Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

LAND THE GREAT SOURCE OF WEALTH

Comparative figures of real estate and personal property values in
the State Government here costs about a quarter billion annually

A. M. Sperry

L

asset.

BY A. M. SPERRY

Former counsel to the State excise department

[graphic]

AND, in its relation to other things, is the

big community

All progress and prosperity depends upon the use that is made of land. To hold it vacant, or without suitable improvement, is is waste. If land is wasted through neglect of opportunity, then men and women must work harder and have less. Nature is not deficient, but human beings are careless of their rights and privileges.

The foregoing statement of simple truth may appear to be academic, and impertinent to existing conditions. We have methods We have methods that we think must be employed to prevent social disturbance, and whoever presents an argument against things as they are runs the risk of misunderstanding and harsh criticism. Fear of popular judgment, according to fixed standards, keeps many who know from being honest. The "easiest way" is to fall in and march with the procession wherever it may go.

No member of society is so disagreeable to his associates as the professional or inveterate agitator. "There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard." In season, and out of season, they view with alarm the tendency toward evil; and they often become obnoxious in their frenzied efforts. Dislike for some of its self-appointed representatives has created a prejudice against "the kingdom of heaven."

We who live in the State of New York and do business together, should not pull two ways, nor believe that prosperity will ever come out of disagreement and discord. The honest man would rather maintain his integrity than make a dollar; and whatever wrong there is in our tax system, we may be sure that a majority of the people would like to have the error corrected.

Without partisian prejudice, or personal feeling against any public official, we may properly inquire into the facts of the case, and draw some reasonable conclusions.

Official reports show about twelve billion dollars of real property value, and about one billion dollars of personal property values in this State. For local purposes taxes are directly assessed and collected; but in addition to them the State demands and takes an indirect revenue which falls generally upon industry of some kind

The burden of taxation has become so great that there is complaint, and even groaning, among property owners, particularly with owners of "real estate."

It appears that the people of this State are required to pay each year about $250,000,000 for government, which is not far from two per cent of all property value. This sum does not include indirect revenues. Evidently taxes do not press with equal weight upon those who must pay them. A tax is no burden upon one who handles a surplus, after meeting all his obligations. Another, whose account barely balances, or shows no real profit, is positively hurt by taxation. To ascertain just how many run close to the margin of business safety would be difficult,

but we know that at least fifty per cent of the population have no tangible property. These all live, and many of them work. Not more than ten per cent of the people own or control ninety per cent of accumulated wealth; and by the facts stated we may draw a line that accurately describes the economic situation. Revenue does not reduce values, therefore it is taken from production.

Under a system of taxation that draws revenue from production, and does not reduce values, a class is formed that proceeds safely above the fear of want, and a multitude are pressed lower into necessity toward deprivation.

One of our own prophets has plainly said, "We must see to it that the big fellow does not push the little fellow out of business."

Just now the word morale is in common use. Its definition is "That mental state which renders one capable of endurance, and of exhibiting courage in presence of danger." It is not the courage or leadership of one man that will bring victory, and the peace that we fervently desire. All the people must rise to heights of determination, and summon all their powers to accomplish the grand result.

With such a condition present and urgent there is need for earnest thought and rational action.

No necessity appears for "pressing down upon the brow of labor a crown of thorns." Being rich in natural opportunity and abundantly supplied with land well located, the people of the State of New York should insist upon freedom to reach and employ their resources. The moral condition of a multitude is more important than the security of a few in undisturbed possession of means of production.

Men who are prominent in State government, and responsible for their utterances, have recognized the danger of drawing so large a revenue from the products of labor without making suitable adjustment accord

ing to land, which is the prime source of all supply. It has been seriously proposed that more taxes be levied upon idle land to encourage its improvement and cultivation, and that products of labor be exempted as far as possible.

The proposition is reasonable, and amounts to a plan for increasing the kind of property that feeds soldiers, and keeps workers in health and strength for service.

