594 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The one district plan lias some advantages over the sub-district ijlan, 

 the principal of which is, the supervisors can hire men and teauis to 

 work the roads, thus having the right and privilege to get a good work- 

 ing force, while under the old plan the supervisors were hampered in 

 this respect, being obliged to employ such help as might be in their 

 districts, whether good, ^bad or indifferent. It then should be expected 

 that the one-district man would do, more and better work, but it is 

 done? 



Are the roads in general better worked under the new plan than 

 under the old? I have heard ten men siay "no" to this question to one 

 that said "yes." There are many reasons why the one-district plan 

 does not give satisfaction. First, it is out of the question for either 

 supervisor or the trustes of the township to inspect all the fifty to 

 seventy miles of road at all seasons, unless they are paid for it, and that 

 eats up the tax. It is not likely there is one man in this or any other 

 ■county that his business takes him over all the roads in the township in 

 which he lives (unless it is the assessor) once in five years, let alone 

 five or six or dozens of times in one year, in order to note what places 

 are inclined to be miry, what pieces of road do not need to be ridged up, 

 what hills wash readily into ditches or get out of shape in any way, 

 what bridges and culverts need repairing and numerous other little 

 matters that need to be watched. The supervisor that has only about 

 a two miles square district to look after has usually sufficient oppor- 

 tunities to study every rod of his eight or ten miles. Give him the right 

 to hire his help. No man has ever served as supervisor under the old 

 plan as supervisor but what realized how he was handicapped by that 

 phrase "to be paid in labor" column that invariably appeared in Ms 

 road tax list. If the one man lives in the center of a six miles square 

 township, he has to go six miles to get to any of the corners, he is even 

 then too far from most of his work. If his home is at one side, all the 

 worse. If there were seven or eight of him, he could do as the colored' 

 man said he would have to do when his calf strayed, "scatter himself 

 out and hunt for It." It is often the case that there are dozens of places 

 in a township that require attention all at once. Under the one-man 

 rule, many such places are neglected for weeks, when they should not 

 be days, simply because he can not get to all at the same time. This 

 is no reflection on the individual supervisor, nor do I wish to discredit 

 any man who is or may have been acting in that capacity, thougli, of 

 course there is the chance for the place to be secured through political 

 pull and be given to a man who is not competent at anything else, like 

 the boy's dog: Tlie boy said he was a good coon dog. "Did he ever catch 

 a coon?" "No; but I know he must be a good coon dog, because he is 

 not good for anything else." 



I live in a hilly part of the country. Under the old plan, our district 

 was two miles square. On the roads in it, there were thirty hills with a 

 pitch of from one to two and one-half feet in ten. The steepest of these 

 were graded by the supervisor, besides all the other work necessary on 

 new roads. In time many of the cuts became narrow, but the super- 

 visor each year either widened them or cut down others. Since the new 

 plan has been adopted, there has not been one hill in the two-mile 



