Conservation Commission 101 



venture the State furnishes practically the entire capital — to 

 be precise, the State invests eight dollars ($8) every time the 

 owner furnishes two dollars ($2). The State assumes the entire 

 risk of destruction by fire and storm or injury by trespass, and 

 at the end of the period can in no event receive more than one- 

 half of the value of the crop. The owner has practically noth- 

 ing to lose and everything to gain; the State has everything to 

 lose and nothing to gain. Would one private individual enter 

 into a similar contract with another ? Will you undertake to 

 reforest my denuded lands upon the same terms i 



" ~No business man would think of doing such a thing. Very 

 much less would any sensible man make such a bargain if he was 

 required to pay all taxes upon the growing crop of trees for a 

 period of fifty years. 



" The State of New York owns to-day approximately one hun- 

 dred and twenty thousand acres of denuded lands suitable for re- 

 forestation. These lands should be reforested before the State 

 enters upon the task of entering upon a jug-handle arrangement 

 to expend its money to improve private property for the benefit 

 of private individuals. Why not bend its energies toward the 

 reforestation of its own lands ? 



"If the reforestation of its own denuded lands by the State 

 fails to insure adequate reforestation of our own forest covers, 

 why not purchase such lands from the private owners and plant 

 the same with trees ? Would not such a course be wiser and 

 more in tune with a legitimate governmental function than to 

 enter into a copartnership arrangement with private individuals ? 



IV. The Effect of the Taxative Provisions of the Proposed 



Statute 



" The provisions of this law relating to taxation apply to two 

 classes of private lands situate in the Adirondack and Catskill 

 Parks : 



" (1) Denuded lands suitable for forest growth. 



" (2) Cut-over forest lands upon which there exists a stand of 

 trees growing of potential prospective value. 



