TAXES ON FORESTS. 189 
found elsewhere in Europe, and there is still in those sections a 
great waste of forest products, and large losses occur there annu- 
ally from forest fires. But in the most accessible parts of Rus- 
sia, and in Sweden, Norway, and in the larger portion of Ger- 
many and France, there is a profitable market for all we term 
waste forest products, such as the smaller top logs, the branches, 
twigs, leaves, stumps, underbrush, and even the roots of trees. 
In this country such material encumbers the ground, and greatly 
increases the danger of forest fires, which is by far the greatest 
source of injury to growing timber. 
Taxes on Timber Lands. The taxes on timber lands are 
generally excessive in this country, and entirely out of propor- 
tion to the value of the land, and it is largely on this account 
that owners of timber lands do not care to hold them. This, as 
a matter of state policy, is unwise, for the reason that it prevents 
the development of economic forestry. In most European coun- 
tries where forestry is well developed it is customary to levy a 
small tax on the land and to tax the products only when they are 
harvested. Such a tax system is almost unknown in this coun- 
try, but it is much more just for forest property than our ordi- 
nary taxing methods. It would seem that forest property ought 
to be regarded in a special class for the purposes of taxation, for 
the reason that as a matter of state policy it should be encour- 
aged, and the ordinary methods of taxation retard its best de- 
velopment. 
Income Game Preserves. Most of the European forests 
are used as game preserves, as well as for forestry purposes. It 
is well known, however, that the presence of large game in the 
forest is generally a great disadvantage, and that much injury 
may come from its presence there, and the rental of about twen- 
ty-five cents per acre, which is the price generally paid for the 
use of forest preserves, is not sufficient to cover the loss. 
The German forestry service generally think it desirable to 
have game in the forests for other considerations than that of its 
rental value, and chiefly from the fact that it adds interest to the 
forest, and in this way attracts the attention of parties who other- 
wise would not be so much interested in it. There is a great deal 
of sentiment attached to the presence of this game among 
the foresters themselves, and it is said that were it not for this 
sentiment Germany could never keep as fine a body of men in 
