NEW VALUATION OF UNBUILT ON LAND 14I 



ization of the work, providing for the utiHsation of the assistance not 

 only of the agents of the department of direct taxation, too few alone to 

 arrange for the completion of the valuation within the very short term 

 pro^vided for, but also of collectors and of municipal clerks. 



The work had to be carried out as follows : 



The municipal clerks were entrusted with the initial duty of investig- 

 ating with the assistance of the parties concerned the changes made in 

 the way of cultivating the land since the establishment of the cadastre. 



Furnished with this information, the head officers of the direct tax- 

 ation offices prepared a statement of the real estate of each landholder, 

 classifying the holdings according to position and the nature of their 

 cultivation. 



The valuation properly so called was then undertaken. At first a 

 valuation scale was prepared. For this purpose, the superintendent, with 

 the help of assessors, first of all enquired what kinds of farm were 

 represented in the commune and settled the number of classes that should 

 be made in each case mth a view to the varying yield of the land ; he 

 then chose for each class a t^^pical holding as representing the average 

 value of the class, selecting it as far as might be from among the rented 

 holdings. The rental value per hectare given by the typical holding was 

 then entered on the list to serve as the basis for the valuation of all holdings 

 to be later included in the same group and class. 



Then the collector, also assisted by assessors, proceeded to group the 

 holdings in various classes according to the scale. All parcels of the same 

 kind possessed by one land holder in one place were classed together. 



When the classification was complete, the superintendent went again 

 to the com.mune, where he calculated, with the help of assessors, the rental 

 value of the holdings leased, on the one hand in accordance with the rent 

 stipulated in the contracts, on the other hand in accordance with the scale 

 and the results of the classification; he enquired into the causes of the 

 differences revealed by this operation, and made any corrections consid- 

 ered necessary in the scale. 



The valuation properly so called being thus finished, it was still necess- 

 arj^ before determining the final results, to proceed to the calculation of the 

 rental value of all real estate according to the classification, the division 

 of the holdings according to the manner of working, the communication 

 of the valuations to the owners and the consideration of the objections 

 presented by them. 



This procedure was first applied in the commune of Laroche-Saint- 

 Cydroine (Yonne), where it seemed to give satisfactory results and 

 afterwards in two communes in each department. Experience revealed 

 some defects which were remedied by the following changes. 



(a) Substitution of collectors of taxes for the municipal clerks. — In spite 

 of the zeal and activity shown by them in the work in connection with the 

 experiments, the municipal clerks did not seem alwaj^s able, in view of 

 their manifold duties, to give the department sufficient assistance in complet- 



