Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-07-02
TTMBERLANp TAXES.
A Question That Involves More Than
Present Income.


The subject of Timberland Taxation
involves q consideration of much more
than present income, for on it de-
ponds the whole subject Of the
preservation of our forests, our water
powers, and our soil.
1t IS not simple question of i'm
mediate increase in the States income
at the expense of the lumberinen, but
of not only maintaining but increas-
ing the incomes of both.
Unwise systems of taxation are the
fundamental causes of forest de-
VaStatlon, not only in this country,
but elsewhere, and scientific tax sys-
TENS are at the bottom of every sue
cessf"l system of forestry the world
over
Timberland differs from other
classes of productive property, such as
farms, in that an annual crop cannot
be taken from the same acre. so to
maintain a steady yield, enough land
must be under forest cultivation to
allow crops to be cut in rotation from
various divisions of the whole, which
divisions. after they have been cut
over cannot yield again for from IS
tc 10 years according to the methods
used.
These methods range from cutting
only large trees in forests of uneven
Tree ages, to clean cutting of narrow
strips IN forests of even aged divisions.
winch latter method is practced in
Germany.
In one case the crops are less but
more frequent, While in the other they
are larger but much farther apart.
but in either case, long, none Income
producing periods intervene. during
Which the growing trees are subject to
state and county tax, to annual loss
from wind, and intermittent loss from
fire.
Even in Germany, where their
methods leave few isolated trees ex
posed, the average annual blow downs
amount to a of their entire cut. or
l2o 1t. per acre, and while, by their
close methods. they recover most of
inns loss, with us, save in the area
we are cutting, the loss is absolute.
80 too with fires, we have an excel
lent but limited system of detection.
but, once found, the machinery we
can set in motion to put them out is
as crude as our method of detection
is perfect
1t is essential to the continued pros
perlty OF this State that we evolve.
out OF our present chaos a wise and
stable forest policy, for stability is es-
sent1al to the successful practice of
the best fruits of which are
not to be had in year, or a decade.
and hardly even in a century,
Germany. after $50 years of forestry
Is still increasing not only the
quantity of timber cut, but the size
ard quality as well.
But to be stable our policy must he
right in every essential particular.
guarding equally the interest of the
lumberlnen and of the State, for it
Will otherwise be subject to attack
from whichever side the rights or
which have been neglected.
Such policy involves list. n scien-
tlllc tax system; I'd, systematized cut
ting to provide for ample reproduce
tl9n-a continuous supply; Sd, reforesta-
ton Of burnt over and barren land,
and 4th complete fire protection of all
our timber
Our land valuation includes the
growing timber, but, save at the as
SCISSORS option, makes no allowance
FOR immediate depreciations in value
following cutting and fires, nor any al
owancc for unproductive swamp or
water areas which are taxed equally
with the productive land.
This is in direct opposition to per-
fectcd systems of forest taxation the
world over. for it is, in effect, a tax
Tor growing trees which we wish in
every way to encourage. and it's nat
ural tendency. with an increasing
valuation and tax rate, is to cause cut
ting before trees are full grown
| say that our system tends this
way. for, while until within a few
years, its actual working has been, in
effect, reasonable, it has always car
ried the threat of sudden changes
which We have had to guard against.
Names timber industry is one of
the oldest III the country, having been
born 300 years ago, though it has ONLY
now reached maturity
During this time other and newer
states have entirely exhausted their
supply while her yield has continually
increased.
I wonder if the people of Maine
ever stopped to consider the funda-
mental cause of this?
With our network of drivable
streams and navigabe rivers, our lum-
Der can be carried to market at a cost
rs low or lower than in any other state
in the Union. Why then, has it not
all gone years ago?
Setting aside all questions of wheth-
er taxes have been as high as they
could or as high as they should, and
merely cause and effect.
the reason is that, while the exhausted
states have taxed their timber off the
soil. in Maine taxes have been low
enough to let the lumbermen pick their
trees and leave the smaller ones to
grow.
But now that our timber production
has, under present methods, reached
and passed it's zenith, when the whole
is aroused to its coming tim
Der famine. when preventative meas
lres are being sought in state after
state, comes the proposition that we
give the industry its quietus by
means that have never failed, by tax