254 MISC. PUBLICATION 218, U. 8. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
rapid average tax increases of corporation C in Maine and corporation 
F in Washington are due for the most part to the extremely rapid rise 
during the period from 1900 to 1910, when timber prices were 
experiencing their most spectacular increases. 
This study of tax trends leads to the conclusion that recent trends 
in forest taxes are definitely upward, but for the most part the in- 
crease is at no greater rate than the increase in the total burden of 
State and local taxes in the United States. 
EFFECTS OF THE PROPERTY TAX ON FOREST 
MANAGEMENT 
NATURE OF THE EVIDENCE 
It has been claimed by many forest landowners and conservationists 
that the prevailing method of taxing forest property has been a cause— 
in many cases the most important cause—of the American methods 
of handling forest property, which involve, generally, destructive and 
premature cutting of timber, failure to reforest cut-over lands, and 
an almost utter lack of forest management of any kind. It will be 
recognized at the outset that the importance of taxation, as com- 
pared with other causes in producing any of the above effects, will 
vary according to circumstances and the mental attitude of individual 
owners. The weight given by an individual owner to the various 
conditions which determine the management policy of his property is 
dependent upon the workings of the human mind, and no general 
statistical record of such mental reactions is of course available. 
Obviously the best evidence bearing on this question is to be 
found in statements by owners and operators of the considerations 
which controlled their own operations. Further light may be thrown 
on the question by expressions of opinion on the part of well-informed 
persons. Finally it is possible by means of theoretical analysis and 
pertinent facts to appraise the influence of those major forces at work 
in the economic world which must in the long run control the actions 
of the great majority of forest owners and operators. One of these 
forces is taxation. The present section of this report seeks to investi- 
gate the effects of taxation on the use and disposition of forest 
properties on the basis of general principles and the available evidence 
and opinion. 
EFFECT ON THE HOLDING OF OLD-GROWTH TIMBER 
Conservationists have long tried to insure the United States against 
a timber shortage. Forest conservation in this country is now estab- 
lished as necessary to the public welfare, and any condition which 
tends toward a timber shortage is to be ‘considered inimical to the 
public welfare. It has been shown that timber is being cut faster 
than it is growing (73d Cong., 1st sess., S. Doc. 12, pp. 220-244). 
Any cause which tends to accelerate cutting or makes it impossible 
to curtail operations—even in the face of a chronic state of overpro- 
duction in the lumber industry accentuated by the general business 
depression—brings a deficiency in timber closer to hand. It has been 
claimed that the property tax has been such a cause, especially in 
recent years; that the timber owners must liquidate their timber as 
