l66 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE). 



this matter and sought the advice and help of the government 

 experts at Washington. They sent a man dow^n here, as you 

 all know, who made an extensive study of the state geographi- 

 cally and economically, and later on we received a report of 

 that department which was drawn with the idea constantly in 

 mind of this question of equitable division of the bond issue.. 

 And it was by such a process of reasoning as I have just 

 shown that the government expert from Washington laid out 

 his basic plan for division of this money. 



STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 



The State Board of Trade Committee in making as it did 

 an exhaustive study of this question believed that still another 

 element should be added, namely, that of valuation of estates by 

 counties, and they proceeded with the assistance of an expert 

 engineer of Maine to work out an elaborate table of percent- 

 ages, taking all four of these items into account, namely, popu- 

 lation, farm area, road mileage and valuation, and reached the 

 conclusion that the division of the bond issue based upon some 

 such method would be equitable and fair to all concerned. 



Population alone is unfair. 



Valuation alone is unfair. 



But when these essential elements are offset by farm acreage 

 and road mileage the question seems to assume some form of 

 equitability and justice. 



NO DIVISION CAN BE ACCURATE. 



Although the State Board of Trade recognized clearly that 

 no absolute unvarying division should be made, — that there 

 would be various considerations that would fairly lead to alter- 

 ations in these figures, they believed that some basis should be 

 established and that the division should come as near to this 

 basis as the practical working out of the plan made possible. 

 This method of division prod^uced the following results : 



