FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 397 



Certainly not — others, the people, are benefited by the good influence emanating 

 from the forest on water supply and health supply. 



Others, everybody, are catching the fish in the owner's forest brook, or are killing 

 the deer on his premises. 



Others camp and roam about on his land, using and enjoying it, free of charge, 

 as if it were their own. 



Of course, nobody is or should be so foolishly egotistical as to monopolize the 

 entire use of his property, while many a neighbor might share in its enjoyment with- 

 out detriment to the object. Still, is it wrong for the owner to demand that these 

 neighbors, that Mr. Everybody, that the people, help him in carrying the financial 

 burden which forest preservation implies ? Does any bystander realize what this 

 burden is ? 



Taxes on ^Iocmcr, Imroafare Forests. 



The heaviest part of the burden consists of taxes. 



Where forestry is well established, yielding a steady, annual revenue, these taxes 

 are easily defrayed out of the revenue. 



Where forestry is in statu nascendi, as is the case in America, yields can be 

 expected only every twenty-five or thirty-five years. In the meantime taxes are 

 imposed upon the forest as if it were as useless to the people as barren jewelry. Is 

 a system of taxation which is economically indicated in the case of unproductive 

 values justifiable in the case of wood lands? Just think, how these taxes accumu- 

 late in the course of the years, at compound interest, and how they curtail the gross 

 revenue derivable after, say, thirty years of forestry ! 



Let us use an Adirondack example : 



Given a tract of land from which the "timber" has been removed, worth now $1 

 per acre. That forest is expected to yield (provided that fire does not play 

 havoc with our expectations) every thirty years, per acre of ground, 1,500 feet 

 b. m. lumber worth $2.25. The annual taxes will be, on an average, about 1 1-2 

 cents per acre : at the end of thirty years, they have accumulated, at 6 per cent 



3D 



• . O.OI5 (l.06- i) o 



interest, to ±-± '- = 1. 18 cents per acre. 



0.06 



In other words, from the gross revenue of $2.25 an amount of $1.18 is taken away 

 by taxation, allowing a net revenue of only $1.07 to remain ! 



A capital of $1.00 (the supposed value per acre) returning $1.07 every thirty 

 years, yields 2 1-2 per cent of annual interest. 



