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| FOREST TAXATION IN THE UNITED STATES 19 
lesser extent with poor relief. In Connecticut the governing or policy- 
making body of the county is the local delegation in the State legis- 
lature. In Maine all county budgets must, by law, be approved by 
the State legislature and are in fact approved by the county delega- 
tion in the State legislature. 
In many of the Southern States, on the other hand, the counties 
are in actual fact, if not in law, largely independent of the State 
legislature and are the principal expression of local self-government. 
State administrative officials in the South exert very little control or 
supervision over the county officials (2, p. 16). 
In the rest of the country the county occupies a position in impor- 
tance and independence intermediate between the county of New 
England and that of the South. Here the county is the most im- 
portant unit of local government (with the exception of the city), 
but it is subjected to considerable control and supervision by State 
administrative officials. | 
The town or township is always a smaller local governmental unit 
than the county, but the New England town is not subordinate to 
the county. The New England town is a unit of popular self-gov- 
ernment, every voter having a voice in the affairs of the town as 
conducted in a town meeting. The chief functions of local self- 
government are carried on by the town. In New England, however, 
‘the town is much more independent of the State government than 
is the county. 
Township boundaries and governments were established in some 
of the Southern States after the Civil War, but they were apparently 
unsuited to the geographic conditions and social customs of the 
region, and they now are little more than boundaries on the map. 
They are sometimes used as deputy assessors’ districts or local road 
districts, but they are of no consequence as units of government. 
In the Western States and most of the Southern States there are 
no political townships. In the North Central States the township 
government has been copied from New England, although modified 
to some extent. The political township in the public-land States is 
mostly coterminous with the government-survey township of 36 
square miles, about the size of a New England town. It is of about 
the same area in the original States outside of New England. 
The political township of the Northern States outside of New 
England has a representative form of government as contrasted with 
the popular government of the New England town. Township busi- 
ness is conducted by a township board, one of whose members is often 
a member of the county board, the legislative body of the county. 
The school district is generally a smaller unit of government than 
the town, although the boundaries of school districts often overlap 
township lines. The elected school board is the governing body of 
the district. As transportation conditions become better, local school 
districts are being consolidated to form township or county school 
districts, which, however, are generally governed by a board more or 
less independent of the township or county government. 
As between the States and their subordinate political units, there 
has developed a fairly standard separation of functional and financial 
