252 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



fair if the county or state did its part of the con- 

 tract, namely, furnished adequate protection against 

 fire risk. This calculation leaves out any allowance 

 for cost of protection and administration, and, on 

 the other hand, also of the possibility of harvesting 

 higher-priced materials. Since it is usual to tax 

 the "wrecking value" rather than the true value, 

 it would probably be fair to assess upon the assump- 

 tion of this lowest value production or even still 

 further reduce the assessment to allow for risk and 

 cost of protection. 



How do we find forest property actually taxed ? 

 For an example we may cite a definite case 

 from Wisconsin, a state where values are naturally 

 still unsettled, but stumpage is probably lower than 

 that assumed above. Here, for an aggregate of 

 tracts of hardwood lands from which the valuable 

 pine has been removed, the taxes for a number of 

 years have varied from 3 cents to 40 cents per 

 acre a year without any reference to changes in 

 condition or value, and have averaged about 10 

 cents per acre, that is to say, 20 to 30 per cent of 

 what probably is the year's production must be 

 paid to the tax gatherer. On a virgin growth, 

 with the pine left, the taxes were never below 

 50 cents. It is safe to say that no other property 

 is so heavily taxed. It is a premium on deforesta- 

 tion, after which the land, worth $6 to $y per acre 

 for agricultural purposes, will be more reasonably 

 treated. And these examples of irrational taxa- 



