39# REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



The banker and business man, who is accustomed to figure at compound interest, 

 will find my statement correct. 



If forestry as a business promises, in the Adirondacks, only 2 1-2 per cent on its 

 investments, — investments constantly threatened by fire, — I myself would not care 

 to engage in it, although I claim to be a practical forester. 



An optimist, of course, may claim that advancing lumber prices will result in 

 much larger returns than those given, — say $4.50 instead of $2.25 per acre. 



Very well; but, if lumber and stumpage prices show an increase, will not the 

 taxes advance at a similar ratio, badly curtailing the revenue derivable from 

 forestry ? 



There is another consideration worth looking into : Under forestry, after cut- 

 ting the mature timber, we raise a second growth or a second crop of trees, and 

 thereafter a third, and a fourth crop, etc., etc. 



While raising the crop, we are paying taxes on it. 



Now, friend farmer, what would you say, if the law required you to pay taxes not 

 on the soil value only, but on the crop value standing on the soil as well? Suppose 

 your soil is worth $10 per acre and your crop of corn standing on it $15. Would 

 you not make a wild " kick " if the tax assessor dared to rate your field at $25 ? As 

 a matter of fact, in forestry we are compelled to pay taxes on soil plus crop. 



Obviously, the forest owner should be held to pay taxes on the hyper-mature 

 stumpage, which corresponds with mature grain crops stored away in a farmer's 

 barn. But it is evidently unjust to tax the immature stumpage left after the hyper- 

 mature trees are removed. 



Taxes on Real Property. 



Everybody knows that real property is more heavily taxed than personal prop- 

 erty, for the reason that the former is assessed by public officers, while the latter is 

 assessed by its owners. 



These " owners" (I confess myself to be one of them) are in the habit of con- 

 siderably underestimating the value of their personal belongings when listing taxes. 

 " Everybody cheats a little," — and what everybody does, that, of course, cannot be 

 very wrong. 



Several States have tried to relieve such unequal and iniquitous taxation of real- 

 ties, prescribing that realties should be assessed only at 60 per cent or so of their 

 proper market value. 



