Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1909-02-25
OFFICIAL CITY PAPER
North D4koIA'S GREAT nfatIh.

The state commissioner q agriculture
and labor. Hon. " c. GiloreatA. has
eive1 OF: The following with reference to
the value Of property il North Dakota
according g assessment. \ fact TO De
taken into consideration Is. az a con
siderable amour. of property II one way
or another escapes taxation: also that az
assessed valuation of property ! usually
but about one,hfch of is actual value:
The Pc. capita wealth OF the state OF
North Dakota reaches quite a sum when
a computation is made and all the
property listed. much OF which IS rot
LISTED and therefore cannot be taken into
consideration, I. IS quite q difficult
tasA 20 arrive a. the actual value OF this
property and the only way to determi =:
its worth Is to take the figures Of the
state board Of equalization a. a basis
The lands of this state were assessed on
al assessed basis Of = per cert Of their
actual value. and this Is far from being
tOIIE'L. y. EiSI.IL LlOL4 VI l--N St..-AE
prices OF these lands will dis lose the
fact that the lands we're assessed at from
one-sfth 10 one-siSth CT their market
able values. Upon an examination Of
the reports Of land listed for taxation it
is found that there are 3}0.955.53l acres
and the total assessment placed on this
land by the state board Is Sll4930,323.
There are in this state 34.9lQ.QJp acres
of Land. thus leaving approximately
13.954.0)0 acres which are not assessed
being either honesteads, government
state or school lands. The value placed
on the assessed lands is a fraction over
$ II per acre. But for the purpose d
arriving at the actual value Of these
lands it Is not excessive to place then
marketable value at tive times tina
amount or $3.50 Per acre. 1t is true
that 10 some counties these figure:
would be g triie high but in many Other
counties they would be excessively low
But to place the entire state on tia
basis would not be far out Of the way
Possibly so an acre might be better
and more accurate valuation.
For the purpose Of determining the
real estate valuation the foregoing basi:
is taken, $50. and it is found that tbs
total value Of the assessed lands is s514,
65l,G45. This leaves l|3,954,542 acres o.
unassessed or u~naccounted for land:
and of this amount there ere 2,ll0.20:
acres of school land remaining unsolc
and which according to a constitutional
provision cannot be sold for less thar
so per acre.
1t is fair and equitable to place the
value OF all unassessed lands at S pei
acre. many acres Of which Will be sole
inside Of a few years as high as $40 pei
acre Possibly some of these acres have
only a nominal value and it is therefore
conservative to place the whole at S pc:
acre. making q total Of sl1l,636 1872 O
grand total of s6s6,2ss.047 for the land
assessed and unassessed.
1t Is much easier to arrive at the valu,
of live stock in the state. There we're
according to the reports from the variou:
counties, live stock amounting to thu
SUE of s46,409,096. This u%ndoubtedl,
is based on an assessment of % per cen
of the actual selling price of the stock
which would make a total of sl55, 636,2344
From the foregoing it will be seel
that assuming that there are 10000
inhabitants in the state of North Dakot
the average wealth of the state which
does not include the sl70.940,00Ol i
s2,020.s for each man, woma and chilli
in North Dakota. The annual pc
capita production is s2s4.9 80 which i
added to the per capita and persona
property wealth makes a total averag
per capita of s2,305.1G These state
ments are startling. but the figures bea
out the conclusions. North Dakota i
yet a young state. She has no ye
reached the age of maturity and whe1
she does. at the present rapid rate O
development. wonders may be expected.