800 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, md Letters. 
thirty-two transfers, representing a value of $399,937 in Stark 
county, and twenty-one transfers, representing a value of 
$224,421 in Marshall county, were examined. The ratio of 
the assessed value to the selling price of the land described in 
the transfers was found to be .77 iin the one case and .79 in 
the other. The market value of the land lying near the right 
of way was then found by means of the assessed value and 
these ratios. Had the market value been determined directly, 
the ratio of the right of way value to the ordinary or market 
value would have been 2.71. 
The main results of the investigations in these four cases are 
given in the following table: 
Table showing data concerning transfers of land on and near rights 
of way of roads built in Wisconsin and Illinois , between 1898 
and 1903. 
Name of Road. 
Terminal points. 
Length 
Number of transfers of 
farm lands within one 
mile of right of way. 1 
Acreage of farm lands 
transferred. 
Ordinary value per acre. 
Number of transfers of 
right of way. 
Acreage of right of way 
transferred. 
Amount paid per acre for 
right of way. 
Ratio of right of way 
value to ordinary value.) 
C., M. &St. P.. 
Janesville to 
state line. 
Miles. 
32 
74 
5,604.50 
$54 30 
116 
382.57 
$284 16 
5.23 
C.& N. W. 
Princeton to 
Marshfield. 
93.7 
488 
39,155.70 
11 55 
239 
971.37 
36 54 
3.16 
C., St. P..M.& 
0.. 
Chippewa Falls 
to Holcombe... 
28 
90 
9,815.00 
10 59 
49 
232.94 
42 50 
4.01 
C. & N. W. 
Dixon, Ill., to 
Peoria, Hi. 
41 
53 
* 
78 01 
* 
672.77 
213 00 
2.73 
* Record not preserved. 
In each case, the ratio was computed separately for each 
township through which the road passes, or for at most two ad¬ 
joining townships. For the first-named piece of road, the sales 
are remarkably evenly distributed along the line of the road, 
and the ratio is quite uniform throughout its whole extent. In 
the case of the Chicago and Horthwestern, the sales are much 
denser at some points than at others, being notably dense along 
the 15 miles of road between Marshfield and the village of 
Vesper^ and again through township 21 north, range 8 east. 
The ratio varies greatly also, the lowest value being 1.37, found 
