46 BULLETIN 393, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The board of county supervisors is authorized to create a sinking 
fund and to apply any part or all te the purchase of any of the bonds 
at any time. The county board is further authorized to lend upon 
real estate security, the loan not to exceed 50 per cent of the assessed 
value of such real estate, or deposit in bank at interest all accumu- 
lations of money to the credit of the sinking fund. No sinking 
funds have been so invested, as it is difficult to lend money on real 
estate on a 50 per cent assessment basis, and for that reason the 
board of supervisors expect to purchase and retire the bonds as fast 
as money accumulates in the smking fund, provided the bonds are on 
the market at a price which would be advantageous to the county. 
This method would be somewhat similar to the deferred serial method. 
It must be borne in mind, however, that the holders of the bonds 
might, up to the twentieth year, refuse to surrender them, and would 
thus force the sinking-fund method upon the county. This element 
of uncertainty is the weakness of the retirement method as contrasted 
with a regular deferred serial method. 
On the basis of the 1915 assessment of $13,500,000, the $700,000 of 
county bonds could be paid off in 25 years by an average tax rate of 
36.7 cents per hundred dollars to be devoted to payment of interest 
and retiring the bonds annually, and the total amount paid out would 
be about $1,241,500 if $35,000 of the bonds are purchased at par each 
year after the fifth year instead of establishing a sinking fund. Under 
the sinking-fund plan, with smking fund bearimg 3 per cent and run- 
ning 25 years, the total cost would be $1,354,988, or an average of 
$54,199 per annum for interest and retirement. The total saving 
by paying off the bonds instead of accumulating smking fund would be 
$113,488. The tax rate for the sinking-fund plan would be 40 cents 
on the present valuation as compared with 35.7 cents for the deferred 
serial plan, or for buying up the bonds at par. 
If the total bond issue of $960,000 were retired the twenty-fifth 
year on the sinking-fund plan, with interest on smking fund at 3 per 
cent, the total cost would be $1,858,269. If the serial plan were 
adopted with the first payment, beginning on the sixth year, and the 
last payment the twenty-fifth year, the total cost would be $1,704,000, 
thus showing a total saving by the deferred serial plan of $154,269, 
as compared with the sinking-fund plan. Even if 4 per cent could be 
realized on the sinking fund, there would still be a saving of $72,288. 
The tax levies are fixed annually by the county board of super- 
visors, and in order to provide for the county bond issue the board 
levied a tax of 30 cents on the hundred dollars in 1910, but even 
with this additional burden the tax rate for local purposes was only 
10 cents higher in 1910 than in 1905, as there was a reduction of 5 
cents in the tax for general county purposes and a total elimination 
of the tax of 15 cents for district roads. Thus the total tax burdens 
