The central record. (Lancaster, Ky.) 18??-current, 1913-04-18
Land Values, Educational Facilities Ant
Taxation In Garrard County Twenty
Five Years Ago And Today.

Twenty five years ago some of the
! best farms in Garrard county, including
well improved farms, might be pur-
chased for $50 per acre. Today those
same farms could not be purchased for
three times that price. Waste land
/ twenty five years ago, or what was
called waste land, uncleared, rough
poor land, had absolutely no valuation,
/ hardly worth paying taxes on, and a
| great deal of it actually reverted to the
state because of the failure of the own
er to pay the taxes thereon; this same
/ land today is bringing in many instan-
ces as much as the best farming land
brought in those days, and some of the
best farms in the county are now what
was twenty five years ago land that
was considered without valuation.
Twenty five years ago the public
schools of the county were few, far be-
tween and of Indifferent quality, the
houses We're small, usually in bad re-
pair, good teachers hard to get, pay
poor and as usual thing the schools
were but poorly patrOnized. Even the
school in Lancaster, tie best one in the
county, was not up to the present
standard of the smallest country school
IN the county of today. If one desired
to educate their children, it was nee
essary to send them from home. Note
/ the improvement in the educational
facilities of today in the county as COM
pared with the conditions twenty five
years ago; see the handsome S35, 600
school building in Lancaster, with its
corps of efficient teachers, offering to
it's patrons. without money and without
price, an education which will prepare
child to take its station in almost any
walk in life. furthermore, note the
splendid consolidated schools being es-
tablished throughout the county, offer
ing better facilities than could be Sc
cured quarter of century ago at an
expenditure of many huIklreds of dol
lars, and last but not least, visit any of
the rural schools of the county and see
how efficiently they are conducted,
taught by teacher who has acquired
efficiency by years of hard study, finish
ed off perhaps by course in the splen-
did Normal at Richmond, and who
stands prepared to meet all the require
ments demanded of them along educa-
! tional lines.
But, you will say, these improve
ments along educational lines have cost
money. our taxes have increased. To
be sure they have, surely you could not
expect these vast improvements at the
same cost of the facilities of half life
time ago. But have you taken into
consideration the fact that your facili-
ties for meeting the increased taxation
have also increased, the value of your
land has increased, yes far beyond the
most sanguine hopes which you enter
tanned along that line twenty five years
ago, when it was hardly possible for
you to exc out an existence from the
proceeds of your farm, to say nothing
of properly educat ting your children.
The market value of your farm pro-
ducts have increased, your hogs, your
cattle, in fact nearly all your live stock
has increased in valve almost if not
quite one hundred per cent, and surely
your taxes have not increased in this
measure.
The conduct of the schools of the
county is in good hands, the amount
allotted from the county levy for school
purposes is being judiciously handled,
not one cent being wasted, you are
surely getting value received; aye more,
for every cent of tax paid for school
purposes; your taxes are not so very
high. in fact you would never notice
the slight increase were your attention
not called to it, and when you think of
what this slight increase is doing for
you, for your children, for your prop
erty, for your community, surely you