Not one acre, or square foot, of land fit for use can be taxed out of existence, nor made less productive by that process. It will all be here in the same place whatever happens; but that is not the fact concerning things produced by labor applied to land. Our task as a social organization, or commonwealth, is to encourage the development and raise the hopes of men and women. Lords of the land are passing away, and free humanity is crowding toward the front line of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

FORWARD, LOYAL GUARDSMEN!*

BY HORATIO M. POLLOCK
Forward, loyal guardsmen,
Marching forth to war,
With the flag of freedom
Floating on before.
In the din of battle,
In the fierce melée,
Strike for truth and honor,
Strike for victory.

Forward, then, ye heroes,
Bearing on the foe;

With the will to conquer,
Ever onward go.

Over trenches flying,
Over barricade,

Winning righteous battles
In your country's aid.

Forward, ever forward,
Let the watchword be,
Till the foe is vanquished
Most triumphantly.
Sailing back as victors,
Joyfully you'll come,
With the bugles sounding
Welcome, welcome home.

A war song to be sung to the tune of "Onward Christian Soldiers."

OLD CANAL BEDS FOR FISH HATCHERIES

Valuable use of abandoned State property found by the Conservation Com-
One stretch of old channel a mile and a half long to be utilized

mission

John W. Titcomb

C

BY JOHN W. TITCOMB

State Fish Culturist

[graphic]

OMPLETION pollen into contact with the seeds. But in the case of spawning fishes, water is the agent which transmits the milt to the eggs after the latter have been expelled by the female.

of the new State barge canal has resulted in the abandonment of long stretches of the old Erie and Champlain canals which are the property of the State. Portions of these abandoned stretches have little or no value as realty, and some of them the conservation commission proposes to utilize in connection with its fish cultural work. In public service it would be far more satisfactory to accomplish an object and let the results show for themselves than to attempt to outline a project in advance; but the public pays the bills and has a right to ask how disused canals may be made a source of food supply.

Generally speaking, fish cultural operations may be divided into two classes: First, artificial propagation; second, pond culture. Although pond culture is the one in which abandoned canals offer the greatest possibilities, it may be of interest to outline briefly the history and methods of artificial propagation.

The basic principle is the fertilization of the egg. Under natural conditions, the process may be compared to the fertilization of flowers. The egg is to the fish the same as the seed is to the plant, and the milt of the male fish corresponds to the pollen of the plant. The seed is not complete until it has been united with the pollen. Various insects and the wind shake off and move the

The discovery that fish eggs could be artificially impregnated by "stripping" both the eggs and milt from the parent fish was first made in Germany in 1758. At the present time it is interesting to note that the author of a treatise published in 1854, referring to the discovery, writes: "So occupied were the people of Europe in the art and science of cutting one another's throats, that it was lost sight of and was rediscovered in 1840, in a more valuable form, by two poor, illiterate French fishermen."

Seth Green, at one time fish commissioner in this State, is accredited with being the first man in America to take advantage of artificial propagation, and from this fact he is generally known as the "father of fish culture" in this country.

In the early days of fish culture the eggs were expelled into a pan of water and the milt was then added. Under present-day methods the two elements are brought into contact before the water is added, and as a result a very high percentage of fertilization is achieved. The eggs may be taken from fish caught by commercial fishermen which are destined for market, or they may be taken from fish caught expressly for the purpose of obtaining their eggs. In the latter case the fish may, after the operation, be returned uninjured to the water.

After impregnation, the eggs are protected by providing the most favorable conditions

[graphic]

Four hundred bullheads, averaging one pound each in weight, were placed in the first canal pond at Schuylerville, May 27th for hatching and then, with the trouts and salmons, the various stages of fish rearing follow which the many visitors to the State hatcheries are accustomed to see at different seasons of the year. Owing to the cannibalistic nature of other species artificially propagated and the enormous numbers produced, it is customary to plant them as fry.

