466 ANNUAL EEPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ment of roads of primary importance to the States, counties, or 

 communities within, adjoining, or adjacent to the national forests. 



The latter provision is a necessary adjunct to the program of the 

 Federal-aid highway system. On account of the large areas of forest 

 lands in some of the Western States, the development of a system of 

 main highways that will properly serve the State and local communi- 

 ties requires that the forest highways and the roads of the Federal- 

 aid system be combined into one system. 



The procedure laid down by the Secretary for the selection of the 

 forest highways to be improved as a part of this plan calls for the 

 preparation of a program map for each State, showing the roads 

 agreed upon by the State and local authorities and recommended by 

 the forester and the Chief of the Bureau of Public Roads. There are 

 28 States, excluding Alaska, in which there are forest areas, and these 

 maps had been prepared and definitely approved by the Secretary 

 for 9 States up to the close of the fiscal year. Several more liad 

 progressed almost to the point of approval. These maps, when ap- 

 proved, constitute the general program for highway construction in 

 the forest areas, and their preparation is receiving the careful con- 

 sideration their importance merits. Pending the approval of all the 

 maps, a program for surveys and construction for the fiscal year 1923 

 was set up by the forester and the Chief of the Bureau of Public 

 Roads. Only projects which, with reasonable certainty, will be in- 

 cluded in the general combined system of Federal-aid highways have 

 been included in this program. 



During the year 197.4 miles of forest road were completed at a 

 cost, exclusive of the cost of the survey and plans, of $1,737,055.50. 

 The total mileage completed up to the end of the year was 1,536.7 

 miles, and the cost of this mileage was $13,769,212.16. 



At the close of the year 932.5 miles of road were under construc- 

 tion and $4,635,032.13 had been disbursed to date. Surveys were in 

 progress for 1,014 miles in 62 projects and $270,139.51 had been dis- 

 bursed to date on this work. The completed surveys, involving 

 3,207 miles in 237 projects, had cost $767,914.59. These survey costs 

 do not include an item of $16,224.75 which was spent by the Bureau 

 of Public Roads in perfecting plans made by other agencies and used 

 by the bureau. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN HIGHWAY ECONOMICS. 



During the past decade the growth of the American highway 

 system has increased rapidly, stimulated by the realization of the 

 economic and social values arising from the development of high- 

 ways, the increased economic utility of the motor vehicle, and by 

 the rapid yearly increase in motor-vehicle ownership. The result 

 of this growth is the reemergence of the highway as a factor in the 

 transportation of people and goods. 



The history of the modern highway is so brief and its growth has 

 been so rapid that there is an amazingly meager body of authentic 

 evidence from which we can measure its economic value or determine 

 its economic sphere of operation as a correlated part of our trans- 

 portation system. 



The literature of the past few years dealing with highway trans- 

 portation, particularly the transportation of freight, contains a 



