822 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , ancZ Letters. 
be an increase and not a decrease. As an example, the valua¬ 
tion of the farms of Dane county, Wisconsin, increased from 
$26,373,804 as given in the census of 1890 to $38,869,830 as 
given by the census of 1900. Again, during the decade ending 
with 1905, the city of Madison in this same county has extend¬ 
ed its corporate limits so that some four miles of right of way 
has been brought into the city, and during the same period the 
value of the land contiguous to these four miles of right of way 
has increased in value from 100 to 1,000 per cent or even more. 
It would seem only fair, then, that in the decade 1890-1900 the 
valuation of all right of way through farm lands in Dane coun¬ 
ty should be increased by nearly fifty per cent, and the valua¬ 
tion of the four miles taken into the city of Madison in the dec¬ 
ade 1895-1905 should be increased to keep pace with the value 
of several hundred acres of land that has been changed from 
acre property to city lots. These two cases are doubtless ex¬ 
treme, but many such occur. It is altogether probable that 
valuations taken at ten-year intervals would give sufficiently 
accurate adjustment for all practical purposes. 
In conclusion, I have to thank the members of the Wisconsin 
tax commission, Messrs. H. S. Gilson, George C. Curtis, Jr., and 
Hils P. Haugen, not onlv for their courteous permission to use 
much of the material contained in this paper, but for valuable 
suggestions as well. i 
