14 BULLETIN 1177, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
pay its debts, failing which the county is obliged to step in. The 
Kansas statute provides for a levy by the district, but is silent as to 
collections. In Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah the 
district directors determine the amount of money necessary to be 
raised, but the county commissioners levy the assessment after the 
county assessor has made up the roll, and the county treasurer 
collects the taxes at the same time and in the same manner as 
collections of general taxes are made. The county treasurer of the 
county in which the office of the district is located is ex officio 
district treasurer. In the other States these fiscal duties are divided, 
the usual procedure being that the district levies the assessment and 
certifies the assessment roll to the county assessor or county clerk, as 
the case may be, for addition to the county roll, the county treasurer 
making collections in the usual way and transmitting the receipts to 
the district treasurer or ex officio treasurer. In several of these 
States the county treasurer of the county in which the* district was 
orginally organized is charged with the duty of paying the interest 
and principal of bonds, while collections on account of assessments 
for general purposes are turned over to the district treasurer to be 
disbursed by him. 
There is no fundamental distinction, therefore, between district and 
county handling of funds hi so far as the usual responsibility of the 
district directors is concerned. Whether the directors actually levy 
the assessment or not, it is nevertheless their duty at least to initiate 
proceedings looking to procuring revenue through the proper channels 
and to authorize expenditures. The only difference is that some 
States have put the existing county financial machinery at the 
disposal of the irrigation district. 
Accounting. — For the purpose of accounting, each statute prescribes 
certain funds, the most usual series consisting of the bond fund, 
including money received from the collection of assessments for 
payment of interest and principal of bonds; the construction fund, 
money received from the sale of bonds or from collection of construc- 
tion assessments, to be used for construction of works; the general 
fund, revenue for the payment of current expenses; and the United 
States contract fund, money received for making payments due 
under Federal contracts. Several States prescribe a single fund called 
the bond and United States contract fund for money received on 
account of payments due on bonds or on Federal contracts. Other 
names are sometimes given to funds for substantially the above 
purposes, and additional funds are often provided. The reason for 
having definite funds is to insure the use of money for the purpose 
for which it was obtained. Statutory provision sometimes exists for 
transferring money from one fund to another. 
ASSESSMENTS. 
The nature of the irrigation district tax— that is, whether it is a 
general tax or a special assessment — has been the subject of some 
controversy and of several conflicting decisions by the courts. This 
matter becomes of very live importance when bondholders' remedies 
are involved, for if the district tax is in the nature of a local assess- 
ment, land on which an assessment has been paid is thereby relieved 
of the lien for that assessment and may not be reassessed for more 
than its proportionate share because of the failure of other land- 
