FOREST TAXATION IN THE UNITED STATES 107 
SALES 
Considerations realized in sales were also used to indicate true 
values. Very complete sales data, collected by the Wisconsin Tax 
Commission, were available for that State and were used to test 
assessment practice in all of the northern counties where the forest- 
land area was important. Sales data were also collected by the staff 
as the basis for assessment-ratio studies in selected counties in Oregon, 
Washington, and North Carolina. Care was taken to eliminate all 
cases not representing bona fide sales such as would be presumed to 
establish market value. It was the rule to reject sales from one 
member of a family to another, and those in which the cash value of 
the consideration was uncertain, or which took place under conditions 
that would suggest extraordinary pressure either to buy or to sell. 
Considerations were verified when possible by information from one 
or both parties to the transfer, this information being obtained by 
questionnaire or personal interview. ‘The term ‘‘verified”’ is used to 
distinguish such sales from those in which the considerations were 
obtained from deeds, inferred from revenue stamps, or obtained by 
other indirect means. This verification and sifting of sales records 
had already been done in Wisconsin by the tax commission, so that 
there it was necessary only to check and complete the arrangement 
by property classes. In general, sales values were compared with 
the latest previous assessment, although it was found desirable to 
make exceptions in Oregon, Washington, and North Carolina, using 
in certain cases the next succeeding assessment. 
It would have been desirable to limit the period covered in a com- 
parison of sales with assessments to a single year, but this was impos- 
sible where sales were used, owing to the difficulty of getting a suffi- 
cient volume of sales to indicate the assessment level of the different 
property classes. The longest period used was in Washington and 
Oregon, 1921-28. However it is believed that rural land values did 
not change very much in those States during that period. Evidence 
that such was the case in Oregon from 1921 to 1926 was found in 
investigations conducted by the State Agricultural College (17, p. 35). 
In these States the assessments were made annually, but the level did 
not change materially during that period in the counties studied. 
In North Carolina the period of 1925-30 was used, but during this time 
only two real-estate assessments were in effect, those of 1923 and 1927; 
also land values are believed to have been reasonably stable. In 
Wisconsin only 3 years were used, 1925-27, and tests showed but very 
little difference in average assessment ratios by property classes 
among the three periods, 1925-27, 1925-26, and 1927 alone. Where 
appraisals were the basis of assessment ratios, they relate to values at 
the date of the particular assessment with which they were compared. 
In Wisconsin the assessment district is the town, but it was not 
possible to get enough sales in a single town for adequate samples of 
assessment ratios by property classes or other groups. Therefore the 
assessment ratios were arranged first by counties and then by property 
classes and other groups. _ It is reasonable to suppose that, with super- 
vision of assessment by State district officers and with similar local 
influences, variation in assessment ratios within the towns would be 
similar to that within the county, and that the variation in ratios 
