404 MISC. PUBLICATION 218, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
measure. As shown in parts 3 and 12, the permanent exemption of 
the forest growing stock from taxation is a greater concession than 
can be justified. Furthermore, any attempt to apply a temporary 
exemption to be removed at or near the maturity of present second- 
growth stands would seem to lead to the insoluble difficulty of finding 
any certain and inexpensive method of determining when each stand 
has reached that time. In short, while the forest-tax legislation of 
the past has given valuable experience, it has been chiefly negative 
in character. As yet it has not developed any law which may be 
regarded as representing an adequate solution of a positive sort to 
the forest-tax problem. 
