520 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



construction were examined and comments prepared regarding 

 them. In addition, 98 specifications proposed for use in Federal-aid 

 construction were examined and recommendations were made 

 regarding those parts of the specifications dealing with materials. 



INSTRUMENT MAKING AND REPAIRING. 



During the year the machine shop has completed 236 jobs, as 

 follows: Division of tests, 146; engineering, 4; general office, 74; 

 drainage, 12. 



ROAD BUILDING AND MAINTENANCE INVESTIGATION. 



Requests for the assignment of an engineer to assist in planning 

 systems of highways were received from 11 localities; and the Arizona 

 highway department requested the services of an engineer to check a 

 number of tests of cement. All these requests were referred to the 

 respective district engineers of the bureau for attention. 



Reports on road systems were made for the Navajo Indian Reser- 

 vation in Arizona, and for Caribou County, Idaho. A special report 

 dealing with the design of a retaining wall was prepared for Wise 

 County, Va. 



Designs for bridges were prepared as follows: Alabama, 1 ; Kansas, 

 1; South Carolina, 1. The design prepared for South Carolina is for 

 a reinforced concrete arch bridge having a single span of 170 feet and 

 a total length of bridge of 424 feet, with a 20-foot roadway. 



Engineers were assigned to investigate proposed bridge structures, 

 as follows : Kentucky, 1 ; Virginia, 1 . 



The bureau also adapted plans for structures on the national 

 forest roads to the use of a considerable quantity of bridge material 

 which was declared surplus by the War Department and transferred 

 to the Department of Agriculture. 



In addition to the above, general designs were prepared and dis- 

 tributed on request, and plans prepared by State and other officials 

 have been reviewed. 



FIELD EXPERIMENTS. 



Approximately 26 miles of experimental roads, which had been 

 constructed during previous years in Alexandria and Fairfax Coun- 

 ties, Va., in Montgomery County, Md., and in the Department of 

 Agriculture grounds, were maintained, and statistics relating to the 

 cost of keeping them in repair were collected. 



At the end of the year, on account of the reduction in the appro- 

 priation, it was necessary to relinquish the maintenance of the roads 

 in Montgomery County and the Gum-Spring-Mount Vernon road in 

 Fairfax County. 



ROAD MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMICS. 



In January of this year Col. Ralph Hess was appointed chief of 

 economics in place of Mr. J. E. Pennybacker, who resigned during 

 the preceding fiscal year. Before Col. Hess could assume his duties 

 at the bureau he was recalled to temporary service with the army 

 in Europe, and at the end of the year was still in Ai'my service. 



Upon his return to the bureau it is planned to enlarge and extend 

 the work of the Economics Division, particularly with respect to the 



