FARM MANAGEMENT 155 



State highway department. Improvement of State and county 

 highways is carried on wholly by contract. Plans, specifications, 

 and estimates are prepared by the State highway commission, and, 

 in the case of county roads, are submitted to the board of super- 

 visors of each county involved for final approval. The State high- 

 way commission is given the power to accept or reject the improve- 

 ment when finally completed. 



Other States have adopted the plan of State aid and State 

 supervision in some form. Some few of these have only State de- 

 partments for investigation and supervision, others furnish State 

 aid only in the form of convict labor, while most of them furnish 

 State money aid with State! supervision. Among those having 

 State highway departments for investigation and supervision, but 

 which do not give money, are Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, North Caro- 

 lina, and Wisconsin. 



The State of Illinois, in addition to the investigative and super- 

 visory work of the State highway department, extends its aid in the 

 actual work on road improvement 'by maintaining a crushing plant. 

 It operates it by the use of State convicts and distributes crushed 

 rock for road-building purposes to the various counties throughout 

 the State on application of the county officials. No charge is made 

 for crushing this rock and placing it on board the cars at the crush- 

 ing plants, but the freight charges have to be paid by the county. 



The State of West Virginia in 1909 passed a law making a di- 

 rect appropriation from the treasury for the construction of State aid 

 roads and also placing both the State and county convicts at work 

 upon its highways, yirginia also provides convict labor, and makes 

 an annual appropriation of $250,000. 



Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, 

 and North Dakota extend aid by the use of convict labor. In this 

 form of aid Georgia probably takes the lead of any state in the 

 Union. Both State and county convicts are worked upon the roads 

 each day in the year, and a force of about 4,500 convicts is working 

 a wonderful reformation in road conditions throughout that State. 

 (Ag. Dept. Y. B. 1910.) 



Lessons as to the Best Means. The present trend of road affairs 

 throughout the various States is toward a reform in administration 

 and the adoption of a more progressive policy. The old system of 

 paying road taxes in labor has proved inefficient and is being rapidly 

 discarded for the better plan of requiring all road taxes to be paid 

 in cash. It is also apparent that the State will ultimately be the 

 unit of administration and will largely control and direct road work 

 in the counties and townships. A reduction in the number of road 

 officials is also inevitable, and knowledge and skill in road building 

 will be required of each official. The necessity for skilled super- 

 vision is being recognized in every State, and is being met by the 

 appointment of competent highway engineers. In many States the 

 State highway departments employ a corps of highway engineers, 

 and different counties throughout these States also employ county 

 highway engineers, while in many of the States not having State 



