54 BULLETIN 120T. I', s. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Mich a definite unchangeable relation does not exist. In order that 
an equitable assessment may be made under this system it is ab- 
solutely necessary that it be varied for each district by using the 
number of classes indicated by the drainage conditions, which may 
be greater or less than four, and by determining anew the valuation 
to he placed on each class. 
If an equal amount of drainage was furnished for each tract, the 
classification as given above would be all that was required to arrive 
at the assessment. As it usually is impossible to give each tract 
equal drainage it is necessary to make some additions to or sub- 
tractions from this classification. The second subdivision, then, is 
made on the basis of proximity to the improvement, the lands being 
divided into clashes according to their distance from the improve- 
ment and ceil a in percentages are assigned to each class. The in- 
vestigation^ showed that these values varied somewhat according to 
the size of the district and the completeness of the drainage fur- 
nished, hut in the great majority of districts examined the percent- 
age values used were as follows: 
Per cent 
Lands lying on the Improvement 100 
Lands lying ] mile from improvement 75 
Lands lying j mile from improvement 50 
I. ;uuis lying | mile from improvement 25 
Lands lying 1 mile from improvement ."> 
The purpose of this subdivision is to take into account the dis- 
advantage which a tract of land suffers because of being at a dis- 
tance from the outlet provided by the district. This disadvantage 
is always a certain sum of money equal to the cost of the lateral 
drain which is necessary to connect the tract with the district im- 
provement plus a reasonable profit, to be derived from this invest- 
ment. The cost of this lateral drain depends on the distance, on the 
amount of fall available, on the depth of the required lateral drain, 
and on the amount of water to be carried. This cost of the lateral 
drain can be determined in a very few minutes from the information 
usually given on the drainage map of the district. It is safe to say 
that only in a very few instances will the amounts be the same for 
any two tracts in the same district, but investigation has shown that 
the same percentage values are quite generally used in many districts 
with widely different drainage conditions. Again, since this dis- 
advantage is a certain sum of money, the owner is entitled to that 
amount and no more, and this amount is independent of the cost 
of the district improvement, the size of the drainage district, the 
completeness of the protection afforded or the quality of the work 
done by the district. Yet, under this system, the owner whose 
land lies one-half mile from the improvement will receive a 50 per 
cent reduction on his assessment based upon the drainage needs of 
his land and the cost of the work. Now, if the improvement be an 
open ditch and cost $10,000 he will receive a certain reduction, but 
if it be a tile drainage system and cost £:>0,000 his reduction will 
be five times as great, all other things being equal, while his dis- 
advantage of location remains the same in both cases. There ap- 
pears to be very little foundation in reason for the use of a per- 
centage system in evaluating this disadvantage. The use of the 
same percentage values by so many engineers is due to the fact 
