30 BULLETIN 136, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



for engineering and supervision. There is no reason why highway 

 building should be made an exception to this rule. At least 5 per 

 cent of the bond issue may well be set aside for engineering and 

 supervision alone. Money spent to hire a competent engineer 1 to 

 make preliminary investigations before bonds are issued and to plan 

 and supervise construction will be well spent. It is not uncommon 

 to find counties that will repeatedly postpone the sale of bonds in 

 order to obtain an increase of 1 per cent in a bid for $100,000 or less 

 and then proceed to construct the roads in a most haphazard and 

 ill-planned manner. 



Benefit to nonabutting property owners. — In planning the 

 highway system or the main market roads, as mentioned above, it 

 will be found necessary to omit many roads the improvement of 

 which is greatly desired by abutting landowners. The fact that 

 such property holders must pay a tax for the bond issue is only an 

 apparent injustice, for if the highway system is well planned the 

 entire county will feel the benefits of the improvement. As a rule, 

 main market roads reach the majority of producing areas, and when 

 they are improved all land values tend to increase. 



The fact that cities and larger towns are frequently taxed for bond 

 issues to build highways outside of their own limits is sometimes made 

 a point of debate in bond elections. It is argued that because a large 

 part of the county wealth is within the corporate limit of such cities 

 and towns, highway bond money should also be used to construct 

 their streets. It is even urged that the expenditure should be made 

 proportionate to the assessed valuation within the city limits. If 

 the proceeds of highway bond issues were distributed in this way 

 their purpose in many cases would be defeated. The primary object 

 of the county highway bond issue is to build county market roads and 

 not to improve city streets, although a high percentage of the assessed 

 valuation may be city property. 2 It is now known that the expendi- 

 ture of city taxes on country roads is a sound principle and that it is 

 one of the best features of State aid for highways. In Massachusetts 

 the city of Boston pays possibly 40 per cent of the total State highway 

 fund, but not a mile of State-aid highway has been built within its 

 limits. New York City also pays about 60 per cent of the cost of the 

 State highway bonds. Some State laws prohibit the expenditure of 

 proceeds of State highway bonds within corporate limits of cities or 

 towns. The improvement of market roads results in improved 

 marketing conditions which benefit the city. Most cities are essen- 

 tially dependent upon the surrounding country for then* prosperity 

 and development. The development of suburban property for resi- 



Un the general bond act of September, 1913, by the State of Tennessee the employment of an engineer 

 by the county commissioner is made mandatory. In Virginia the law provides that counties building 

 roads under a bond issue shall employ an engineer either appointed or approved by the State highway 

 commissioner. 



2 For arguments concerning the benefits of good roads cf. Farmers' Bulletin No. 505. 



