No. 7. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 391 



the highways more than persons whose one-fourth credit amounts to 

 only five day's kibor. We would recommend the striking out of the 

 entire proviso relating to the limiting of this one-fourth. 



In Section 2 of this same act, where a penalty of five dollars is 

 laid on every person who shall haul loads of ten thousand pounds 

 weight or upwards with wagons not having tires four inches wide, 

 be amended to strike out the word ten and insert the word five. In 

 our opinion no load of two and a half tons or over on wagons having 

 tires less than four inches wide should be allowed to pass over any 

 public highway. 



We particularly recommend legislation prohibiting trolley com- 

 panies from occupying the public highways of a township, if a loca- 

 tion elsewhere is possible, and they should be entirely prohibited 

 from tearing up end using any public highway that has been re- 

 constructed with State aid. 



It is the opinion of your committee that unless proper precautions 

 are taken for the preservation of our public highways reconstructed 

 by State aid, by the enactment of some such laws,, the maintenance 

 of such roads will in time become more burdensome to the taxpayers 

 of the townships than was their construction. 



We have annexed to this report the recommendation of State 

 Highway Commissioner Joseph W. Hunter, which we consider 

 favorably and worthy of consideration: 



THE STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSIONER'S RECOMMENDATIONS. 



1st. That all applications for road improvement be filed with the 

 Department on or before the 31st day of May in each year and that 

 the money apportioned to counties on the first day of June in the 

 previous year and not applied for by said county, be apportioned to 

 the counties that have an excess of applications for the current 

 year. This will enable the construction of more miles of roads in 

 the counties that have filed applications for road improvement that 

 would require more money than their snare of the annual appor- 

 tionment. 



2nd. That the Department be authorized to make complete meas- 

 urements of the roads in all the counties of the State, so as to as- 

 certain the correct number of miles in each county, as the returns 

 that have been made are in many cases decidedly erroneous, the 

 counties and townships being unwilling to bear the expense of a 

 proper measurement of the roads. This also should be done in 

 order that the commissioner can comply with the requirement of the 

 act, Section 21, as to the making of a complete road map of the State. 



3rd. The act should determine what should be taken as county 

 bridges and what township bridges. In some of the counties all the 

 bridges large and small are erected and maintained at the county's 

 expense. In other counties all the bridges are erected by the county 

 and maintained by the township, and in other counties all the bridges 

 are erected and maintained by th« townships. It has been a diffi- 

 cult matter for the Department to determine whether a bridge is 

 one that should, by rights, be erected by the county or by the town- 

 ship. In most cases the county has been given the benefit of the 

 doubt and the bridge erected as part of the reconstruction of the 

 road. 



4th. The v^ork of making the preliminary surveys and plans should 

 be done by the Department. Nine-tenths of all the surveys and 



