464 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Federal highway act. The first period was a season of great con- 

 struction activity during which the greater part of the work of com- 

 pleting the 10,000 miles added to the completion column during the 

 year was done. The same period, however, was one of almost com- 

 plete stagnation with respect to the initiation of projects. When 

 the year opened there was an unobligated balance of S18,793,544 of 

 the Federal-aid appropriations and the projects initiated since the 

 beginning of the work aggregated 35,402 miles. By the end of 

 October the unobligated balance had been reduced to $11,714,328, 

 the lowest it had been since 1918. Only two States, at that time, 

 had a balance of more than a million dollars to draw upon for new 

 projects, and a number were so reduced that their balance was not 

 sufficient to pay for another mile of road. At this time, just before 

 the passage of the Federal highway act, the mileage submitted by 

 the States had not only not grown at all since the beginning of the 

 fiscal year; it had been actually diminished as a result of the with- 

 drawal and substitution of projects, so that the total mileage pro- 

 posed was only 35,379 miles as compared with the 35,402 miles of four 

 months previously. Immediately upon the approval of the new act 

 the initiation of projects took on new life and in the months of March 

 and June reached the unprecedented total of 1,250 miles a month. 

 At the close of the year the submitted mileage is 39,940 miles, 4,538 

 miles greater than at the close of the preceding fiscal year. 



At the close of the preceding fiscal year projects completed aggre- 

 gated 7,469 miles and there were 17,978 miles under construction, 

 which were estimated as 50 per cent complete. In one year the 

 completed mileage has grown to 17,716 miles, an increase of more 

 than 10,000 miles, and there still remain under construction 14,513 

 miles which are estimated as 56 per cent complete. The Federal aid 

 earned by the States on completed and uncompleted projects amounts 

 to .$194,560,135, of which $166,911,552 have actually been paid. 



The total length of projects in all stages, including those which have 

 been completed and those which are in the stages preliminary to con- 

 struction, is 39,940 miles. Of this mileage, as stated above, 17,716 

 miles are completed, 14,513 are under construction, and the balance 

 of 7,711 miles is in the preconstruction stage. 



The roads brought to completion during the year average over 

 200 miles for each State. The greatest increase in completed mileage 

 is in Texas, which has added during the year 933 miles to her com- 

 pleted highway. But Texas owes its leading position largely to its 

 size. The States of Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Minnesota, and North 

 Carolina, each with an increase of more than 500 miles, and Montana 

 and Wisconsin, with more than 400 miles, made notable advances 

 toward the goal of a completed highway system. 



A number of smaller States, such as Louisiana, Maryland, Massa- 

 chusetts, and Rhode Island, made very substantial increases in pro- 

 portion to their size, though some of them were prevented from 

 adding as largely to their mileage as they otherwise would by the 

 fact that they had practically expended all the Federal aid available 

 to them before the passage of the Federal highway act and were 

 unable to initiate new projects. This is notably the case with respect 

 to Delaware, which has not increased its completed mileage at all. 



The largest payment of Federal aid during the year also went to 

 Texas, which received from the Government $5,915,046 and earned 



