Los Angeles herald., 1891-06-20
FRUIT TREES.
A Schedule Adopted for Their
Assessment.
The Conference Yesterday of
the Supervisors.
After Much Discussion Considerable
Business Transacted.
The Joint Meeting of Southern California
Supervisors Yesterday-The ASSESS
able Value of Fruit Trees,
Grapevines and Nur-
sery Stock.

supervisors OF Fresno San Diego, Orange
San Bernardino and osAngeles counties
The meeting was called upon the sug
gestion of the San Bernardino board fol
the purpose of considering the as.
sessed value of fruit trees and securing
a uniform valuation, so far as possible
with the same class of property in other
counties.
Fresno was represented byT. G. White,
chairman OF the Fresno board, and w.
j. Hultranson, assessor; San Diego by
]. S. Buck and County Auditor E. I'll.
Miller; Orange by S. Armour and l..
Schorn San Bernardino by |. w. Lord.
Chairman Perry called the meeting to
order and suggested that p. G. White,
of Fresno, be elected as chairman of the
meeting.
Mr.. White was thereupon elected to
the chair, and Mr.. S. Armour, of River
side, took the secretary's desk.
l. w. Lord, of San Bernardino, was
called upon to state the objects OF the
meeting. Mr.. Lord stated that in look
ing over the rates of assessments par
ticularly as regards trees and vines, no
two of the southern counties were alike.
That in his county the assessmentgreat-
ly exceeded that of Los Angeles and
other sections fully 400 per cent, and
they deemed it altogether out of proper
ton as to other property. Mr.. Lord
thought it would be we'll to get together
and take some action, and if necessary
to send good mana practical orchard
ist-north, who could be relied upon to
ascertain the rates of assessment in the
northern counties.
Mr.. Garcelou OF Riverside suggested
that they compare the rates of assess
ment in the southern counties before
comparing them with those of the north.
He said that he understood that in Los
Angeles county the assessment on
orange trees was $50 per acre, while
they in Riverside were being assessed in
the neighborhood of $3.50 per acre. The
gentleman then read some statistics
given to him by the assessor.
Assessor Ross of Orange said that for
bearing orange trees he levied an assess
ment OF from $40 to $75 per acre. AS
SCISSOR Hutchinson of Fresno stated that
they did not raise many oranges in his
county. That they had according to his
last assessment 1928 non-bearing and
112 bearing trees, which he assessed
from $40 to 800 per acre. Their prin-
-cipal product was peaches and raisins.
They had "a, 81 acres of vines.
Chairman White then read some law
points, and stated that to come down to
a fine point of law they had no legal
right to levy an assessment on trees and
vines, as they were enumerated in the
list classed as growing crops, which were
exempt from taxation according to the
constitution.
1t was fully agreed upon that no as
sessment should be levied upon trees
and plants before they came into bear
ing.
Assessor Gray of this county said that
he did not assess any trees or vines that
were not in bearing.
Mr.. White remarked that it was an
injustice in any county to tax tree or
vine before it produced at least enough
to pay the taxes.
In discussing nursery stock, Mr.. Gar
celon was of the opinion that it should
be taxed, as it was in the nature OF mer-
chandise.
One of the assessors stated that in his
opinion trees were not 4 growing crop
in the strict sense Of the term; that
there must be an annual sowing and
reaplng to make it growing crop, and
that in his county he even taxed alfalfa,
as it was not an annual, and collected a
tax of $15 per acre upon it.
Mr.. Lord suggested that the farmers
could easily dodge the payment of that
tax by sowing little alfalfa each year.
Mr.. Davis called the meeting back to
business by remarking that the object
of the meeting was to decide, first, on
uniform rate of assessment; second, to
see that the rate is not higher than in
the northern counties. He moved that
a committee OF one from each county be
appointed to draft set of resolutions
embodyirg schedule of rates to guide
the assessors in assessing trees and
vines.
The chair appointed Messrs. j. D.
Buck, San Diego; @. G. White, Fresno;
S. Armour, Orange; l. w. Lord, San
Bernardino, and Supervisor Davis, of
Los Angeles.
The meeting then adjourned to 80,
to allow the committee time to formulate
the resolutions and schedule.
At 4 80 the meeting again convened
and presented the following set of reso-
lutions
Whereas, The representatives of the
supervisors of Los Angeles, Orange, San
Diego, San Bernardino and Fresno
counties assembled in the city OF Los
Angeles for the purpose of arriving at
the value to be fixed upon trees and
vines by assessors, to the end that all
trees and vines throughout the state
shall be assessed at uniform valuations
and
Whereas, The said assembly having
appointed a committee to draft suitable
resolutions and to fix said valuations
the committee would most respectfully
beg leave to report as follows:
Resolved, That it is the sense of this
committee that there is large differ
ence in valuation placed upon vines and
trees in the different fruit producing
counties of the state; and,
Resolved, That the following schedule
of valuations be recommended to The
different assessors of the state, and that
prior to the making of the assessment
for the year 1892 we would respectfully
recommend that all the assessors of the
ruit-producing counties meet in cor
vention to discuss and consider the fol-
lowing schedule of valuation:
SCHEDULE.
The assessment is the amount per
acre.
ORANGE TREES.
Budded. Seeding
l'2ands years old d......-....s 10 8
.,.-,...--.... ~