80 BULLETIN 393, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
this fund is deposited with the bond trustees of the county, con- 
sisting of three bankers, and by them invested in securities which 
must be equally as good as the bonds. The trustees are planning 
to buy up the road bonds whenever their funds are sufficient to do 
so and the bonds are available for purchase. It is planned to retire 
$3,000 of the bonds during 1916. The weakness of the plan adopted 
lies in the extreme improbability that 5 per cent will continue to 
be obtained on the sinking fund. If the county succeeds in obtain- 
ing over the entire period an average of more than 4 per cent on its 
sinking fund, it will have accomplished more than could reasonably 
be expected. 
As an indication of how the sinking-fund method compares with 
the deferred serial method, it might be pointed out that the annual 
outlay for interest and nesrenen of the $250,000 bond issue under 
the former, with interest on the smking fund at 4 per cent, would be 
$16,957.53, and under the deferred serial method, with the bonds 
running 5-30 years, the annual outlay would be $15,833.33. If the 
county, however, succeeds in obtaining 5 per cent on the sinking 
fund throughout the entire period the annual outlay will be 
$16,262.85. 
It would, therefore, appear that if the deferred serial plan had 
been adopted instead of the sinking-fund plan, with mterest on 
sinking fund producing 4 per cent, a total saving of $33,725.75 could 
be realized, but if the sinking fund produced 5 per cent the saving 
would be only $12,855.50. This latter sum is, however, equivalent 
to about 5 per cent of the total bond issue ae aoa have been 
sufficient to pay for all engineering expenses. 
To provide an annual outlay of $16,262.85, a levy of about 2 mills 
on each dollar of assessed valuation will be requced on the basis of 
the present-assessment, but mabe Lye this rate will decrease as the 
assessed values increase. 
The tax levy for the road bonds in 1910 amounted tc 7 mills and ~ 
in 1915 to 3 mills. The sinking fund contained $47,396.98 on 
December 1, 1915, which indicates that the rate of accumulation is 
oreater than necessary to retire the bonds in 30 years. 
A comparison of tax rates for the years 1905, 1910, and 1915 
reveals the fact that there has not been a very great increase in the 
rate on account of the road improvement, as the total rates were 24 
mills in 1905, 264 mills in 1910, and 26 mills in 1915, and that while 
the 24-mill rate produced only $49,472.86 in 1905, the 26-mill rate > 
produced $178,420.89 in 1915. In other words, while the tax rate 
increased during that period only 10 per cent, the receipts increased 
260 per cent, indicating a remarkable increase in taxable wealth. 
While there was a levy of 3 mills in 1915 for road bonds, as compared 
with no levy for that purpose in 1905, the levy for general county 
