OFFICE OF PUBLIC EOAD INQUIRIES. 285 



Road Inquiries. The road-buildiug class visited the work dail} , and 

 after the class work had been completed wrote theses on various 

 phases of the subject. President Hartzog offered a gold medal for 

 the best essay submitted to the Office of Public Road Inquiries. Mr. 

 R. N. Reeves handed in the best paper and subsequently received 

 the gold medal. All the j)apers were good and showed that the stu- 

 dents had profited by the instruction given. 



MISSISSIPPI. 



At the agricultural college and experiment station, Starkville, Miss., 

 sample roads were built during the month of April, 1900. The condi- 

 tions being similar to those in the adjacent State of Louisiana, our 

 work there was similar in character to that alreadj^ done at the north 

 Louisiana experiment station. By the use of drag and wheel scrap- 

 ers, reversible road machine, road roller, harrows, and plows, a 5 per 

 cent grade was reduced to one of 2^ jjer cent, and a model earth road 

 built. The Illinois Central Railroad Company furnished free trans- 

 portation of implements from Chicago to Starkville. 



Many students and visitors carefully examined the work and seemed 

 to be impressed with the necessity and importance of a smooth, solid, 

 and well-rounded surface that would shed water into the side drains, 

 which in turn discharged it into low places. About fifty students, 

 including two ladies, were organized into a class, and three times 

 a week they were instructed in i^ractical road building, the plan of 

 teaching being similar to that given at Clemson College, South Carolina. 



In a letter addressed to the acting director of this Office, Mr. W. L. 

 Hutchinson, the director of the Mississippi experiment station, says: 



I can not express too strongly my appreciation of the good work that you have 

 done for this State. I believe that the cause of good roads has received an impetus 

 which will mean continued success in probably the most important matter which 

 confronts our people at present. It is very gratifying to me to feel that I am now 

 in a position to deal with the matter with more or less efficiency and ability. 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



During the months of April and Maj^ and the first half of June, 

 Special Agent and Exi)ert E. G. Harrison was stationed at Doyles- 

 town, where he was engaged in cooperating with the National Farm 

 School and the road authorities of Bucks County in constructing 

 about a mile of sample road and in instructing the students and citi- 

 zens in the art of scientific road building. The ijractical work as well 

 as the instruction offered to students and others was similar in char- 

 acter to that followed at Clemson College, South Carolina. The stu- 

 dents seemed to be equally interested — so much so, in fact, that thej^ 

 petitioned the dean to allow them to construct with their own hands 

 a road from the school buildings to the Government sample road during 

 their summer vacation. With the instruction they received, it is not 

 doubted that they will make a creditable showing and that other 

 agricultural schools and colleges will adopt the same system of 

 instruction. Although this method of applying the information 

 gained had been previously recommended b}' the Office, this is the 

 first time that the students have taken it up on their own account. 

 The funds from which the Doylestown object-lesson road was con- 

 structed were donated by the National Farm Seliool and the citizens 

 interested. The machinery, including crushing outfit, engine, distrib- 



