Skinner—Appraisal of Railroad Property. 795 
appraisal of the rolling stock. The writer was for some months 
in charge of the appraisal of the right of way, and although 
other duties made it necessary to place the work in other hands 
before it was completed, he followed the progress of the work 
with great interest until the final results were handed in. It 
is the method of determining the value of the right of way 
alone that is here discussed. 2 
The appiaisers were directed, in the first place, to find the 
cost of reproduction of the physical property of a given rail¬ 
road by assuming the entire road to he eliminated and its right 
of way, yards, station and terminal grounds to be “occupied by 
just such woodlands, waste lands, farms, industries and resi¬ 
dences as those now existing in and on the adjoining country 
and property.” In the second place, they were directed to find 
the present value of this physical property, and “present value” 
was understood to mean the cost of reproduction less an 
amount covering all items of depreciation whatever. The mat¬ 
ter of depreciation does not, of course, enter into the deter¬ 
mination of the value of the right of way, since the right of 
way is practically the only item among all the things that go to 
make up the physical property of a railroad that suffers no de¬ 
preciation. But the fact that it was cost of reproduction that 
was required must be kept clearly in mind in order to under¬ 
stand the significance of the results obtained. 
Only the acre value of the right of Way was determined by 
the land inspectors. The determination of the acreage was 
made by men, other than the land inspectors, who had at their 
disposal blue prints furnished by the officers of the various 
roads showing the exact situation of the lands used for right of 
2 The force employed in determining the value of the right of way 
was organized early in July 1903, with the writer as chief land inspect¬ 
or, Mr. John Marston, Jr., as engineer inspector, and a corps of ten 
assistants. This force of men worked under the direct supervision of 
Mr. W. D. Taylor, then professor of railway engineering in the Uni¬ 
versity of Wisconsin, now chief engineer of the Chicago and Alton 
railway, who, as engineer for the state board of assessment, drew up 
the admirable and comprehensive plan under which the work was 
done. 
49'—S. & A. 
