400 BOAED OF AGRICULTUKE. 



aud overlyiug the fire-clay, are thick veins of coal, far more than suffi- 

 cient to burn the brick and pipe. The presence of this fuel is a factor of 

 great advantage, as it reduces the cost of manufacture of the clay prod- 

 ucts to the lowest possible figure. In many counties, especially in the 

 northern part of the State, there is an absence of graTel, stone or other 

 material suitable for tlie improvement of the roads. 



Knowing the presence of these raw road materials in inexhaustible 

 quantities, and having a knowledge also of the crying necessity on the 

 part of the public for better roads, as well as the demand from all labor 

 organizations for the abolishment of the contract labor system among our 

 convicts, I proposed a few years ago the following plan for utilizing con- 

 vict labor for the public good in the lasting improvement of our roadways: 

 Let the General Assembly Authorize the purchase of an extensive bed of 

 shale in western Indiana, and the erection upon it of a modern paving 

 brick factory. Equip this factory witli convict labor, and put several 

 hundred additional convicts to breaking stone for foundation and cutting 

 it for curbing. This brick and stone can then be furnislied at tlie plant 

 at less than one-sixth present prices to those counties devoid of other 

 road material, or may even be given to them, if they are not willing to 

 buy it. 



The cost of a paving brick plant, completed for work, wliich has a 

 capacity of forty thousand output per day, is about $40,000. One with 

 double the capacity costs about $00,000. The greater amount of this 

 exi>ense is for building and kilns, which could, by convict labor, be con- 

 structed of brick made on the spot, so that the cost to the State would 

 be less than lialf this sum. After the plant is once in operation, with fuel 

 and raw material both at liand, the only outlay is for labor. Where the 

 daily output is 80,000 brick, and the fuel is mined in connection with the 

 shale, the number of hands necessary is about 100. These, at $1.50 each 

 per day, would make the cost of the brick with free labor about $2.00 per 

 thousand. With convict labor, the actual cost of the brick would be only 

 the sum paid out for the maintenance of the prisoners. It costs 40 cents 

 a day to maintain a convict. To this add 50 per cent, for Avear and tear 

 on tools, etc., and the cost would not exceed 00 cents a day. If 400 men 

 were put to work making brick, the output for a year of 300 days would 

 1)0 sufficient to pave 194 miles of roadway. There are 42 brick to a square 

 yard of roadway and 493,000 to a mile of road 20 feet wide. The cost of 

 this brick for a mile of country road made by convict labor would thus 

 be $295. The crushed stone necessary for macadam could be prepared by 

 convict labor with the prison and furnished at not more than 30 cents 

 per cubic yard, and the curbing at a correspondingly low price. In Cali- 

 fornia the cost of macadam made by convicts is 25 cents a cubic yard. 

 Prisoners in Massachusetts are making it at 28 cents. One mile of road- 

 way 20 feet wide will require 1,304 yards of macadam to make a founda- 

 tion four inches thick, or a totnl of .$3(")5.on, at 28 cents a yard. Adding 



