

 laws in regard to the taxation of certain classes of wood- 

 lands. For the most part these laws are not operative, be- 

 cause they were not carefully thought out. They serve to 

 show the feeling of discontent with the present system, but 

 they do not furnish a satisfactory solution of the problem. 



The system, now generally in vogue, of assessing forest 

 lands for 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 