Among the fish which have hitherto yielded the most satisfactory results by the methods of artificial propagation are mentioned the various members of the trout family, salmon, whitefish, pikeperch, muscallonge and a number of other fish and also salt water species. On the other hand, smallmouth and largemouth black bass, calico bass, crappie, bream, catfish and other fishes of similar habits, do not submit to the "stripping" process. process. These species thrive. best in warmer water than the trout family, and are ordinarily handled by the so-called pond culture methods. It is in connection with the increased propagation of these varieties that the abandoned portions of the Erie and Champlain canals offer such wonderful possibilities.

As the warm water fishes do not yield to the artificial methods described in the fore

going paragraphs, it is fortunate that a very large percentage of the eggs of these species

are fertilized when spawning occurs naturally. Additional advantage is gained by the habit of the parent fish in caring for and protecting their young until they are free swimmers. The cultivation of these fishes, therefore, consists in providing ponds which shall give to the maximum number of breeding fish and their young all the essential conditions of a natural environment, while at the same time protecting them from their enemies and holding them under control.

The breeding of fish in artificial ponds dates back to the luxurious days of ancient Rome. China, for many centuries, has propagated fish in ponds and as long ago as 1611 shipped goldfish to Europe. Many improvements have been made over the methods of pond culture conducted in those early days when the ponds were stocked by the transfer of eggs from other waters or, perhaps, by the transfer of fishes. It is unnecessary to describe all the details of modern pond culture, but it is important to state that the young of the black bass and other nest building fishes cannot be confined in the troughs or small ponds used for trout rearing, and will not accept artificial food. They depend for sustenance upon minute

[graphic][merged small]

forms of animal life and upon one another. At a very tender age they develop cannibalistic tendencies and when large numbers are confined in artificial ponds, even where there is an abundance of natural food, they may reduce their own numbers 60 to 80 per cent within a month or six weeks from the time of hatching. Not even with a judicious selection of a profuse growth of aquatic vegetation, which besides providing a refuge from one another produces directly or indirectly the small crustaceans and other minute forms of animal life upon which the young bass feed, is the fish culturist able to prevent a large loss by cannibalism.

[graphic]
[ocr errors]

The State has three hatcheries with facilities for pond culture at Ogdensburg, Constantia and Linlithgo. The principal one is at Ogdensburg, the pond culture operations at the other two stations being subordinate to hatchery operations. There are five ponds at Ogdensburg having, when filled, a water area of about three acres. They are merely earthen basins arranged so that they can be supplied with water or drained off at will. It is possible to avoid a sudden drop in temperature to which nest building fishes are very sensitive by varying the volume of water supply. Facility for draining the ponds is necessary in order to capture the inhabitants, either for distribution, for sorting or for transfer to other ponds. The pond culture operations at these three stations is devoted to the propagation of the smallmouth black bass, but their combined production is entirely inadequate to meet the demands of applicants.

It is in adding, at small expense, to the State's present meagre facilities for pond culture, that the conservation commission sees great possibilities in the abandoned portions of the Erie and Champlain canals. Only such sections of the canals will be selected as can be easily drained and filled by gravity. A dam will be constructed in the lock at the lower end of the section, the

Section of abandoned canal to be used as fish hatchery

side walls of the canal acting as wing walls for the dam. By constructing a dam at lock number 28 in the old Erie canal, a stretch of the canal more than a mile and a half long can easily be filled from the Schoharie creek by means of the "Old Erie canal feeder," and as readily drained at the lower end into the new barge canal. The feeder also will be used as a propagation pond. A section of canal less than one mile in length has more water area than the combined area of all the ponds at the State hatcheries now available for pond cultural operations.

A suitable section having been selected, the dam at the lower end will be constructed and proper inlets and outlets provided, each containing a screen; at the inlet to prevent the entrance of eels or other enemies of small fish and at the outlet to prevent the escape of the fish. escape of the fish. The section will then be drained, objectionable fishes removed and the bottom made smooth enough for the operation of a seine. The water may now

« AnteriorContinuar »