106 FOREST CONDITIONS IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA. 



tion and the uncertainty of the results. Only a large corporation or 

 the State or National government can reforest spruce by planting in 

 situations such as those in Western North Carolina. Experiments 

 would have to be made with different species and methods. 



FOREST TAXATION. 



The tax laws now administered in North Carolina have as a rule 

 not resulted in placing an excessive burden on timbered lands, and on 

 this account forest taxation has not as yet become a problem. This 

 fact, however, does not necessarily mean that the present method of 

 taxing this class of property is satisfactory. Admittedly, it is not. 

 Those who have given most thought to the subject are practically 

 agreed that a tax on the timber when it is cut, with a nominal annual 

 tax on the land, is probably best adapted to conditions in this country. 

 Certainly this method is not susceptible to the same inequalities and 

 uncertainities as is the present method. In fixing the land valuation 

 under the principle proposed, the assessor is to give absolutely no con- 

 sideration to the growing timber. 



While at present there is no general complaint from owners that their 

 timberlands are being excessively] burdened with taxes, and conse- 

 quently there seems to be no urgent need for readjusting the tax laws 

 with respect to timbered lands, it is nevertheless believed that the ap- 

 plication of the proposed principle of taxing the timber only when 

 cut would do much to further the practice of approved forestry by 

 private owners. 



BILTMOKE ESTATE. 



A report on the forest conditions of Western North Carolina would 

 be incomplete without some account of the forests of the Biltmore 

 Estate. This estate, purchased during the nineties by Mr. George W. 

 Vanderbilt, comprises some 200 square miles of land, and extends from 

 Asheville in a southwesterly direction through Buncombe, Henderson, 

 and Transylvania counties to the Jackson County line, a distance of 

 some 35 or 40 miles. 



Mr. Gifford Pinchot, formerly United States Forester, immediately 

 on his return from his studies of forestry in Europe, was employed by 

 Mr. Vanderbilt to investigate the possibilities of forestry on the prop- 

 erty and to suggest a system of management. After his work was done, 

 Dr. C. A. Schenck, a German "oberforster," was engaged to devote his 

 entire time to the forest problems of the property. Dr. Schenck, who 

 had had considerable experience in the Old Country, put into operation 

 with great energy the first scientific and practical private forest man- 

 agement in this country. 



