768 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the construction of roads, the training of graduate engineers from the 

 state university and the prc^iaration of a suita})l(' road law for the 

 State, and cooperation Avitii IIk; counties of Lamar, Tex., and Kala- 

 mazoo, Mich., in the estahhshment of mocU'l systems for county-road 

 work; the preparation of various puhHcations issued as Farmers' 

 Bulletins, Ollice bulletins, and circulars; the estal)lishment of a sec- 

 tion of the Ollice for the purpose of giving expert advice and infor- 

 matit)n concerning bridge designs for rural trallic; and the making of 

 surveys, ])lans, and estimates. In addition to the foregoing regular 

 projects, the Ollice has continued its investigation concerning the 

 corrosion of iron and steel, and has taken up an important new project 

 dealing with the use of oil in concrete work. 



An elaborate and thoroughly successful exhibit was installed at the 

 Alaska- Yukon-Pacific Exposition at Seattle, and the same exhibit 

 was afterwards taken to Omaha, Nebr., to the Corn Show and Omaha 

 Exposition. From that point it was shipped to Washington, D. C, 

 where the models were on exhibition at the Builders' Exchange Ex- 

 hibit Company; later, the exhibit was installed at the Appalachian 

 Exposition, Knoxville, Tenn. 



The appropriation for the past fiscal year was $116,460, an increase 

 of $29,070 over the appropriation for the fiscal year 1909, or about 26 

 per cent. There were on tlie rolls of the Ollice June 30, 1909, 63 per- 

 manent employees. During the fiscal year 1910, 37 new employees 

 were appointed, while there was a loss of 9_by transfer and resigna- 

 tion, so that the net increase for the fiscal year 1910 w^as 28. The 

 total number of employees on the rolls on June 30, 1910, was 91. In 

 addition to these, 28 temporary employees were appointed during the 

 fiscal year 1910. It will thus be seen that the increase in force more 

 than corresponded to the increase in appropriation. 



On June 11, 1910, the Office vacated the building at 237 Fourteenth 

 street SW., and moved into the building at Fourteenth and B streets 

 SW., which had formerly been occupied by the Bureau of Chemistry, 

 and which was thoroughly remodeled to suit the needs of this Office. 

 The present quarters are excellent in every respect, and it is believed 

 that the facilities for chemical and physical investigations of road 

 materials and for correlating all branches of the office work are unsur- 

 passed by any institution or organization of a similar kind in the 

 world. 



In summarizing the amount of work accomplished under the various 

 projects, attention should be called to the fact that 48 object-lesson 

 roads were completed during the past fiscal year, as compared with 

 57 for the previous year, and that the total yardage was 1,002,751, as 

 compared with 690,059 yards for the previous year. 



In the field experimental work commendable process was made. 

 To indicate the comprehensive character of the field investigations, 

 it may be stated that the experiments consisted of building 8 experi- 

 mental roads of blast-furnace and open-hearth slag, 3 or concrete, 

 1 of brick, and 10 of bituminous macadam, using a variety of bitu- 

 minous materials. 



In the educational work, through the medium of lectures, 33 

 States were reached, and a total of 523 lectures given as compared 

 with 185 for the previous year. 



With regard to the special advice given concerning road problems 

 the Office increased its field of usefidness very materially, since the 

 number of such assignments was 243 as compared with 142 for the 



