at may be the source from which
he pays the total cost of raising it, including taxes upon the land
employed. If, in the condition of the wheat market, he has still a profit
upon his management, he will assume that the wheat buyers have paid the
taxes. If the market price is so low as to not cover the cost, he will
emphasize the fact that he pays the taxes. Yet probably the fact is the
same in both cases, that the owner of the land has his profits diminished
by the actual amount of the tax. More strictly, the tax is taken from the
rent of his land. In any case of over-production, when land gives no rent,
the tax will be paid by the producer out of other income. So far, however,
as farm products conform to the principle of cost of production in the
tendency of prices, there will be a corresponding tendency to shift the
tax upon the final consumer.

Thus direct and indirect taxes are not always distinguishable; but in the
tax systems of the United States most state and municipal taxes are
assumed to be direct, because levied upon persons and more permanent forms
of property, while the taxes of the general government are by the
Constitution indirect, unless levied upon the states according to
population. They are in the form of customs or excise, in which some
article of commerce or some service rendered gives a value upon which the
tax may be transferred. Thus the state, the county, the city and the
school district levy upon assessment of property and enumeration of polls.
The United States collects upon imported goods of various kinds, upon
special articles of manufacture, upon persons or corporations carrying on
particular business, and upon commercial transactions of various kinds.

_Assessment of direct taxes._--Assessment implies an enumeration of
property in the possession of supposed owners and an appraisement of its
value. The officer making the assessment is under constraint of an
official oath to give a fair valuation. The market price is supposed to
control his judgment, and is usually explicitly named in law.

In actual practice in various states of the Union assessed valuation often
falls as low as one-third or even one-fifth of a fair estimate at market
value. This is brought about by several causes. Each assessor fears
over-valuation, lest his district will bear too large a share of more
general expenses; and his successor is inclined rather to lower than raise
the standard of value, from neighborly intere