FOREST TAXATION IN THE UNITED STATES 167 
It will be observed that in Clatsop, Tillamook, and Lewis Counties 
there was a big increase in both short-term and long-term delinquency 
in the 10-year period. Grays Harbor shows a decrease in current 
delinquency, but an increase in long-term delinquency over 1918 in 
both 1923 and 1928, but less in 1928 than in 1923. When delinquency 
of four or more consecutive levies is considered, Grays Harbor shows 
a steady increase. The smaller increase in tax ‘delinquency i in Grays 
Harbor County is probably due in part to the relatively moderate 
taxes in that county. Another cause of the relatively moderate 
amount of delinquency there may be the fact that much of the land 
is owned by lumber companies, which may be holding land for certain 
strategic reasons in connection with the remaining uncut timber. 
While tax delinquency was not nearly so serious in the Pacific 
Northwest as in the Lake States during the period covered by this 
study (1918-28), it had increased in the later years of that period, 
along with rising taxes and the removal of the virgin timber. A 
more recent study conducted by the Pacific Northwest Forest Experi- 
ment Station (73d Cong., Ist sess., 5S. Doc. 12, pp. 873-875) indicates 
that by 1932 there had been a further marked increase in short-term 
tax delinquency in both Oregon and Washington. 
NORTH CAROLINA 
No figures are available to show the trend in delinquency in North 
Carolina over a long period. However, the State tax commission 
assembled figures in 1928 showing the amount of delinquency in a 
4-year period, 1924 to 1927, inclusive. The average amount of 
tax-sale certificates acquired by the reporting counties and the percent 
which this figure represents of the respective gross levy in those 
counties for each of these 4 years are given below (80, pp. 437, 441, 
445, 449): 
Year Amount Percent Year Amount Percent 
1 24s a Se LVR es Een Mi $13, 264 PaSCOD a 9 622 ge a AU EN $21, 787 5.2 
pi eee aD ad ee eS we 15, 284 2 ADPAN NN (9 77 (et eee a DS AOE RL As 26, 143 5.6 
More counties reported in the later years than in the earlier years. 
If figures for all counties had been obtained each year, the averages 
might have been slightly different, but the trend would doubtless 
have been the same. 
In only 1 of the 3 North Carolina counties in which an intensive 
study was made was it possible to obtain delinquency figures showing 
the trend over a considerable period. That was in Beaufort, an east- 
ern tidewater county. That there is increasing delinquency i in this 
county is evidenced by the increasing amount of taxes represented in 
tax-sale certificates issued to the county since 1922. The amount and 
percent of total county property tax levies for each year up to the 
time of the study are given below: *” 
Year Amount Percent Year Amount | Percent 
O22 eee a ee he ee eS $19, 818 ATO DG ees ee week eg UB $76, 187 14.3 
OSM aa eee See oe en 30, 961 (aR Na AS fie a a ee i a 53, 749 4, 
1G 24k es re ee ae ee he et 48, 578 OES vj| pri ODS xe hie sya vey ee 67, 348 14.4 
O25 ee Sa See a Ce ee 54, 919 AZ Hala REL ODO eens Seas cies eS Ae ak 93, 501 PR 5) 
87 Obtained from county records. 
