818 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters. 
The relatively small differences in the figures go far to con¬ 
firm the commission in its methods and show that on the whole 
the result of “sifting” the data increases the valuation of the 
right of way, since the lower ratio gives the higher valuation. 
Some of the reasons that tend to invalidate the data con¬ 
tained in the registers’ reports may he noted briefly: 
1. The deed may contain some restriction placed upon the 
property or its maintenance in the future. 
2. The consideration may be purposely misstated. 
3. The number of cases for which the recorded considera¬ 
tion is merely nominal, that is one dollar and other considera¬ 
tions, may be so large that the remainder do not furnish a suf¬ 
ficient body of data upon which to base safe conclusions. In 
the city of Milwaukee, the number of “dollar” sales is about 85 
per cent of the whole number of conveyances. It is very much 
smaller in other parts of the state. 
4. Improvements may have been placed upon the property 
or removed from it between the date of sale and the date of the 
assessment with which it is compared. 
5. The deed may be given in fulfillment of a land contract, 
in which case the assessment is compared with a sale price of 
much earlier date. 
6. The grantee may assume a mortgage outstanding against 
the property, which mortgage needs to be added to the recorded 
consideration to obtain the true consideration. 
7. The consideration may include personal property of con¬ 
siderable value. 
It must be admitted that these considerations would seem to 
cast grave doubt upon the usefulness of the registers’ reports. 
Nevertheless, after most careful examination of all data, 
the results obtained by Professor Adams seem to show 
that for long-settled farming communities and for cit¬ 
ies in which real estate movements are not measur¬ 
ably affected by speculation, data obtained from the reg¬ 
isters’ reports will give results very close to the truth, while 
even in such a city as Milwaukee, where during the last ten 
years real estate has been subject to violent fluctuations owing 
to the existence of a multitude of purely speculative ventures, 
