58 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



or in part, would be considerable aid. This can be done by con- 

 vict labor, a plan of which I wish to present to the Board. 



The State can own quarry and crusher plants, to be operated 

 under State supervision by the less troublesome convicts from the 

 penitentiary. These must be portable plants with some portable 

 means of housing the prisoners, and can be so limited in number 

 as to utilize only the less vicious convicts. Two hundred convicts 

 suitable for this work are now available in the penitentiary, enough 

 to operate ten plants, with an output from each of 60 cubic yards 

 of crushed rock per day, or a total of 600 cubic yards ; sufficient 

 during the nine working months of the year, for 70 miles of road. 



The cost would be about $5,000.00 per plant, and the care of 

 each prisoner, 40 or 50 cents per day. 



The State would soon be more than repaid by the increased 

 revenue derived from the increase in population and the increased 

 valuation of property accruing from good roads. 



I do not advocate scattering the convicts out along a road. I 

 would keep them confined strictly to the quarry and crusher plants, 

 and leave hauling the rock and other work necessary to road con- 

 struction to be performed by the community for which the road is 

 being made. With systematic order of distribution and application 

 for such plants, much assistance can be given in the form of State 

 aid to road work. Were these plants available, I could use four 

 of them when the season opens next spring. As affairs now stand, 

 there may be nothing done. It is my belief, that in less than two 

 years we would have in constant use every plant the State could 

 man. 



If such use of convicts is not inconsistent with the view of 

 the Board, I shall make a closer study of the subject and present 

 it in more detail. 



Respectfully submitted, 



Curtis Hill, 



State Highway Engineer. 



