It is evident from the figures in Table 2 that no such naked land values as those used in 1900 were considered by the farmers in placing values on their lands, as the sales covered in that table do not involve any large element of damages. All transfers are of a strip a rod or more in width adjoining an existing right of way.
II.—It is true that in some sections of Michigan there are large tracts of barren or low-priced land. In 1900 barren land prices were used, and were much lower than farm land; in the poorer parts of the State large percentages of barren land were used. This fact brought the average per acre of country land, as applied in the appraisal, very low in many of the counties, and justified the appraiser in using the average country price of 1900 as the base price for a re-valuation. Generally, the 1900 appraisal averages for country lands were fair indices of the difference in actual value in different parts of the State.
In the 1900 appraisal, the Michigan Central was credited with having, in Jackson County, 309.1 acres of farm land (naked value, $38, average rate $93.30), and 34.35 acres of barren land at $5 per acre. The field inspectors reported that part of the district between Parma and Albion, in the vicinity of Bath Mills, was waste or barren land. The Jackson and Battle Creek Traction Company parallels and adjoins the Michigan Central Railroad right of way from Parma to Bath Mills. An investigation of records of deeds showed that they bought 25.02 acres of land in this district at $65.79 per acre, and that the average price of all their land in the county was $239.52 per acre.
While there was a marked difference in the rates of different grades of country land, no one would be justified in putting any land south of a line drawn from Saginaw to Muskegon at prices as low as $2 to $10 per acre. An average based on the 1900 classification of lands would probably eliminate all waste land classifications, without doing any injustice.
TABLE 3.—Average Values per Acre of Country Lands, of the 1900 Appraisal, of the Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw Railroad, After All the Percentages and Fixed Charges were Added.
| County. | Price. |
|---|---|
| Jackson | $75.71 |
| Ingham | 74.90 |
| Clinton | 42.38 |
| Shiawassee | 67.18 |
| Saginaw | 40.80 |
| Bay | 38.69 |
| Arenac | 32.47 |
| Ogemaw | 8.69 |
| Roscommon | 10.74 |
| Crawford | 8.41 |
| Otsego | 15.62 |
| Montmorency | 12.38 |
| Cheboygan | 17.13 |
Table 3 illustrates quite clearly the extremely low figures applied in many counties in the 1900 appraisal, and also represents quite well the relative difference in value in the different counties.
That the 1900 rate varies about as the purchase price, is shown by the fact that the Pere Marquette Railroad built a line in Montcalm County, buying 155.3 acres at an average price of $135.19 per acre, while the 1900 appraisal showed an average of $29 on the 918 acres appraised. The purchase price was 4.66 times the 1900 appraisal.
In Calhoun County, the Grand Trunk Railroad bought 63.2 acres at $491.13 per acre, while the 1900 appraisal was $61.44 on all the country land in the county, or only one-eighth of the actual purchase price.
III.—There can be no doubt that a railroad right of way costs much more than an equal acreage of farm lands. The writer has always been inclined to hold the view that an ordinary right of way through good farming country would cost from two to three times farm prices, no matter how much care is used in the acquisition of the land. In recent years the price of right of way has been greatly increased. The Newton and Northwestern Railroad right of way, in Iowa, cost $267 per acre, on a line 80 miles long. This is nearly all country land, about 1 mile in the outskirts of Boone (population 12,000), and about ½ mile in Newton (population 6,500), being the only city land to increase the average. The Rock Island System and the Chicago Great Western paid higher country prices in the same territory. This line is in such country as Southern Michigan, and land is held at from $65 to $100 per acre.