368 MISC. PUBLICATION 218, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
with the land for the stated period. During such period the assessors 
were not to assess the trees and timber at all or the land at a greater 
value either than that of the land for the last 5 years, if separately as- 
sessed during any part of that period, or than that of other similarly 
situated lands of the same sort that were separately assessed. Fur- 
thermore the right to both exemption and fixed assessment was de- 
clared to be inviolable and irrevocable as a contractual obligation of 
the State so long as the owner complied with the conditions imposed 
on him during the specified period. The act of May 9, 1916 (S. L. v. 
2, ch. 451, p. 1189), repealed and replaced article 4 of the conservation 
law, the former tax exemption section carrying over into the new 
article as section 57. 
This group of New York laws remained on the statute books for 
several years to very little purpose; they were finally ail three re- 
pealed and a new section 16 of the tax law enacted by the act of April 
23, 1926 (S. L., ch. 610, p. 1088). This new section was patterned on 
the revised Massachusetts yield-tax law of 1923. It was much more 
limited in scope than that law, however, since it applied only to plan- 
tations established subsequent to January 1, 1921. On the other 
hand it increased the maximum allowable volume of growing stock 
per acre that could be carried from 25,000 board feet of softwoods or 
8,000 of hardwoods (or their equivalent in cords) to 40,000 board feet 
for softwoods and 20,000 board feet for hardwoods. A minor amend- 
ment of this section was made by the act of March 30, 1927 (S. L. 
ch. 431, p. 1088), namely, the elimination of any restriction as to the 
location of a tract within certain distances of towns and cities of dif- 
ferent sizes. The section was again amended by the act of April 17, 
1930 (S. L. ch. 572, p. 1062), by which the time restriction was re- 
moved, so that a plantation made any time in the past could qualify, 
rather than merely those that were established since January 1, 1921. 
Also, as to the valuation which should be placed on the land from 
year to year, the assessors were restricted to that which the land had 
at the time of coming under the provisions of the section. The 
act of April 9, 1931 (S. L. ch. 346, p. 779), amended the section again, 
so as to extend its provisions to cover not only planted and under- 
planted forests but those of natural origin as well. Finally the act 
of April 26, 1933 (S. L. ch. 470, sec. 24, p. 1022) changed the number 
of this section from 16 to 138; this is the law as it now is. 
Vermont was the third State to fall in line in the adoption of the 
yield-tax type of forest-tax law. Like New York, it anticipated and 
patterned its legislation on that of another State, namely, Connecti- 
cut, that did not get around to acting thereon until somewhat later. 
Vermont passed twin acts, one of February 13, 1913, and the other 
of February 22, 1913 (Laws 1912, 22d bien. sess., Act 40, p. 33; Act 
41, p. 34). The first of these concerned lands with forests not over 
15 years old, and the other, those with older forests.“ These laws 
were somewhat amplified and codified by the act of April 4, 1917 
(S. L. 254, entitled ‘‘The General Laws of Vermont of 1917”). They 
were again amended by the acts of March 11 and April 9, 1919 (S. L. 
28, p. 34; 29, p. 35), chiefly in the matter of administrative proce- 
dure of appraisals and the appeal therefrom. Impatient at their 
apparent ineffectiveness to encourage the private practice of forestry, 
Vermont, while leaving these yield-tax laws on the statute books, 
144A ct 40 also limited the application of the exemption aet of 1904, as elsewhere noted. 
