Skinner-—Appraisal of Railroad Property. 809 
tions for all sales for the city or for the ward in a single year 
was obtained. This figure was compared with the aggregate 
assessments on the same property for the same year. The re¬ 
sult of this comparison gave a so-called “ratio of assessed to 
true value” for the city or for the ward as the case might be. 14 
Finally, the assessed value of the right of way was divided by 
the ratio of assessed to true value, as determined from trans¬ 
fers in the city or in the ward. This result was taken as the true 
value of the right of way. To obtain the cost of reproduction, 
the true value was increased by 10 or 3 3% per cent, according 
as the width of the right of way did or did not exceed one hun¬ 
dred feet. 
It will be seen at once that in using the method just describ¬ 
ed, all error arising from the imperfect determination of the 
ratio of the value of the land to the value of improvements 
from the consideration, which includes both, has been elimi¬ 
nated. The method, which, from a theoretical standpoint, leaves 
little to be desired, was not without serious shortcomings when 
the practical application came to be made. By far the most im¬ 
portant source of error is to be found in the determination of 
the ratio of assessed to true value of the real estate of a given 
city. This difficulty was increased by the fact that during the 
five-year period which the state board requires to be taken inr 
to consideration, the assessments had been very materially in¬ 
creased throughout the state. In several cases, it was found 
better to base the ratio on the sales of a single year and the cor¬ 
responding assessments on the same property, even though the 
number of sales was thereby greatly diminished. For most of 
the cities, the sales and assessments for the year ending Sep¬ 
tember 1901 were used. The determination of this impor¬ 
tant ratio will be taken up in a later paragraph. 
Another difficulty arose from the fact that in many places 
the right of way occupies a peculiar location with respect to 
adjacent property. A conspicuous example of this sort is the 
case of the Chicago and Northwestern railway along the lake 
i*It must be carefully borne in mind that wherever the term “as¬ 
sessed value” is used it refers to the local assessment. 
