170 AGRICUI^TURE OF MAINE. 



purpose by any district under the district bond plan would end 

 Vv^ith the construction of the road, the state taking over its 

 maintenance precisely the same as in other places. 



FEDERAL AID PLAN. 



Again, it is obvious to all conversant with the Federal Aid 

 movement in Washington that the time is near at hand when 

 the Government will adopt some measure of assistance in road 

 building. Nearly all the schemes considered contemplate a sys- 

 tem of trunk lines from state to state. 



If, then, we have prepared for this by laying the foundation 

 and a gravel top for immediate use, we are in the best possible 

 shape to receive on this foundation such a more expensive 

 surface as the Government would likely build. 



WHAT THE COMMISSION HAVE ACCOMPLISHED. 



The new Highway Commission have accomplished in the few 

 months of their existence a great deal. They have completely 

 reorganized the department and placed it on a proper business- 

 like basis for handling the great increase of expenditure which 

 is now permitted. They have developed a system of accounts 

 adequate to the occasion, that will render it possible for every 

 individual who is interested to know exactly what has become 

 of every dollar of the state's money, and to ascertain this infor- 

 mation promptly and completely. The commission has laid out 

 a great many state highways on which surveying parties have 

 been busy for some time, and will continue to be employed until 

 the severity of winter prevents. Already several hundred 

 miles of these state highways have been carefully surveyed an-,i 

 staked. It is the intention of the commission to plot the data 

 turned in by the surveying parties during the coming winter, 

 so that in the early spring of 1914 actual improvement of the 

 highways can commence in wholesale fashion. 



BASIS MUST BE REACHED. 



It is, however, absolutely necessary that before we com- 

 mence such wholesale construction the questions I have ouc- 

 Imed in regard to the division of the bond issue and the type 

 of improvement to be adopted shall be definitely determined, 



