Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-01-18

at the general meeting Of assessors:
commissioners and representatives OF
the timber interests with the state
board Of equalization Tuesday.
The assessors also arrived at ten
tative agreement as to the average
value per thousand feet for assess
ment purposes Of the timber in the
several counties which may be taken
as basis for the assessments OF the
year, although the agreement is not
binding and may be adjusted by the as
SCISSOR and commissioners OF each
county. This tentative agreement fix
ed the basis in the several counties as
follows:
Granite So; Mineral So; Ravalli So;
Sanders 1910: Flathead $2.75; Lin.
coin 1915; Missoula $3.50 Exclusive
of Northern Pacific lands) Powell 81;
Lewis and Clark s..
No General Agreement
1t was stated several times at the
meeting that no general agreement
could be reached at this meeting, but
that the conference might result in a
general understanding of values and of
the lumber situation which would
prove of value to the assessors and
county commissioners when the time
arrived for them to fix the assessment
values in their particular counties.
Henry Good, of Flathead county.
who has been engaged in the logging
business on large scale for many
years. but who has never been con-
nected with the manufacturing end of
the business, informed the meeting
in Flathead county. based on his ex-
perience in buying timber and deliver
ing it in the river, was between $1.5O
and So per thousand feet.
He submitted a list of purchases
made by him in a period of nine years,
practically all along the Saltwater riv-
err. said to be the best driving river
in Flathead county. as follows:
In 1912, 10,0O0,O0O feet at $3.50.
In 1913. 100000 feet. 80 per cent
yellow pine, at 50.
In 1914, 100000 feet. 5 to 10 per
cent yellow pine, at $3.50.
In 1915, 100000 feet at S1.25.
In 1914. 100000 feet, 60 per cent
yellow pine, at 50.
In 1915, 100000 feet fir and larch,
at S125.
In 1918, 100000 feet at s1.25.
Mill Man Hard Hit
He said he had paid So per thousand
for timber bought from the state of
Montana He felt that in Flathead
county an average of S14 per acre
would be fair, based on stand Of a.
600 feet to the acre at 81 per thous-
and for the large scattered holdings,
with higher valuations for the smaller
individual holdings near the rivers. He
explained that under the present lum-
Der conditions the small mill men could
not operate and he believed the lum-
bermen had been hit harder in the drop
of prices than had the stockmen. He
said he had recently bought shiplap
lumber at S13 to So per thousand,
whereas two or three years ago he had
paid $50 to $50.
In the discussion the losses Of the
stockmen was brought up and AS
SCISSOR Kennedy of Flathead told of
having assessed three year old stock
at the head of Swan Lake last year at
$50 per head and that 20 head Of these
had been brought to Kalispell where
they sold for only sos per head
Says Conditions Different
The commissioner of Mineral coun-
ty said conditions were very different
in Lincoln and Flathead counties from
those in the counties to the south and
he did not believe it would be able to |
get together on a general valuation.
Assessor lff of Sanders county said |
he would not agree upon a general |
value unless it should be agreed by |
Flathead and Lincoln counties as he |
placed these three on the same foot |
ing. The assessors of those counties |
agreed that the timber therein would |
run 5000 to $500 feet to the acre in |
Flathead, 5000 feet in LincoE and
/, 900 feet in Sanders, but that the /
Sanders timber consisted more largely |
Of pine.
The question of the assessment of !
agricultural lands came up and the
assessor of Ravalli county said he was
engaged in readjusting the valuations
in his county and intended raising the
best lands from $105 to as high as
5000 per acre, and that of the dry
lands, now assessed as low as IS per
acre he was raising the best as high
as $50. He felt that in assessing tim
Der at So he would be giving the tim
Der interests their just share of taxa
ton.
The Flathead assessor, John Ken
nedy, said the best dry lands in that
county were being ssessed at 500
Der acre.
Various other representatives of /
timber owning concerns testified at
he afternoon session relative to the
value Of timmber and manufactured |!
umber