16 TAXATION OF FOREST LANDS 



who shall knowingly and wilfully make any fraudulent return 

 to the assessor, shall be liable to a fine of not more than five 

 hundred dollars, or imprisonment of not more than one year, 

 or either or both, at the discretion of the court: provided, 

 however, that the provisions of this act shall not be construed 

 so as to exempt from taxation more than five hundred acres, 

 owned by any one person or body corporate, or limited copart- 

 nership or association. 



All acts inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed. 



Approved the twentieth day of April, A.D. 1905. 



(3) EXEMPTION FOB A PERIOD OF YEARS. 



Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, 

 New Hampshire, Ehode Island and Vermont have laws 

 which exempt young forest plantations for a period of 

 years. Answers to our inquiries into the results of these 

 laws were received from Connecticut, Maine, New Hamp- 

 shire and Vermont. The Vermont law has been in force 

 only since the spring of 1905, and of course has not had 

 time to show any results. Although the law has been on 

 the statute books in the other States for many years, in 

 one of them since 1878, almost no results are reported. 

 This is accounted for by the fact that in every case the 

 law is at fault in its phraseology. A law which is re- 

 stricted in its operation to plantations that is, to artifi- 

 cial reproduction must necessarily fall short of securing 

 satisfactory results. Such laws, to give good results, must 

 be drawn so as to include young stands produced by natural 

 seeding and sprouting. Moreover, in several instances the 

 specified number of plants per acre is unnecessarily large, 

 and the number of species of tree which may be planted 

 is unnecessarily small, not including some of the best 

 native species. And, finally, the exemption in several in- 

 stances is restricted to land which has been previously 

 cultivated in field crops. This excludes any possibility of 

 continuity of forest crops from the same parcel of land. 



As a type of this kind of law, that of Ehode Island is 

 given : 



