44 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



feet, the total amounting to 177 bridge plans and 8,070 linear feet of 

 bridging at an estimated cost of approximately $190,000.00. 



In holding public meetings and in advice and assistance given local 

 officials, representatives of the office have made 250 visits for the pur- 

 pose of holding, or assisting to hold, road meetings, and for advising 

 upon road and bridge matters. Many of these meetings have been 

 strictly road gatherings, while in some the road question was discussed 

 in conjunction with other subjects, such as farmers' institute work. 

 All of this is aside from the hundreds of inquiries answered by mail. 



Nine bulletins and several circulars have been issued. These re- 

 late to the different manner and forms of road and bridge construction, 

 and aid in securing uniformity of methods, system and organization 

 in road work and road expenditures. 



I have not been called upon to superintend the construction of any 

 demonstration road. I have put on six demonstrations during the two 

 years, and these only in a small way, for the purpose of illustrating some 

 feature of work adaptable to that particular locality. Two of these 

 demonstrated the use of the road drag for maintaining gravel roads, 

 especially upon newly made roads, without the use of a road roller, and 

 where the gravel is packed by travel. In Cape Girardeau county, where 

 the County Highway Engineer, Mr. Scivally, worked earnestly in con- 

 junction with us, the drag is now being used successfully to help main- 

 tain the gravel roads. 



I believe that almost every section of the State contains some kind 

 of road-making material which can be found by well directed re- 

 search. For example, by a personal investigation in a certain locality 

 of the State, I found an excellent road gravel in abundance where the 

 people were under the impression that they had no material with which 

 to malce roads. 



Again, we have a large area of low lands in Southeast Missouri, 

 which is generally supposed to be without material. They have sand 

 and an excellent ((uality of gumbo. One year ago I made a campaign of 

 three weeks in that section upon the sand-gumbo road. I repeated the 

 campaign last March with the aid of an engineer from the United States 

 Office of Public Roads, with the result that I\Ir. Ellis, Highway Engineer 

 of Mississippi county, succeeded in building a mile of this particular 

 road last August. This has since been followed by a mile in Scott 

 county by Mr. Warner, County Engineer. It is attracting considerable 

 attention, and is the opening wedge for better roads, at a reasonable 

 price, in a section where the cost of imported material almost prohibits 

 hard roads. 



These things are small in themselves, but next to a general desire 



