FOREST TAXATION IN THE UNITED STATES 297 
is birch which, together with some poplar, is manufactured locally 
into such articles as spools, toothpicks, excelsior, and soda pulp. 
With the maintenance of free hunting and fishing by law and estab- 
lished custom, the recreational use of large areas of wild land has 
offered no prospect of financial return in competition with timber 
growing. 
The segregation of two-thirds of Maine’s forest land into a territory 
with a minimum of local political organization has kept necessary 
governmental expense sufficiently low to prevent the appearance of 
any serious forest-tax problem. 
There is probably no other forest area in the United States, with 
conditions similar to those in northern Maine, which compares in 
size with this unorganized territory. But there are many smaller 
areas which are similar and which could profitably be reduced to 
unorganized status. It is true that there are unorganized townships 
in the Lake States, but the property located within them is subject 
to county and school-district taxes, which frequently amount to 60, 
80, or even 100 mills. In some cases there are quite extensive forest 
areas which do not contain a single child of school age and only a 
very scattered adult population, and yet the property is subject to 
very heavy school taxes. In the interest both of economy and of 
justice, it would seem desirable to block out certain areas in the Lake 
States as unorganized territory, in which only a minimum of govern- 
mental services would be provided, all of which should be administered 
and supported by the State. 
Such areas could be blocked out in other States. Infact New York 
is considering the establishment of a State reserve of this character 
(124, p. 15). 
In the Adirondack region, Hamilton County, and parts of several other 
counties on the Adirondack’s fringe are almost wholly wild lands, with here and 
there a small village or unincorporated community. Much of this area is already 
subject to limited control by the State as parts of the forest reserve. We recom- 
mend the blocking out of the forest reserve, with such additions as may be 
necessary, as a special district under the exclusive administration and control 
of the State. Such services as the Beople may need would be supplied and 
financed directly by the State * * 
The adoption of this proposal by nl ‘State will at once eliminate one county 
and a large number of weak towns and village governments, and so reduce the 
areas and populations of several other counties that their remainders can be 
consolidated to advantage—thus further reducing the number of weak counties, 
Broadly speaking, a forest or sparsely populated region should be 
self-supporting, as is the unorganized territory of Maine. This 
would generally appear to be possible, if the services of government 
were limited and efficiently administered—at least if the population 
were not too scattered. The attainment of this latter condition would 
probably require some public control over future land settlement. 
PUBLIC CONTROL OF LAND SETTLEMENT 
GENERAL STATEMENT 
The heavy burden of taxation which rests on forest land in many 
regions is due almost entirely to the presence of a scattered and 
unprofitable agricultural development. In regions like northern 
Maine, where the absence of agricultural settlement and the reason- 
able concentration of woods workers have kept governmental costs 
low, the forest land is easily self-supporting. But wherever there is 
