ECONOMIC SUEVEYS OF COUNTY HIGHWAY IMPROVEMENT. 19 



This maintenance situation emphasizes the disindination on the 

 part of local communities to submit to taxation for the purpose of 

 keeping up their roads after they have gone to considerable expense 

 to bund them. The toll system appeals to them as a simple way 

 out of the difficulty and furthermore as a means of reaching the 

 lumber dealers and automobihsts who come from other districts, 

 counties and States. 



EFFECT OP ROAD IMPROVEMENT ON LAND VALUES. 



To ascertain as nearly as possible the effect of the road improve- 

 ment on land values, a careful record was made in 1910 of the actual 

 market value of 35 farms located on the roads selected for improve- 

 ment. The total number of acres in these 35 farms was 5,518 and 

 the total market value at that time was $77,950, or $14.13 per acre, 

 including budduigs. In the same year the average value of aU 

 land in the county, including buildings, was reported by the United 

 States census to be $13 per acre, thus indicating the accuracy of 

 the data obtained by our investigation. As the road improvement 

 had not been completed in 1911, no inquiry was made in that year 

 as to land values, but in subsequent years careful investigation was 

 made as to the values of the 35 farms recorded in our 1910 inves- 

 tigation. It was found that in 1912, 7 of the 35 farms had been 

 sold and that an offer had been made and refused for another one 

 of the original number. How the values had increased in the brief 

 period of about 2 years may best be indicated by the history of 

 these 7 cases. 



A farm 3 miles from Fredericksburg, containing 139 acres and 

 valued at $3,500 in 1909, was sold in 1912 for $5,000, an increase 

 over the 1910 valuation of 43 per cent. 



A farm 10 miles from Fredericksburg, containing 420 acres, listed 

 at $6,000 in 1910, sold for $8,250 in 1912, an increase of 37 per cent 

 over the 1910 valuation. 



A farm 11 miles from Fredericksburg, containing 110 acres, valued 

 at $1,500 in 1910, brought in 1912 $2,000 for 80 acres and $500 for 

 timber, an increase of 60 per cent without counting the value of the 

 remaining 30 acres, or about 116 per cent, coimting this acreage at 

 its 1912 sale value. 



A farm 2 miles from Fredericksburg, containing 101 acres, valued 

 at $3,000 in 1910, sold for $3,750 in 1912, an increase of 25 per 

 cent. 



For a farm 6 miles from Fredericksburg, containing 475 acres, valued 

 at $5,000 in 1910, $12,500 was refused during the latter part of 1911, 

 an increase of 150 per cent. 



The five farms above referred to are located on the Fredericksburg- 

 Spotsylvania Court House Road 



