BUREAU OF PUBLIC ROADS. 491 



pitted surface and make them as good as new. The War Depart- 

 ment was urged to sell them and an offer of 1 cent a pound was 

 made, which the department refused. A few months ago the State 

 Highway Department of North Carolina accepted a portion of them 

 as part of its share of material. It put them through its machine 

 shop, equipped with surplus war machines, and is now using them, 

 with entire sastisfaction, to replace worn parts in the trucks which 

 were also received from the Government. The finished parts are 

 worth about 75 cents a pound, as compared with the offer of 1 cent 

 a pound made by the junkman. Other States have followed North 

 Carolina, and the entire supply of these parts has been taken up 

 and will be put to useful service. Instances of this sort could be 

 multiplied almost without end. 



DISTRIBUTION OF SURPLUS WAR EXPLOSIVES FOR USE IN LAND CLEARING. 



The distribution of surplus war explosives to farmers for land 

 clearing has been of great value in stimulating the efforts of new 

 settlers on cut-over lands in the Lake States to clear more land and 

 to develop their farms to the point where they would make their 

 owners self-supporting. The wide publicity given to the distribu- 

 tion of these explosives also brought to the attention of many farm- 

 ers the possibility of removing, at little cost, the stumps and stones 

 from cultivated fields. Of the original stock of picric acid (ap- 

 proximately 12,500,000 pounds) available for distribution, slightly 

 more than 500,000 pounds remained at the close of the fiscal year. 

 Since the work was begun a total of 7,444,350 pounds has been dis- 

 tributed for agricultural uses and about 4,000,000 pounds have been 

 used for other purposes, chiefly road building. 



During the year there was distributed, chiefly through the agri- 

 cultural colleges, 4,179,550 pounds of picric acid for agricultural 

 uses, principally land clearing, as follows: 



Pounds. 



Alabama 100 



Arizona 1, 100 



California 18, 000 



Connecticut 17, 000 



Georgia 40, 000 



Iowa 82, 100 



Kentucky 33, 000 



Maryland 500 



Michigan 451, 300 



Minnesota 627, 900 



Pounds. 



Mississippi 18, 000 



Missouri 25, 100 



Nebraska 67, 000 



North Carolina 107, 950 



Ohio 20, 000 



Oklahoma 400 



South Carolina 16, 700 



Tennessee 36, 200 



Vermont 3, 200 



Wisconsin 2, 614, 000 



Early in the calendar year 1923 a supply of blasting caps became 

 available. It was arranged to supply purchasers of picric acid 

 with caps at the rate of approximately one cap for each pound of 

 picric acid purchased. Under this arrangement 2,650,000 caps were 

 distributed. 



The picric acid has been supplied to farmers at no cost except the 

 actual expense of preparing and shipping (6 cents per pound), a 

 charge of 1 cent per pound to defray the administrative expenses of 

 the bureau and State agencies, and the transportation charges. The 

 caps were supplied the purchasers of picric acid without charge, but 

 the user was required to pay the transportation charge. 



That the distribution of picric acid has been of great benefit to 

 the farmers interested is shown by the reports of the State cooperat- 

 ing agencies. 



