The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1907-08-23
ASSESSMENTS AGAIN
STARTLING FIGURES
Catahoula and Winn Parishes
Quoted as the Basis of an
Equitable Adjustment.

August Is, says that a compari.
son of the acreage furnished to
the state board of equalization by
the various assessors in their
abstracts of assessment with the
acreage furnished the state board
of agriculture and immigration
and the state experiment station,
show a difference which is nal.
pable and apparent.
Excepting New Orleans, which
is not taken into account. and
st. Landry, which has not fur
nished an abstract, a total in
acreage is shown of 25,766, 752
against rough total of S,O0O,-
600 claimed by the geological
survey. This vast discrepancy is
only partirlly accounted for by
the inland waters which is not
assessable.
Out of the So parishes of the
state the assessors reports show
only ii in excess of the geolo-
gical survey while the other AZ
embrace hundreds of thousands
of acres not listed on the assess
sors' rolls. The cheapness of
land in the past is responsible for
this oversight, and as it is be-
coming quite valuable as shown
by the experience of the state
land Office, there is little doubt
that it will be corralled and
placed on the assessment list of
the proper parish.
As to timber lands the follow
ing letter is self explanatory of
this subject:
Chairman Wallace of the state
board of equalization has re-
ceived the following letter from
Henry Z. Hardtner, president of
the Urania Lumber Co., at
Urania. La, and of Iatt Lumber
Co, at Colfax, La, and likewise
interested in q number of timber
enterprises in North Louisiana,
which the board believes to be
illustrative of the sentiment of
the majority of the North Lou
isiana pine timber mea- and
being coincided with a number of
the South Louisiana cypress men.
Writing from St. Louis, under
date of August 18th, Mr..
Hardtner says:
"Your letter was forwarded to
me at St. Louis. l can meet
your board the latter part of the
month, when / return home. In
regard TO assessments on pine
lands, consider the Catahoula
assessments the fairest of eny
submitted to yonr board. There
are one or two things that you
can do: reduce the Catahoula
assessments or raise the assess
ments of other parishes to cor
respond with Catahoula. Col
onel c. G.. Prichard, assessor of
Catahoula parish, has my views
on the subject, which l expressed
in letter written to him after he
had fled his rolls. In this letter
1 congratulated him for his fair
and impartial treatment of all
interests. considered the as
sessment of first class pine lands
at $25 per acre as just and liberal.
Second and third class timber
lands, denuded and swamp lands,
hill and swamp agricultural lands,
as extremely liberal. No one in
Catahoula has complained of
Col. Pritchard's assessed values,
and no fairminded men will do
so. The crop of timber which
has required perhaps two hundred
years to ripen, is now ready for
the harvest. Within ten years
fully one-half of Louisiana's vir-
gin forests will have been ex-
hausted, and before 1927 all of
our magnificent forests will have
been denuded. 1t is only fair
and just that these forests should
yield to the state and parish for a
short period q reasonable revenue
and in the face of these con-
ditions it is surprising to me that
any one should complain.
Denude our forests and turn the
lands over to nature, and fully
two hundred years will be required
tn ref0rest them. We are now
harvesting . crop, the first and
= II.