Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-06-13
MAINE WILD LANDS.
Their Conditions and Taxes.-A Con-
structive Policy Wanted.


est resources and fully agree with its
conclusions, for it is vital, not alone to
the lumberman, but to the entire State
as we'll.
The State is not so rich in commercial
enterprises that it can afford TO lose
any, let alone the chief enterprise of all
its lumber
But it is in greater danger of losing
it that the general public realizes, and
no one is as fully aware of this as the
lumbermen themselves.
1t is true that present methods of
cutting are far more careful and less
wasteful than formerly, and that. in
cooperation with the State Forestry
Department. an effort is being made to
extinguish fires while small enough to
control. But however much lumber
men may desire it, and all enlightened
ones do, no attempt is being made to
provide for a future supply of timber
nor can be under present conditions.
On the contrary, every piece Of tim
berland under operation today is being
cut at a rate of three to five times
faster than it grows, Il condition which
unless changed, will produce n timber
Id11ll1le within tHt llltllIllt Vi IiitIl HOW
in active business.
The sole reason for this is that the
present system of wild land taxation is
entirely and radically wrong.
Under it man must cut his timber
whether it is ripe or not, otherwise his
taxes will eat it up.
How long could a farmer stand it if
he had to cut his hay when half grown.
and dig mis- potatoes when half ripe?
But that is precisely the condition of
Maine timberland today, and a timber
town is nothing but a timber farm,
and should be so considered, the fact
that the spruce crop requires $50 to 200
years to ripen being a difference in de-
gree only.
Our timber farms are now in the con-
dition that Germany came to 100 years
ago-demand increasing and the end of
the supply in sight.
The thrifty Germans saw the condi-
ton they would be in with their tim
Der gone, and changed both the tax
laws and methods of cutting.
For 20 years the annual yield per
acre remained stationary, but today it
las reached the sum Of $40 net per
acre for every year. and is increasing.
For the State of Maine this condition
would mean, instead of a net yield of
So, 000, 600 yearly with the end in sight, q
yearly yield of $21 ,6OOO 900 in perpetuity.
Certainly no Yankee will admit his in
telligence to be below that of the aver
age German, and what the German has
done, the Yankee can do and do as
well.
Under the present system taxes are
levied on land valuations. but the
money to pay the tax must come from
the crop.
The timber farm while growing
crop. but producing no il me, must
pay from the proceeds of preceding
crops, While the one whose crop is ripe
and being harvested, pays from the
present crop.
This is just the poirV land should
not be taxed at all, but the timber af-
ter it is cut into logs.
This would relieve the necessity for
cutting half grown trees. allowing them
to grow to maturity first, so insuring
the future supply.
The crop of logs is a definite value.
easily obtained from scale bills on the
different operations, while the value of
WId land is something on which no
two timberland explorers ever agree.
And here is n fact not generally
known or appreciated. Wild land-the
timber farm-is not the property Of its
so-called "OWner" as is his house lot or
his potato farm. On the latter he may
place sign warning trespassers off.
and the law says they must then stay
Off
But his timber farm is open to any
one from anywhere at all times and
seasons, and, in this sense. belongs to
the public. and not to its owner at all.
What then. does he own
For all useful and practical purposes,
simply the timber growing there. and
should he sell ''his land" all Of pres
ent value he conveys is timber
Now how is it taxed?
First the State levies on the land.
Next the county levies and again on
the land.
He cuts the timber down into logs.
which then, according to present laws,
become personal property, and on these
the town levies.
Unless he sells his logs, either as logs.
lumber. or pulp within year, they are
again taxed by his town, so having
double taxation without having yielded
q cent of return. And this happens
yearly with nearly every lumberman
who owns logs.
He has paid a tax on his land with
timber standing. the same year tax
on his logs down. the next year. a tax
on his land empty, and a second tax on
the same logs if he has them.
When he has finally cut all timber
1T 10 cut, that land must stand, un-
productive of income for at least o.
years, still paying taxes, and always
open to the public.
And because that land now produces
no income, have the taxes been re-
duced?
Here is an example,:
From a certain town every saw log
nipe log) Will have been cut by the end
OF next year. leaving nothing standing
but 1dlf grown nI1lp Jaus