20 TAXATION OF FOREST LANDS 



and not having been such within five years previously, the 

 actual value of which at the time of planting does not exceed 

 fifteen dollars per acre, shall, with such land, be exempt from 

 taxation for a period of ten years after said trees have grown 

 in height from four feet on the average subsequently to such 

 planting, upon satisfactory proof by the owners to the assessors 

 of these facts; but such exemption shall not extend beyond 

 the time during which said land is devoted exclusively to the 

 growth of said trees. 



This law is deficient in many ways. The number of 

 trees required is too large. By limiting the relief to the 

 few species named, an owner is not left a free choice in 

 selecting species best suited to his soil and the local 

 market. By limiting its application to lands that have 

 once been cultivated or in pasture, the law does not tend 

 towards a systematic treatment of existing woodlands, 

 an end of far more value to the Commonwealth than the 

 increase of the actual area covered by woods, the area 

 in woodlands already amounting to half its total area. 

 Moreover, the operation of such a law in a State like 

 Massachusetts, which, with the exception of portions of 

 the Cape, is potential forest land, where the conditions 

 of natural reproduction are generally good, would be to 

 put a premium on artificial reproduction, which as a rule 

 is more expensive than the natural methods. In other 

 words, the tendency of the law is to interfere in repro- 

 duction, which is purely a matter of silviculture, and 

 should be secured by the method which the conditions 

 on a particular tract in a particular locality would make 

 advisable. 



The law has been a failure, as practically no planting 

 has been done under it. 



The last law is found in chapter 409 of the Acts of 

 1904:- 



SECTION" 3. The state forester may establish and maintain 

 a nursery for the propagation of forest tree seedlings on such 

 lands as the trustees of the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- 

 lege may set aside for that purpose on the college grounds at 

 Amherst. . . . He may distribute seeds and seedlings to land- 



