38 BULLETIlSr 393, U. S. DEPAETMEFT OP AGEICULTUEE. 



In 1915 the rates were 75 cents in Rose Hill, 90 cents in Jonesville, 

 80 cents in Rocky Station, and 60 cents in Yokum Station, and pro- 

 duced about $37,000. This is about $10,000 per annum more than is 

 needed for the first issue of $364,000, but will be required to pay 

 interest and create a sinking fund for the $91,000 sinking-fund bonds 

 subsequently issued. 



While it is true, therefore, that the county adopted the most ap- 

 proved method of financing its road improvement so far as the first 

 issue is concerned, it seems that it wiU have to carry a rather heavy 

 tax burden. Applying this, however, to an individual case, it may 

 be stated that a man owning a $5,000 farm assessed at $2,000, a fair 

 example of the prevailing practice, would pay, on the basis of the 

 1915 rate of $1.96 for all purposes, State, county, and road bonds, a 

 total of $39.20, of which 61 cents of the rate, or $12.20 total, would 

 apply to the road bonds. 



In 1913 additional 5 per cent bonds, to the extent of $60,000 for 

 Rocky Station District and $16,000 for Rose Hill District, were 

 issued on the sinking-fxmd basis, bearing interest at 5 per cent. In 

 the fall of 1915 Rose HiU District issued $15,000 additional bonds. 

 The sinking-fund method, as has been pointed out elsewhere in this 

 bulletin, invariably proves more expensive than the serial method, 

 except in those very rare cases where the sinking fund yields as large 

 interest return as the interest payable on the bonds. The total of- 

 all bonds issued by the county was $455,000, which, with premiums, 

 yielded a total of $464,560. This is the only bonded indebtedness of 

 the county except $11,000 of short-term bonds for two high schools. 

 A striking illustration of the disadvantage incident to the issuance of 

 bonds by districts rather than by counties is brought out by the 

 experience of Lee County. White Shoals District, in which no bonds 

 were issued (see PI. XIII), extends entirely across the county, separat- 

 ing the improved roads of Rose Hfil District, located in the south- 

 west corner of the county, from the improved roads in the other 

 parts of the county, thus imposing considerable inconvenience on 

 other neighborhoods of the coimty, whereas if the county as a whole 

 were handling the project the improvement could be systematically 

 conducted. It is explained that the opposition in White Shoals 

 District to the voting of bonds is due to the fact that convicts are 

 not yet available for work in that district and that as soon as such 

 aid is available the district will probably take up the work. 



A comparison of taxation between the years 1910 and 1915 reveals 

 the fact that while the total tax rate for all county purposes in 1910 

 averaged $1.05, or, including the State tax, $1.40, the rate had 

 increased in 1915 to an average of $1.86 for all county purposes and 

 $1.96 for all county and State purposes, a total tax-rate increase of 

 40 per cent, while the 61 -cent average for road bonds was an entirely 



