158 MISCELLANEOUS FARM SUBJECTS 



scientific organizations and conventions of road builders and road of- 

 ficials. In view of the fact that the widespread dissemination of 

 information is essential to the betterment of road conditions, it is 

 believed that giving lectures of a practical character is productive 

 of excellent results. (P. R. An. Kept, 1910.) 



Cooperating With Counties. Fully believing in the beneficial 

 results that follow object-lesson teaching, not only in institutions of 

 learning, but in the progress of the world, the Director of the Office 

 of Public Road Inquiries undertook to demonstrate the benefits 

 resulting from this method by building object-lesson roads in differ- 

 ent parts of the country. The work was undertaken on the principle 

 of cooperation in the following manner: This Office furnishes the 

 plans, specifications, scientific information, instructions, expert road 

 builders, didactic literature, and all the machinery required in the 

 construction of the road, and provides for testing all road-building 

 material in the laboratory at Washington, D. C. The communities 

 having the road built are required to furnish all necessary mate- 

 rials and common labor. (P. R. An. Rept. 1903.) 



The advisory work of the Office consisted of 242 assignments 

 during the past year, which may be classified as follows: Advice 

 in regard: (1) To various methods of road construction, includ- 

 ing macadam, gravel, earth, sand-clay, burnt clay, bituminous, slag, 

 brick, and oiled earth; (2) to surveys for proper location of roads; 

 (3) to the use of convicts on roads and housing them during the 

 continuance of the work; (4) to preliminary inspection of condi- 

 tions and location of roads where object-lesson roads are requested; 

 (5) to new methods of construction to be used experimentally; (6) 

 to the treatment of driveways at the Washington Indian School, 

 Puyallup, Wash.; (7) to the construction of bridges; (8) to oil- 

 concrete flooring for bridges; (9) to devising model systems of roads 

 for counties, and the best methods of construction, maintenance, 

 and administration; (10) to the destructive effects of automo- 

 biles on roads; (11) to bond issues for raising funds for road con- 

 struction; (12) to the use of the split-log drag; (13) to the inves- 

 tigation of road materials; (14) to the use of concrete on farms. 

 This branch of the work is constantly growing in importance as the 

 corps of engineers, chemists, and experts of the Office is now looked 

 upon as a high-grade body of consulting specialists from whom re- 

 liable advice may be procured concerning difficult and peculiar 

 problems such as are not capable of easy solution by local authori- 

 ties. (P. R. An. Rept. 1910.) 



How to Get Good Roads. Enough has been said already to 

 show that, through the application of State aid, good, permanent 

 roads can be built without increasing the burdens of the farmer, and 

 all experience has shown that the expense to the State and county is 

 much more than balanced by the increase in taxable values of the 

 districts through which the roads are built. (P. R. B. 17.) 



What can the farmer who, seeing the immense advantages in 

 better roads for his township, county, and State, do toward aiding 

 in bringing them about? Although individual effort in a public 



