FOREST TAXATION IN THE UNITED STATES 355 
ee different method of granting partial exemptions through tax 
rebates. 
Pennsylvania, by the act of June 1, 1887 (S. L. 173, p. 287), pro- 
vided for the annual repayment over a period of 30 years of certain 
sums of money by the counties on account of land either planted to 
not less than 1,200 trees to the acre or equally well stocked with a 
natural growth of young trees, the stand of either sort to be well 
cared for. The annual sums to be rebated during the first 10 years 
were to equal 90 percent of the annual taxes, but not more than 45 
cents per acre; those during the second decade 80 percent, but not 
more than 40 cents per acre; and those during the final decade 50 
percent, or not more than 25 cents per acre. The act permitted a 
thinning of the stand of either sort to not less than 600 trees per 
acre at the end of the first 10 years. 
A second act, that of May 25, 1897 (S. L. 70, p. 88), granted an 
annual rebate of 80 percent of all taxes, but not exceeding 45 cents 
per acre, for so long as the forest was maintained in good condition, 
on any tract of not more than 50 acres having a stand of trees averaging 
not less than 50 in number per acre, each tree being not less than 8 
inches in diameter at 6 feet from the ground. This was an effort to 
supplement the first act so as to take care of stands in the later 
stages of development. This 1897 act received a minor amendment 
by the act of April 11, 1901 (S. L. 48, p. 77), which was followed by 
the act of April 8, 1905 (S. L. 88, p. 118), replacing both acts but con- 
taining the same general provisions. This latter act was declared 
unconstitutional in 1906.° 
Meanwhile the original 1887 rebate act, which had been amended 
in minor respects by the act of March 22, 1901 (S. L. 19, p. 52), was 
superseded by the act of April 20, 1905 (S. L. 179, p. 246). This 
provided for a rebate of 80 percent of all taxes, but not exceeding 45 
cents per acre, for a period of 35 years for any tract of not over 500 
acres in a single ownership which had either been planted to not 
less than 300 trees to the acre or on which the same number of trees 
of natural growth had been preserved or which offered a combination 
of both, the stand in any case to be well cared for. This latter law, 
like its companion 1905 law, was declared unconstitutional in 1908.’ 
While the adverse decisions in the single case contested under each of 
these two rebate laws chiefly served to indicate, though not to estab- 
lish conclusively, their unconstitutionality, they did serve to dis- 
courage others from attempting to take advantage of them and thus 
hastened their becoming inoperative. 
New Hampshire, by the act of April 2, 1903 (S. L., ch. 124, p. 127), 
enacted essentially the same rebate and other provisions as were con- 
tained in the original 1887 Pennsylvania law, except that stands of 
natural growth were not included. This was reenacted, essentially 
without change, by the act of April 3, 1925 (S. L., ch. 55, p. 72), and 
is still in force. 
BOUNTIES AND PRIZES 
The only State in the Northeast to resort to bounties or premiums 
was Massachusetts, and that at an early date. By the act of February 
20, 1819 (Laws of 1819, Jan. sess., ch. 114, sec. 5, p. 182), 1t was made— 
the duty of every incorporated agricultural society to offer, annually, for a period 
of 5 years, such premiums and encouragement, for the raising and preserving oaks 
9 Tubbs v. Tioga Township, 32 Pa. Co. Ct., 504. 
10 Christley v. Butler Co., 37 Pa. Super. Ct. 32. 
