14 BULLETIN 393, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
about $9,500 was needed for interest, leaving about $6,360, plus 
interest obtained on sinking fund, to apply on the principal. From 
this sum $4,000 of the bonds were retired by 1915, and after the 
1915 levy was obtained, which yielded $4,838, a fence $2. 500 of . 
bonds were retired. 
While more than maple provision was made for rapidly paying off 
the bonds, no steps were taken in either district properly to maintain 
the roads after the completion of the system. It was soon found that 
if the roads were to be prevented from going to destruction and the 
investment thus dissipated, it was necessary that funds be provided 
for maintenance. As the tax rates were already high, the situation 
was met by the establishment of toll gates. The operation of the 
toll system, described elsewhere in this chapter, produced an amount 
equivalent to that which would be obtained by a tax levy of 31 cents: 
on the hundred dollars of the 1915 agsessed valuation, if levied against 
the whole county, or 50 cents if levied against Courtland and Chancel- 
lor districts alone. After deducting that portion of the toll funds 
which was applied to new construction, the funds actually applied 
to maintenance were still sufficient in amount to be equivalent to a 
sum which could be raised by a tax rate of 17.4 cents on the hundred- 
dollar valuation, for the whole county, or 28.1 cents for these two 
districts alone. Possibly a lower rate for the bond retirement and 
the application of the saving thus made to the maintenance of the 
roads might have been desirable rather than the establishment of 
the toll system, but the existence of other factors, however, bearing 
upon the subject of tolls in Spotsylvania County complicate the 
question so that it can be dealt with by the local community only as a 
special problem. 
OTHER DISTRICTS VOTE BONDS. 
Stirred by the example of Courtland and Chancellor districts, the 
two other districts in the county, namely, Berkley and Livingston, 
voted $40,000 and $33,000 respectively in 1913. 
COUNTY VALUATIONS AND REVENUES SHOW LARGE INCREASE. 
In 1910 the tax rates for all purposes, including State tax of 35 
cents, were respectively, $1.35 for Courtland, $1.40 for Chancellor, 
$1 for Livingston, and $1.05 for Berkley, or an average of $1.20 for 
the county, with a total revenue production of $31,571. The rates 
had increased in 1915 to $1.70 in Courtland, $1.75 in Chancellor, 
$1.45 in Livingston, and $1.90 in Berkley, or an average of $1.70, 
with a total revenue produced of approximately $59,100. It is 
interesting to note, therefore, that while the tax rate increased 41.6 
per cent in the period from 1910 to 1915, the revenue increased 87.2 
per cent. This is due to the very large increase in the assessed, valua- 
tion of property since the road-building program was begun, and 
