592 
STATE HOKTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 
received by the collector of taxes assessed on the entire land of which the 
tree-belt forms a part, as so much cash. 
Section 2. Tree-belts to be entitled to the benefit of this act, shall be 
reserved or planted on the west or south sides of each tract of land, and shall 
be not less than thirty feet wide; but no tree-belt shall exceed one-fifth 
part of the entire tract of land on which the same is planted: provided, that 
if the east and north sides of any tract of land, or either of them be bounded 
by a public highway or street, then a tree-belt one rod wide may be planted 
next to said highway or street, and the same shall be entitled to all the 
benefits of this act, although such last mentioned tree-belt shall with the 
other tree-belts on the w'est and south sides exceed the one-fifth part of the 
whole of said tract of land. The tree-belts may be composed of any or all of 
the following kinds of trees, or such species thereof as will grow to the height 
of fifty feet or more, viz; arbor vitae, ash, balsam fir, basswood, beech, birch, 
butternut, cedar, black cherry, chestnut, coffee tree, cucumber tree, elm, 
hackberry, hemlock, hickory, larch, locust, maple, oak, pine, spruce, tulip 
tree and walnut. All belts shall be of equal width throughout their entire 
length, and contain not less than eight trees standing nearly equal distances 
from each other, on each square rod of land. 
Section 3. Tree-belts to be entitled to the benefits of this act, for each 
five acres of land must be at least thirty feet wide; for each ten acres of 
land at least sixty feet wide, and for forty square acres at least one hundred 
feet wide, and must be on two sides of each square tract of land; and all 
tree-belts owned by the same land owner must be planted to not exceed one- 
fourth of a mile apart, or on the west and south sides of every forty square 
acres of land; and the tree-belts may be divided and planted on any other 
lines within each forty square acres, by the permission of the assessor. 
Section 4. Whenever any person, after having applied for and obtained 
a bounty certificate for a tree-belt, shall allow such tree-belt to die out by 
want of culture or otherwise, or shall cut down the same, or shall pasture the 
same lands with his cattle or animals, or shall so thin out the tree-belts that, 
in the opinion of the assessor, it shall no longer be entitled to receive the 
annual bounty hereby offered, or to have the land exempted from taxation, 
he shall lose all benefit of this act until it shall again be aecepted and certi- 
led to by the assessor. 
Section 6. It shall be the duty of the assessor upon application of the 
owner each year, at the time of assessing the personal property in his dis¬ 
trict, to ascertain by personal examination of all tree-belts for which exemp¬ 
tion from taxes or bounties is claimed, and by inquiries whether the belts 
have been reserved or planted, and are thriftily growing as required by this 
act; and if he shall be satisfied that they are not so growing, or that the 
owner has allowed his cattle and animal access to the tree-belts, or that he 
has cut down or thinned out the same so as to destroy their capacity as a 
wind-break, he shall assess the land for taxes, and shall refuse to grant any 
certificate showing that the owner is entitled to a bounty thereon. 
Approved March 4, 1868. 
