48 Missouri AgricuJf ural Report. 



closed for $2,650, or about oiie-lialf tliat paid by the county for the 

 same sized structure a few years ago, and a little more than one-half the 

 amount of the lowest bid first received. 



Six miles of rock road was constructed in one county at an average 

 contract price of $4,200 per mile, exclusive of grading. A few other 

 roads have been built in that vicinity, under similar conditions, which 

 cost $6,000 per mile. This reduction in cost is due to the difference in 

 plans and methods for construction, and as good a road exists in one case 

 as in the other. " , 



These examples will not apply throughout the State nor is the 

 value of the engineering offices altogether in reducing the cost of work. 

 In some cases it has increased the cost. Plans have been made or 

 changed which neither increased nor decreased the cost of the work, 

 but give better work for the same cost. 



These are only a few examples of what may be corrected by good 

 supervision. Many names and localities are purposely omitted. It is 

 difficult to change the customs and habits of a century, but it seems 

 that if any taxpayer in any part of the State would take a little time 

 for investigation of road affairs he could not object to knowing that his 

 taxes were being spent with at least some semblance of skilled super- 

 vision. Unfortunately for many, there are two things every man thinks 

 he knows how to do — one is to build a road and the other is to judge a 

 gold mine. The road work can never be successful while it is a side 

 business for everybody. Men must attend to their own individual busi- 

 ness upon which their living depends, and they are usually too busy at 

 that to properly attend to road affairs. As a general rule a man must 

 give some one thing his time and attention to become trained or skilled. 

 In every community somebody should be trained for road work and kept 

 in charge of it while the other people are attending to their own in- 

 dividual aff^airs. It is slowly being recognized that every man is not 

 a born road builder, and the sooner the roads are put under trained 

 supervision the better it will be for the roads. 



Our vast sums of road expenditures without a legal head and com- 

 petent, trained supervision is a proposition of folly. If we assume that 

 road building is to make use of natural materials in such a manner as to 

 produce the improved road and that the roads should be built to meet 

 the needs and the demands of travel coming upon them, it follows that 

 all the roads should not be rocked, graveled or oiled, neither should all 

 be of earth. The State has such a diversity of road-making material 

 that no one method or plan of constriction is adaptable in all parts of 

 the State, and plans must frequently be varied over one county. In one 



