FOREST TAXATION IN THE UNITED STATES 185 
of the forest area, respectively. However, in Florida the former 
owner has 2 years in which to redeem, and in any case the State’s 
title is questionable, so that reversion, as the term is used in that 
State, means no more than long-term delinquency. 
In certain other States the area of tax-reverted lands and the 
percentage of this area to total land area were estimated ® as of 
July 1, 1933, by the Southern Forest Experiment Station as follows: 
State Acres Percent 
LNT ENO aaa te 2 Se PEA RARE eh Oe ABD Og SEB A SE SS ha A A gr 3, 800, 000 11.3 
Guisiana si so eles see Se ea ae OS a 2 I ce 2, 708, 000 9.3 
INT SSISS1g Pose toate ee Ea Lag TA Vt Be OE Ry A ey RAR Lge Pie SE Ah 1, 250, 000 4,2 
Old ahom aes Ol tee es BERN oe DUE Dey ae ahe eens wes ee Vine ee NCS 600, 000 12.6 
FIRE NAS Rays veri a tata a rae UE EMA LS RO EA cre RASS cE oh tke icdah Rca ru 920, 000 6.3 
In Oklahoma and Texas only the eastern portion of the State, 
within the limits of the pine type, was included. In Louisiana about 
one-half of the reverted area is forest land, in Arkansas and Missis- 
sipp1 about 60 percent, in Texas three- -quarters, and in Oklahoma about 
90 percent. Alabama appears to have little reverted land, and 
Georgia none. In both Louisiana and Mississippi the reverted area 
is largely concentrated in the longleaf pine belt and in the Delta. 
Outside of the Lake States there was very little delinquency in the 
North Central States. Most of the forest land is in farm wood lots 
and is no more or less delinquent than the rest of the farm. Most of 
the delinquency in Illinois was in connection with coal lands, though 
in the southern third of the State some of the poorer farm land, as well 
as some woodland, was being forfeited. 
CAUSES OF DELINQUENCY 
IMMEDIATE AND REMOTE CAUSES 
The prevalence of serious and widespread delinquency calls for an 
investigation of the causes. The causes, as will be shown, may not 
be the same for both short-term and long-term delinquency. More- 
over, in enumerating the causes of delinquency, distinction should 
be made between immediate causes and those which are more remote 
though perhaps more fundamental. Short-term delinquency has 
been defined as that type of delinquency which exists when a tax has 
not been paid at the end of the legal collecting period and becomes 
subject to a penalty. Long-term delinquency has been defined as 
that type which exists when taxes are due for 2 or more years and the 
taxpayer is in ‘danger of losing his property. 
It is obvious that there will always be a certain amount of short- 
term delinquency. With some taxpayers it is the result of careless- 
ness or procrastination. There are others who, because of improvi- 
dence or temporary misfortune, do not have the money at the time the 
taxes are due. Some are chronic offenders, rarely paying their taxes 
until they are several months overdue, yet usually managing some- 
how to raise the money eventually. Finally there are always some 
people who live so close to the margin of subsistence that they cannot 
always pay their taxes on time. The inevitable delinquency due to 
these causes accounts for a very small part of the total. There is 
3 SOUTHERN FOREST EXPERIMENT STATION. See footnote 72. 
