10 BULLETIN 1207. U. B. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
which the word is used in assessment work, except that it is under- 
stood to mean " gross benefit, or profit," that is to say, the total profit 
without any deduction of that portion of the cost which will be 
finally assessed against the property benefited. The reason that gross 
benefits are considered is that the assessment can not be determined 
until after the determination of the benefits and, as the assessments 
must be proportional to the benefits, it is as correct to base the assess- 
ments upon gross profits as upon net profits, and it is simpler. 
The cost of an improvement has no relation to the benefit to be 
derived except as it affects the quality of the work done or the extent 
of the protection afforded. There are, however, cases where the cost, 
or a part thereof, may he used to compute the benefit which will 
arise from the work where no direct means of fixing the amount of 
benefit exist. Some of these cases will he treated in detail in another 
part of this bulletin. 
KINDS OF BENEFITS. 
There are two kinds of benefit resulting from local improvements — 
general and special. General benefits are those enjoyed by the pub- 
lic and common to all the people of the community. General benefits 
usually resulting from drainage improvements are increased health- 
fulness, convenience, and general prosperity. Xo assessments can be 
made on account of such benefits, but they must be apparent before 
an assessment district can be formed. 
Special benefits are those which are peculiar to certain lands. 
Page and Jones in Taxation by Assessment, section 65, define the 
differences between general and special benefits as follows: 
General benefits are those which inure to t li* - benefit of the entire neighbor- 
hood or locality. They are the general intangible benefits which are supposed 
to How to the genera] public from a public improvement. Special benefits are 
those which inure to certain specific realty in a manner different from that in 
which the general neighborhood is benefited and which operate to increase 
the value of such realty. 
Special benefits are the ones upon which the assessments to pay the 
cost of the improvement pest. In the case of drainage improvements 
as affecting a particular tract of land they have been held to include 
whatever will -'increase its value, either by relieving it of some 
burden, or by making it more adapted for the purpose i'or which it 
is used." (Pritchard v. Woodbury Co., L29 X. W. 970.) 
BENEB M BENE] l! S. 
The general benefits which the public receives from drainage im- 
provements consist of one or more of the following: Public health 
benefits; public road benefits: public interest in the condition of the 
land. 
The genera] benefit to public health from drainage of swamp and 
overflowed lands is universally recognized. A long series of deci- 
sions has held that a benefit to the public health is a sufficient evidence 
of the public interest to satisfy constitutional requirements for drain- 
age improvements. 
The pertinence of the other two elements is perhaps not so well 
established. Tt has been held that the general benefit to the public 
