════════════╤═══════ 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. The Toledo Urban and Interurban right of way, in Lucas County, Ohio, was bought by the writer in 1901 at an average net price of $329.21 per acre. The average assessed valuation is $55 per acre. The going value of farm lands will range from $100 to $225; probably a fair average is $135 per acre. The prices paid by Michigan railroads are fully sustained by these personal experiences.