No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 43 



A business that re(}uiies (he best judgment, experience, and knowl- 

 edge, to properly perform, is handed over to men, many of whom never 

 even saw a guod road, much less made one. Ignorance and incom- 

 petence are the rule, /v law was passed by the Legislature of 1S97 

 which would have remedied this, and given each district the oppor- 

 tunity of engaging in its service, for road construction, the best 

 men which the community possessed. Unfortunately the bill was 

 handicapped by a provision which required one million dollars to 

 be first appropriated for road purposes before it could go into effect. 

 The expense entailed in the erection of a Capitol building and 

 the insufficient amount of State revenue for the purpose, prevented 

 the making of the bill operative by the Legislatures which have 

 since convened. The State is now in good financial condition, and 

 there would seem to be no sufficient reason why this appropriation 

 should be longer deferred. 



The Act of 1SU7 provides for the election of three supervisors in 

 each township to constitute a board. The election is for three years, 

 one member going out of office each year and one new member being 

 elected, thus forming a continuous board vrhich is perpetual, and 

 can be held responsible for any money which the State may see fit 

 to place at its disposal. This board appoints road masters, who 

 have charge of the work upon the highways, and are responsible to 

 the road supervisors for the proper performance of their dut^'. The 

 board is required tp meet once each month, and for this each member 

 is to be paid the sum of one dollar and a half for each meeting. The 

 total expense of the board for its services for the year, is, therefore, 

 fift3"-four dollars. These supervisors plan the work and fix the tax; 

 one-half of the tax is a work tax and the other half may be collected 

 in money, if the board should so elect. Any business or professional 

 man, therefore, can be road supervisor, not being excluded by the 

 exacting conditions of our i)resent system, which requires the super- 

 visor to actually oversee the men at work. This supervisor-law 

 does not take the control of the roads out of the hands of the com- 

 munity, but simply organizes boards which are responsible and con- 

 tinuous. 



The appropriation of one million dollars for road purposes, or the 

 repeal of the section requiring it, will carry the act into effect, and 

 greatly assist in securing good roads for all of the distticts in the 

 State. 



CONVICT LABOR ON ROADS. 



Road construction by the employment of able-bodied prisoners con- 

 victed of crimes, and under sentence for short terms not exceeding 

 ten years, has been successfully tried in twelve of the southern 

 States and, to some extent, in California. The practice is, for the 



