NEW VALUATION OF UNBUILT ON LAND 143 



Preparatory work. — This work, performed in the direct taxation offices, 

 was the preparation of the documents required for the operations in the 

 communes. With the help of the cadastral registers, all the holdings be- 

 longing to each tax payer were grouped together, according to the leaves 

 of the plan ; or, in other words, all the parcels entered in the cadastre were 

 shown grouped together on different valuation sheets for each leaf of the 

 plan. These sheets were then sorted according to owners and finally sum- 

 marised for the whole commune. 



Examination of the kind of farming. — - After the preparation of 

 the documents in the above manner, the officers in charge communicated 

 them to the collectors, together with extracts from the contracts of lease 

 relating to the last ten years supplied by the registrars. The collectors 

 had to find out the alterations made in the manner of cultivating the 

 holdings since their registration in the cadastre, and to show on the sheets 

 the real manner of their cultivation ; they had also to note on the extracts 

 from the deeds of lease the designations given in the cadastre to the parcels 

 therein dealt with, so as to allow of the identification of the holdings leased 

 and of the farms being distinguished from each other. They were assisted in 

 their twofold work by the landlords, assembled in advance by means of 

 publicly posted advertisements or private letters, or, in default of the land- 

 lords, by the persons best informed with regard to the communal land. 



The work of valuation properly so-called. — This work was entirely 

 carried out by the superintendents of direct taxation immediately after the 

 accomplishment of the preliminary operations with which the collectors 

 were charged. The superintendents first of all collected from the public 

 departments all information that might be useful with regard to the value 

 of unbuilt on land and then visited the communes, where they proceeded, 

 in union with the classification committees, as follows : 



After preparation of a complete list of the kinds of cultivation carried 

 on in the commune, they settled the number of classes to be assigned for 

 each of these kinds of cultivation, taking into account the various degrees 

 of fertility of the soil, the value of the produce and the situation of the hold- 

 ings. Then they established a provisional valuation scale, showing the 

 average rental value and market price per hectare for each class and they 

 proceeded to classify the landed estates in the various categories corre- 

 sponding with the scale. 



The superintendents and classifiers then, with the help of the contracts 

 of lease, estimated the value of the holdings leased and compared the re- 

 sults with those obtained by means of the classification. Theoretically, the 

 two methods should evidently lead to estimates consistent with each 

 other, but, when this was not the case, the superintendents had carefully 

 to investigate the causes of the dift'erence revealed by the comparison, and 

 make the necessary corrections in the valuation scale or in the classi- 

 fication, according to circumstances. 



Ulterior work. — After the completion of the work of valuation pro- 

 perly so called, the scale of valuation was examined by the inspectors of 

 direct taxation and definitely fixed by the officers in charge. These officers 



