Local Taxation on American Farms. 91 



into these matters was purposely omitted, because it was 

 obviously improbable that true answers could have been 

 obtained. By confining the inquiry to things which the 

 e xaminer could see with his own eyes, he was able to correct 

 the farmer's valuation by his own judgment ; and the 

 statistics given are the result of full and fair consultation 

 between the Department's agent and each individual farmer. 



Every farmer visited, feeling assured 'from the character of 

 his visitor — who was locally well known — that the informa- 

 tion thus obtained would not be given to local assessors, was 

 quite willing to give information ; and the Department's 

 agents report that the truthfulness of the statements may 

 be in every respect relied upon. Mistakes of judgment in 

 such matters of opinion must, of course, have been very 

 frequent ; and indeed it is not likely that in any one instance 

 the figures were exactly correct. But such errors, when 

 distributed over a wide area, practically correct themselves 

 or at any rate they do not alter the relative proportions of 

 the different farms. 



The agents report that, when asked to give a valuation 

 for any other purpose than that of assessment for taxation, 

 the farmers almost uniformly rate the value of both their 

 land and their buildings much too high. Indeed, the sanguine 

 disposition of farmers appears to be so great that they can 

 hardly persuade themselves to reduce the value of their farms 

 even when they know that such valuation will be used as a 

 basis for assessment. "With regard to their personal pro- 

 perty, however, their disposition is very different. Not only 

 are they disposed to put an excessively low valuation upon 

 their cattle, farming implements, furniture, etc., when making 

 returns to the tax-gatherer, but they are also disposed to put 

 a valuation at least sufficiently low upon these things when 

 making returns which they know will not be used for the 

 purposes of taxation. 



The general result is that, while the statistics are given 

 precisely as they come from the farmers themselves, in the 

 judgment of the Department of Agriculture the valuations of 

 land and buildings are, upon the average, too high, while the 

 valuations of personal property are, upon tho average, 

 too low. 



