BETTER TAX LAWS. 23 
treated with creosote is not attacked by salt-water borers. Mine 
timber can be treated with zinc chlorid for from $4 to $5 per thou- 
sand board feet. Ties can be thoroughly treated with zinc chlorid 
for 10 to 12 cents and creosoted for 20 to 30 cents. 
USE OF SUBSTITUTES. 
Seasoning and factory wastes can be reduced somewhat by im- 
proved methods of drying and manufacturing. But a larger part of 
the necessary saving in the use of timber must come through the 
substitution of other materials. Stone, brick, steel, and concrete are 
now less expensive building materials than wood, when depreciation 
and fire risks are taken into account. Steel is rapidly supplanting 
lumber in car construction, and concrete, steel, and masonry are tak- 
ing its place in bridges. Savings possible in building and railway 
construction alone, if carried to the limit, would diminish by at least 
one-third the present consumption of lumber. In the furniture in- 
dustry it is estimated that approximately 50 per cent of the beds now 
manufactured are made of metal. The use of pressed steel for desks, 
file cases, and other office furniture is becoming more and more com- 
mon. To a small extent, as yet, steel is sauinetie wood for wagon 
axles, rims, hubs, and elias and in the form of thin plates is being 
used for aye cine: in wagon bodies. 
BETTER TAX LAWS. 
From now on the relation of taxation to the permanent usefulness 
of the forest will be vital.. 
Taxation of forest lands should be based either on the yield when 
cut or on the earning power of the forest. The former would mean 
_a tax on the land alone, plus a tax on the timber when harvested; 
the latter would mean an annual tax on the capital value of the 
- forest calculated upon the net returns expected from it. The tax on 
the timber when cut and an annual tax upon the land itself, ex- 
clusive of the timber, has practical advantages. It does not involve 
forecast of the rate of interest, of the risk of loss by fire, or of timber 
values, nor does it require exact statistics of the growth of timber. 
A tax on the timber when cut and an annual tax upon the land it- 
_ self, exclusive of the timber, is well adapted to the actual conditions 
of forest investment, and is practicabie and certain. It would insure 
a permanent revenue from the forest in the aggregate far greater 
than is now collected, and yet be less burdensome upon the State and 
upon the owner. It is better from every side that forest land should 
yield a moderate tax permanently than that it should yield an ex- 
cessive revenue temporarily, and then cease to yield at all. 
[Cir. 171] 
