8 MISC. PUBLICATION 218, U. 8. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
The public has still other interests in conservative forest practice 
than those mentioned above. Wood is an important raw material 
for use on the occasion of war or certain other national catastrophes, 
such as flood, tornado, earthquake, or fire, and the Government may 
take steps to insure an adequate supply in the event of an emergency. 
The national forestry program now being carried out in Great 
Britain is a case in point (1). 
Another public interest in forestry lies in diverting from agricul- 
tural use such land as may be submarginal for farming. The clearing 
and settling of land which is likely later to be abandoned not only 
causes misdirected effort and unnecessary suffering on the part of the 
settler and his family but also increases local costs of government by 
requiring additional road and school facilities. This particular public 
interest requires: (1) Truthful publicity by State officials regarding 
the character and economic limitations of the unoccupied land 
resources of the State; (2) the effective dissemination of such infor- 
mation among prospective purchasers; (3) control over real estate 
operations in unoccupied land; (4) rural zoning (as now authorized in 
Wisconsin) and the evacuation of settlers left stranded in regions suf- 
fering from agricultural decline; and (5) public ownership of idle sub- 
marginal agricultural land which is in danger of being reabsorbed into 
an uneconomic agricultural use, so far as may be feasible without 
financial loss to the State. The desirability of such ownership is 
recognized in official reports and to some extent in the laws of such 
States as Wisconsin, Michigan, and New York. Wisconsin, for ex- 
ample, encourages a county to establish forest reserves out of land 
reverted to it for nonpayment of taxes and grants to the county, for 
planting and forestry costs, 10 cents an acre for all such land regis- 
tered under the forest crop law, in addition to another 10 cents which 
is paid to the town jn which the forest is located and which is meant 
to be in lieu of taxes. In consideration of these contributions, 75 per- 
cent of the revenue from timber cut from such county forest lands 
goes to the State, but such payment is, for most land, in the distant 
future.2 Michigan purchases the equity of the local governments in 
land which has reverted for nonpayment of taxes in order permanently 
to dedicate such lands to forest or recreational use.2 New Yorkin 1931 
amended her constitution by directing the legislature to appropriate 
$19,000,000, to be spent over a period of 11 years, for purchasing and 
reforesting abandoned farm and other idle land.* This State also coop- 
erates with counties in reforesting lands acquired by the latter. Town 
forests are given encouragement by New Hampshire and Massachu- 
setts. 
EFFECT OF TAXATION UPON THE MANAGEMENT OF PRIVATELY 
OWNED FORESTS 
In spite of the many-sided public interest in conservative forest 
practice, the public, through the property tax, is subjecting the forest 
business to an influence directly opposed to conservation. Develop- 
ment of this thesis will be one of the major tasks of this report. 
Enough has long been known, however, to set up a reasonable pre- 
sumption that the American tax system—especially the property 
3 Wisconsin Statutes, 1931, secs. 59.98, 77.05. 
3 Michigan, Compiled Laws, 1929, sec. 3527. 
4 Constitutional amendment adopted by the people of New York in November 1931, art. VII, sec. 16. 
