ty should be increased with great caution
in order that the forest lands may be held to advantage for the
production of future timber crops. A timber crop is marketed only
after the young growing timber has been held for a long term of
years, during which time the forest has been yielding only a very
slight revenue, if any, to the owner. If the valuation of the forest
or its rates of taxation goes beyond a comparatively low limit, the
holding of forest land for a second crop of timber is impracticable
or nearly prohibitive. This condition has prevailed in many other
States where now the problem of taxation is a difficult one to
solve.

ALFRED GASKILL, State Forester for New Jersey: The present practices
favor and encourage the untimely or wasteful use of standing forests,
discourage the propagation of others, and tend to hasten the time
when the country shall be forced to face a wood famine.

It would be impossible to apply the European system here with anything
like the exactness that attaches to it in the old countries, because
we have not the means of knowing the true worth of forest soil or
of forest crops, but the principle is applicable anywhere. Even
in the hands of non-expert assessors it gives a fairer basis of
valuation than our present method, and in the long run will insure
larger returns.

J. E. FROST, Tax Commissioner of Washington: The State's system
of taxation is obsolete, and only 13 civilized communities in the
world have such an out-of-date system. The State is confined by
the constitution to property tax, well known as a primitive system,
utterly incapable of coping with modern business. It can be remedied
only by recognizing the different classes of taxable property.

DR. FRANCIS L. MCVEY, University President and Tax Expert: Under
the old plan of valuing annually the property it was difficult to
secure an appraisement that was satisfactory to anybody and, what was
more, as the years went by the local governments found their assessed
values decreasing and the burden of government materially increasing
with the decline in amount of standing timber. The annual taxation
of the land upon which the timber stands meets this difficulty,
while the taxation of the product at the time of harvesting provides
a plan that is fair both to the local government and to the owner
of timber.

COLORADO CONSERVATION COMMISSION: _Resolved_, That it is the sense
of the Colorado Conservation Commission that the gov