TAXATION OF FOREST LANDS 15 



vation of forest or timber trees, the owner or owners of any 

 land or lands in this Commonwealth who shall plant the same 

 with forest or timber trees, in number not less than three 

 hundred to the acre, shall have a rebate in his or her or its Rebate of 

 taxes, to the amount of eighty per centum thereof, thereon, 

 for a period of thirty-five years: provided, That such rebate Proviso. 

 shall not amount to more than forty-five cents per acre, said 

 period of exemption to be counted from the time the said 

 land or lands shall have been planted with forest or timber 

 trees, as aforesaid, or from the time it may have been neces- 

 sary to replant the same, as aforesaid, by reason of destruc- 

 tion from fire; and the rebate herein provided for shall be 

 calculated and allowed by the tax collector. 



SECTION 2. The owner or owners of any land or lands in sprout forest 

 this Commonwealth who shall maintain upon said land or 

 lands sprout forest or timber trees, in number not less than 

 three hundred to an acre, shall be entitled to and receive the 

 rebate of taxes as provided in section one; said period of ex- 

 emption to be counted from the time the said land or lands 

 shall have been so maintained with sprout forest or timber 

 trees, or from the time that said sprout forest or timber trees 

 may have been destroyed by fire. 



SECTION 3. Upon any tract or tracts selected as a forest 

 reservation, in accordance with sections one and two of this 

 act, which contain fifty or less original forest trees on each 

 acre, the owner or owners may plant a sufficient number of 

 trees which shall make up not less than the required three 

 hundred trees to the acre, and the same shall become subject 

 to this act, in accordance with sections one and two. 



SECTION 4. No land owner or owners shall receive the 

 benefit of this act who shall permit cattle, horses, sheep, hogs 

 or goats to pasture upon such reservation or reservations, until 

 at least two hundred trees upon each acre of said tract are 

 four or more inches in diameter two feet from the surface of 

 the land. 



SECTION 5. It shall be the duty of the township assessor Duties of 



, ,, J .. township 



oi taxes to personally examine the various iorest reservations, assessors. 

 and, if found necessary, to demand of the owner or owners, or 

 their agent thereof, to subscribe under oath that the land is 

 maintained under the conditions of this act; and to return to 

 the county commissioners the number of acres so maintained 

 and the time from which the land has been so maintained; 

 and also to make a duplicate return of the same data to the 

 state forestry commission. 



SECTION 6. Any assessor who shall knowingly and wilfully 

 accept and make a fraudulent return, or any owner or agent 



