Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-01-19

i duce or make but little more than is re
CURED for shelter and support, and thes,
two items may well be taken as represent
ing the land which is appraised in the list
The profit gained beyond these two thing
is represented by the personal property il
the list, which is separately assessed, ani
has nothing to do therefore with the val
uation of the land. This as the general
rule, and it is proved in Vermont by the
| fact that all the profit derived from the
beginning, as now represented by the per.
sonal property in the list, amount to only
$65.2S per head of the present population
The actual amount is much moro, because
much personal property does not go into
the list; but whatever the amount, il
must be very small profit Indeed to be
| accumulated in three generations But
some men expend much more for shelter
and support than others; they have more
luxurious and expensive dwellings and
appurtenances than do the great body OF
the people; or they are engaged in bust.
ness which requires factories, mills, stores,
ETC., from which profit is derived and,
of course, what is thus taken by them
from their personal property must be
added to their real estate; and this is
done in making the grand list by taking
this class of property distinct from unim-
proved lands, and lands improved only as
farms. The basis we have assumed for
value, after we have found the proportions
of land to population, will represent both
of these classes of real estate so far as it
goes, and to that extent will be a true
measure of value. The actual proportion
of taxable land to taxable population in
the several counties, with the lowest ap-
praisal per acre in any county as the basis
of value, constitute our scheme for testing
the work of the averaging committee. AS
the lists of real estate and the population
were taken in the same year, and not far
from the same time, the elements for the
calulation are as perfect probably as ever
can be had.
In the following table we give the pop
ulation of organized towns in 1870; the
acres returned in 1870 in each county !;
the number of acres to each person in the
population, headed acres per head !; the
value per acre as found by the assumed
common standard, headed 0SceTtai7aed
9dlate and the value per acre fixed by the
averaging committee, headed assessed cal.
ne. For greater accuracy we have run
the acreage per head tar into the fractions,
while to the value we have added cent
when the fraction exceeded half a cent,
which is the rule in making up the grand
list We take as the basis of the calcula-
ton Essex county, in which the acreage
per head of population is 81, $50, and the
value assessed by the committee is $6.11
per acre. To explain the process of cal
culation and the reasons for it, we add !:
that S, 222 acres in Chittenden are exactly
equal to 81, $50 acres in Essex, since each
of these quantities supports one person !;
therefore eight acres and the fraction in
Chittenden are to be 0dlued the same as
81 acres and the fraction in Essex. Hence,
to find the value per acre in Chittenden
we charge her $611 as often as 1929 ia
contained 10 37,O8O The result lie to
equalize the value of land in every county
to the value fixed by the committee for
the county of Esaex.