TAX LANDS AND FORESTRY. 33 



growth shoTild be taxed only once while the tree is standing; that is, 

 the tax on forest growth, as distinct from the land, should be based on 

 the value of the annual increase. This may readily be arrived at by a 

 table giving results according to acreage, such tables to apply to the 

 whole State, and to be prepared and adopted by the State Tax Commis- 

 sion with expert aid. Under such a tax system the tree at the assumed 

 time of maturity will have paid a tax on eighty valuations of annual 

 growth. Hence the taxes paid will, in the aggregate, be a tax on the 

 matured tree as it stands when it is fit to cu,t. But inasmuch as the 

 tree while growing has had protection from the State for the long term 

 of years necessary to bring it to maturity, it is just that a reasonable 

 cutting tax should be paid as compensation to the State which has fur- 

 iiished this protection. This tax, if reasonable in amount, will not 

 operate to deter ventures in commercial forestry. It will be looked at, 

 and properly, as a rational substitute for the cumulative taxation that 

 now stands in the way of forestry as a business proposition. At the 

 same time, the taxes that the towns and counties are entitled to con- 

 sider their due will be paid annually, the full value of the product or 

 crop being taxed as fast as it comes into existence; whereas the protec- 

 tion for years that makes the venture possible is furnished by the State, 

 and the harvest tax should therefore be a tax fixed by, and accruing to, 

 the State. 



TAXATION OF FARM WOODLOTS. 



It is conceded universally that the farm woodlot contributes largely 

 to the public welfare. Objections that might be advanced against the 

 lowering of taxation upon commercial ttacts of timber now standing, 

 do not apply to the farm woodlot or to farm forestry: neither does the 

 same reasoning as to tax exemption apply that we have advanced con- 

 cerning commercial reforestation. The very purpose of the farm wood- 

 lot is permanence: it is not for liimbering and exploitation for 

 profits. It is not strictly a business venture. Each woodlot is small, 

 and a part of a farm. Woodlots are located usually in the more settled 

 districts wjiere land is of greater value than is such cut-over land as will 

 generally be used for commercial forest raising. By taxing the land as 

 unimproved land, the burden of taxes on woodlots will therefore be 

 relatively greater, so that exemption of the forest growth on the woodlot 

 will no more than equalize as between these classes of forest raisers. 



We recommend that it be provided that farm woodlots be taxed by 

 assessing, and taxing the land only as unimproved land, giving entire 

 exemption to the forest growth thereon; provided that the owner man- 

 ages the woodlot, and conforms in regard thereto, to such proper rules 

 and regulations as may be imposed by law. 



A constitutional amendment will be necessary to the validity of such 

 a modification of the laws governing taxation of forest properties as 

 will be necessary. Such amendment, for the reasons stated later, should, 

 so far as applicable to commercial forestry, be limited in operation to 

 projects of reforestation of cut-over, waste land; and, so far as applic- 

 able, to farm forestry and farm woodlots, should clearly empower the 

 legislature to exempt from taxes the forest growth thereon as distinct 

 from the land itself. 



