ECONOMIC SURVEYS OF COUNTY HIGHWAY IMPROVEMENT. 19 
This maintenance situation emphasizes the disinclination on the 
part of local communities to submit to taxation for the purpose of 
keeping up their roads after they have gone to considerable expense 
to build them. The toll system appeals to them as a simple way 
out of the difficulty and furthermore as a means of reaching the 
lumber dealers and automobilists who come from other districts, 
counties and States. 
EFFECT OF ROAD IMPROVEMENT ON LAND VALUES. 
To ascertain as nearly as possible the effect of the road improve- 
ment on land values, a careful record was made in 1910 of the actual 
market value of 35 farms located on the roads selected for improve- 
ment. The total number of acres in these 35 farms was 5,518 and 
the total market value at that time was $77,950, or $14.13 per acre, 
including buildings. In the same year the average value of all 
land in the county, including buildings, was reported by the United 
‘States census to be $13 per acre, thus indicating the accuracy of 
the data obtained by our investigation. As the road improvement 
had not been completed in 1911, no inquiry was made in that year 
as to land values, but in subsequent years careful investigation was 
made as to the values of the 35 farms recorded in our 1910 inves- 
tigation. It was found that in 1912, 7 of the 35 farms had been 
sold and that an offer had been made and refused for another one 
of the original number. How the values had increased in the brief 
period of about 2 years may best be indicated by the history of 
these 7 cases. 
A farm 3 miles from Fredericksburg, containing 139 acres and 
valued at $3,500 in 1909, was sold in 1912 for $5,000, an increase 
over the 1910 valuation of 43 per cent. 
A farm 10 milesfrom Fredericksburg, containing 420 acres, listed 
at $6,000 in 1910, sold for $8,250 in 1912, an increase of 37 per cent 
over the 1910 valuation. 
A farm 11 miles from Fredericksburg, containing 110 acres, valued 
-at $1,500 in 1910, brought in 1912 $2,000 for 80 acres and $500 for 
timber, an increase of 60 per cent without counting the value of the — 
remaining 30 acres, or about 116 per cent, counting this acreage at | 
its 1912 sale value. 
A farm 2 miles from Fredericksburg, containing 101 acres, valued 
at $3,000 in 1910, sold for $3,750 in 1912, an increase of 25 per 
cent. 
For afarm 6 milés from Fredericksburg, containing 475 acres, valued 
at $5,000 in 1910, $12,500 was refused during the latter part oe 1911, 
an Increase of 150 per cent. 
The five farms above referred to are located on the Fredericksburg- 
Spotsylvania Court House Road 
