FOREST TAXATION IN THE UNITED STATES 13 
The other method of studying selected localities, which may be 
called for convenience the ‘‘intensive method’’, involved painstaking 
investigation of selected towns, counties, or other local units with 
regard to their economic resources, the working of the present tax 
system, and the probable effects of proposed changes in taxation. 
Such an investigation was conducted partly on the basis of informa- 
tion available in public records, such as the assessment rolls, partly 
through field examination by members of the investigating staff, 
and partly through private sources of information which were found 
to be reliable. The intensive method may be illustrated by Forest 
Taxation Inquiry Progress Reports 9, 15, and 17.6. The report under 
date of March 1, 1930, entitled ‘“‘Preliminary Tables Relating to 
Forest Taxation in New Hampshire’’, is also representative of this 
intensive type of investigation. 
The selected locality studies roughly outlined above threw con- 
siderable light on assessment practice, on tax delinquency, and on 
the effects of taxation on forest industries, but these subjects seemed 
of such vital importance to the presentation and solution of the forest 
tax problem that it seemed necessary to study them from every pos- 
sible angle. Hence, in certain of the key States, additional data 
were obtained on the subjects of assessment ratios, tax delinquency, 
and the effects of taxation on forest industries. 
Records of bona fide real estate sales in many forest localities were 
obtained, and the assessments of the properties involved were com- 
pared with the considerations paid to obtain ‘‘assessment ratios.’ 
These ratios were then used to test the treatment of forest property in 
the assessment practice, both as between timbered and cut-over 
lands, and as between either of these classes and agricultural, resort, 
commercial, or residential properties. The ratios were also used to 
show how erratically individual properties or subgroups of properties 
were assessed within a group. Some original theoretical work was 
required in the development and application of assessment ratios. 
Assessment ratio studies have been incorporated in several of the 
Forest Taxation Inquiry Progress Reports and are the special subject 
matter of Reports 6 and 12.’ 
The tax delinquency studies, for their part, were used to ascertain 
the absolute amount of long- and short-term tax delinquency in 
forest counties, the relative amount of such delinquency in forest 
compared with other counties of a given State, and the type of real 
estate which seemed most likely to go delinquent. The long-term 
delinquency was considered to be especially important, since it is this 
type of delinquency which indicates the amount of land that is likely 
to pass out of private ownership through failure to pay taxes. Prac- 
tically all of the delinquency information was obtained from tax rolis 
or from published reports themselves taken from tax rolls. Forest 
8 HALL, R. C., and HERBERT, P. A. PROPERTY TAXATION IN SELECTED TOWNS IN THE FOREST LAND 
REGIONS OF MINNESOTA. U.S. Dept. Agr., Forest Serv. Prog. Rept. Taxation Inquiry 9, [76] pp. 1930. 
[Mimeographed.] 
PINGREE, D. SOME ASPECTS OF THE FOREST TAX PROBLEM IN SELECTED TOWNS OF WISCONSIN. U. S. 
Dept. Agr., Forest Serv. Prog. Rept. Taxation Inquiry 15, [60] pp. 1931. [Mimeographed.] 
WaGER, P. W., and THOMSON, R. B. TAXATION OF FOREST PROPERTY IN NORTH CAROLINA. U. S. 
Dept. Agr., Forest Serv. Prog. Rept. Taxation Inquiry 17, [206] pp. 1932. [Mimeographed.] 
7 PINGREE, D., and HALL, R. ©. ASSESSMENT RATIOS OF RURAL REAL ESTATE IN OREGON AND WASH- 
INGTON. U.S. Dept. Agr., Forest Serv. Prog. Rept. Taxation Inquiry 6, [34] pp. 1930. [Mimeographed.] 
HALL, R. C. ASSESSMENT RATIOS OF FOREST PROPERTY AND OTHER REAL ESTATE IN WISCONSIN. U.S. 
Dept. Agr., Forest Serv. Prog. Rept. Taxation Inquiry 12, [37] pp. 1930. [Mimeographed.] 
